CYBER ETHICS

E-COMMERCE refers to the occurrence of commerce activities online or electronically

It is the buying and selling of goods and services and making payments over networks

PRIVACY is the protection of personal information given online

In e-commerce, especially, it is related to a company’s policies on the use of user data

Ways to safeguard privacy online

 The seller must clearly state how the user’s data will be used in the terms and
conditions of the website
 The seller must make sure that the user has gone through the terms and conditions
before making any transactions
 The seller must assure the user of the protection of their data by implementing
proper data safety and security measure like the https protocol
 The user should go through the terms and conditions of the site before providing any
information and confirm the safety by checking the https protocol and padlock

ONLINE FRAUD - A fraud committed using the Internet

Non-delivered goods, non-existent companies, stealing information, fraudulent payments
Credit Card Frauds, Identity Theft

Preventive measures

 A monitoring official body that ensures the sanctity of E-commerce companies

 Strong security mechanism of the site and payment gateways
 Official guidelines and safeguards on the selling of users’ data to third parties

How to know whether a site is legitimate or not

 Type the URL on your own in the address bar

 Ensure that the address contains https and a closed padlock sign

SECURE DATA TRANSMISSION – Applying enough technical safeguards so that data travels
safely to its target, without being compromised or eavesdropped

 SSL – Secure Sockets Layer

Standard security protocol which establishes encrypted links between a web server
and a browser in an online communication and ensures the safety of the data

 Data Encryption – Encrypted data when sent over the Internet is safe as it cannot be
deciphered without the proper key, and is hence hard to steal

 Using Safe Protocols – For files, use secure FTP instead of FTP and safety shells such
as SSH whenever possible
Authentication: The process of verifying legal user through valid log-in id and password,
before giving them entry into the system

Authorisation: The process of checking the permission to access the data, to determine if
the user is allowed to perform certain actions or access certain resources in the system

ETHICAL ISSUES –

 Intellectual property rights – The rights of the owner of the information to decide
how much of the information is to be distributed, shared, or exchanged and also
gives the owner the right to decide the price for doing so

To protect one’s intellectual rights, he or she can get their information copyrighted or
patented or use trademarks

o Encourages the creation of new software and their improvisation as well

o Ensures new ideas and technologies are widely distributed
o Promotes investment in the national economy

 Plagiarism – Stealing someone else’s intellectual work and representing it as your

own work without citing the source of the information

o Using someone else’s work without giving the author credit

o Using someone else’s work in an incorrect form than intended originally
o Modifying/lifting someone’s work without attributing it to the creator
o Giving incorrect source of information, or wrongful citation
o Failure of acknowledging or giving credit to collaborators

Civil suits, criminal charges, and fines are possible punishable offences

 Digital Property Rights – Digital property or assets refers to any information about
you or created by you that exists in digital form, online or on electronic devices

Threats to Digital Property

o Digital software penetration tools such as cracks and keygens

o Stealing and plagiarising source codes of your digital property

Digital Property Rights Protection

o Anti-tamper solutions using advanced technologies to prevent hacking

o Legal clauses in the Terms and Conditions are a sound legal backup
o Limit the sharing of the software code - Digital Rights Management (DRM)
solution to protect the software from being scraped for the source code using
decompilers
OPEN SOURCE PHILOSOPHY

FREE SOFTWARE – The software is freely accessible and can be freely used, changed,
improved, copied, and distributed by all who wish to do so without making any payments
Freedom to run the program, to adapt it to your needs (access to source code), redistribute
copies of it, improve the program and release your improvements to the public

OPEN SOURCE SOFTWARE – The software can be freely used in terms of making
modifications, constructing business models around the software, but it does not have to be
free of cost. It may receive payments for further development. However, the source code is
freely accessible to the customer

 Free distribution: No restriction on the redistribution

 Source Code: Distribution in source code or compiled form
 Derived Works: Allow modifications and the distribution of them
 Integrity of the Author’s Code: Additions have a different name/ version number
 No Discrimination Against Persons or Groups or Fields of Endeavor
 Distribution of License: Rights must apply to all
 License must not be Specific to a Product
 License must not Restrict Other Software
 License must be Technology Neutral

FREEWARE

Software which is available free of cost and which allows copying and further redistribution,
but not modification and whose source code is not available
Distributed in binary form, which is ready to run, without any licensing fee

PROPRIETY SOFTWARE

Software that is neither open nor freely available

Its use is regulated and further distribution and modification is either forbidden or requires a
special permission by the supplier or the vendor, and the source code is usually not available

SHAREWARE

Software that is made available with the right to redistribute copies, but it is stipulated that
if one intends to use the software, after a certain period of time, a license fee should be paid
The source code is not available to the users

COPYLEFTED SOFTWARE

Free software whose distribution terms ensure that all the copies of all versions carry more
or less the same distribution terms, the users are not allowed to add additional
requirements to the software and require making the source code available
  Free Software: Geogebra

 Open Source Software: Firefox, Linux

 Freeware: Microsoft Internet Explorer

 Propriety Software: McAfee

 Shareware: Spotify, WinRAR

 Copylefted Software: GNU General Public License

FOSS – Free and Open Source Software

OSS – Open Source Software

FLOSS – Free Libre and Open Source Software

GNU – GNU’s Not Unix

Project emphasizes on freedom of software, with an objective of creating an OS

FSF – Free Software Foundation

Non-profit organization to support free software movement and GNU

OSI – Open Source Initiative

Promoting OSS, specifying the criteria and defining the terms and specifications

W3C – World Wide Web Consortium

Responsible for producing the software standards for the World Wide Web
Seeks to promote standards for the evolution of the Web
LICENSE - A legal instrument governing the use or redistribution of software

GNU GENERAL PUBLIC LICENSE (GPL)

One of the most commonly used licenses for open-source projects

Allows users to legally copy, distribute, modify, and charge a fee to distribute the software

GNU LESSER GENERAL PUBLIC LICENSE (LGPL)

It offers lesser rights that the standard GPL license

It can be incorporated to both free as well as propriety software
Requirement to release software extensions in open GPL is removed
It is used mainly by libraries, and is formally known as Library GPL

BSD LICENSES – Berkeley Source Distribution

Represent a family of permissive free software licenses that have fewer restrictions on
distribution compared to other free software licenses such as GPL

 New/ modified BSD – Unlimited redistribution for any purpose maintaining copyright
notices, restricts using the name of contributors for endorsement
 Simplified/ Free BSD – Omits the non-endorsement clause

MIT LICENSE – Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Shortest and broadest of all open-source licenses

Terms are very lose and comparatively more permissive (least restrictive)

 You can use, copy, and modify the software however you want
 You can give the software away for free or sell it
 Only restriction – It has to be accompanied by the license agreement

APACHE LICENSE

 Rights are perpetual; once granted, can be used forever

 Rights are worldwide; they are applied in any country
 Rights are granted for no fee or royalty
 Rights are no exclusive, others can also use the licensed work
 Rights are irrevocable; no one can take them away once granted

Redistributing code requires giving proper credit to contributors to the code

FREEDOM OF INFORMATION - Right to access information available on public platforms

DIGITAL DIVIDE – Economic and social inequality with regard to access to, use of, or impact
of information and communication technologies (ICT)

In simple words, it is the unequal access to digital technology

Reasons of this digital divide:

 TECHNOLOGY REACH – There are many rural areas that have yet to witness
technological development. The installation of power lines, mobile towers, and
proper telecommunication technologies lack in the rural areas

 DIGITAL LITERACY – Even in areas with technology reach (but mainly rural areas), not
all people are able to take the benefit of the digital world because of digital illiteracy

Ways to overcome the digital divide:

 Increase affordability of digital technologies

 More focus on development of internet infrastructure