By Nausheen Saba Shahid

 What is Ethics:
 Study of what it means to “do the right thing”
 Assumes people are rational and make free choices
 Rules to follow in our interactions and our actions that
affect others
Ethics are moral values, principles by which people act or
do business.

These values are guiding principles.

These values must be absolute

Must take them seriously enough to override any human

rationalization, weakness, ego, or personal faults.
They all provide behavioral rules.

It may seem like splitting hairs, but the differences can be important
when persuading others.

Values are the rules by which we make decisions about right and
wrong, should and shouldn't, good and bad.

Knowledge based values, aesthetic values, moral values,

Morals have a greater social element to values and tend to have a very
broad acceptance.

People judge others more on morals than values.

Ethics tend to be codified into a formal system or set of rules
which are explicitly adopted by a group of people.

Ethics are thus internally defined and adopted, whilst morals

tend to be externally imposed on other people.
 Software piracy
 Income taxes
 Copying of Videos or CD’s
 Plagiarism
The person’s ethical standards are different
from those of society as a whole.

The person chooses to act selfishly.

In many instances, both reasons exist.

 1. Responsibilities
Professionals should exercise sensitive and
moral judgments in all their activities.
2. Public Interest
Members should accept the obligation to act
in a way that will serve and honor the public.
 3. Integrity
Members should perform all responsibilities
with integrity to maintain public confidence.
4. Objectivity and Independence
Members should be objective, independent,
and free of conflicts of interest.
 5. Due Care
Members should observe the profession’s
standards and strive to improve competence.
6. Scope and Nature of Services
A member in public practice should observe
the Code of Professional Conduct.
Conflicting demands:
Loyalty to company and colleagues
Concern for public welfare
Personal gain, ambition

Ethical standards are usually relative and personal, there

is seldom an absolute standard
 Our society has attached a special
meaning to the term professional.
A professional is expected to conduct
himself or herself at a higher level
than most other members of society.
Fundamental Canons

 Perform services only in areas of competence.

 Issue public statements only in an objective and truthful
manner.
 Act in professional matters for each employer or client as
faithful agents or trustees.
 Hold paramount the safety, health and welfare of the
public in the performance of their professional duties.
Technology “Term Technology derives from Greek word techne”

Today, technology refers to technical means, methods, and knowledge

used in achieving a practical purpose and providing objects for human
sustance and comfort.

In a comparison to ancient technology, Martin Heidegger (1889-1976)

argues on problems of modern technology and criticize modern
technology as:

 dangerous due to its inherent complexity

 possible mis-management of the saving power
Hans Jonas (1903-1993) stated that since technology expands human
power, but expansion of human responsibility as well.

Information Technology
IT is the applications of appropriate technologies to the organization,
manipulation and distribution of information by computers and
telecommunications.
 Founded by Norbert Wiener in mid-1940s
 Professor of mathematics and engineering at MIT
 Originally called “Cybernetics”
 Walter Maner coined “Computer Ethics” in 1976
According to James Moor (1985)...... CE is to be defined as:

'the analysis of the nature and social impact of computer technology and
the corresponding formulation and justification of policies for the ethical
use of such technologies.

CE includes consideration of both personal and social policies for the

ethical use of computer technology.

Typical Problems in Computer Ethics:

 Policy vacuum about how computer technology should be used.

 Often no policies for conduct exist or seem inadequate.
 How to formulate policies to guide our actions.
Computer Ethics and Morality
In general, ethics related to code of conduct or set
of principles, standards or rules that guide the moral
actions of an individual within particular social
framework.

e.g. Moral judgment, moral decision, or how a

person ought to act responsibly in a particular case.
 Exaggerate traditional ethical problems (new ways of
invading privacy)

 Convert already known ethical issues into analogous

issues (change the idea of ownership and intellectual property)

 Creating new ethical problem (computer viruses and

hacking).
Commandments of computer ethics have been defined
by the Computer Ethics Institute:

1. Not use a computer to harm other people

2. Not interfere with other people's computer work (undue access to their
systems, Generating or consciously spreading computer viruses)

3. Snoop around in other people's files (invading privacy of other people)

4. Not use a computer to steal (bank robbery, break into

company accounts)
5. Not use a computer to bear false witness (The Internet can spread
untruth as fast as it can spread truth, e.g.., spreading rumors, false
propogadanda).

6. Not use or copy software for which you have not paid (Software is
an intellectual product. Obtaining illegal copies of copyrighted software is
crime. Don't watermarking.

7. Not use other people's computer resources without

authorization (Hacking)

8. Not appropriate other people's intellectual output (software

piracy)
9. Think about the social consequences of the program you write

For example, if you are working for an animation house, and producing
animated films for children, you are responsible for their contents. Do the
animations include scenes that can be harmful to children?

In the United States, the Communications Decency Act (CDA) was an attempt
by lawmakers to ban certain types of content from Internet websites to protect
young children from harmful material.

10. Use computer in ways that show consideration and respect (use
in public for example).
According to National Institute of Justice: any illegal
activity act for which knowledge of computer technology is used
to commit the offense is computer crime.

Computer Crime, E-Crime, Hi-Tech Crime or Electronic Crime is

a crime in which a computer plays an essential part.

Development of IT, and rapid spread of personal computer and

computer network, brings forth new potentials for electronic
crime and illegal activities.
Hi-Tech crime is the illegal exploitation of computer
technologies, usually involving the Internet, to support crimes
such as fraud, identity theft, sharing of information etc.

Examples:
 Fraud achieved by the manipulation of computer records.
 Deliberate circumvention of computer security systems
 Writing or spreading computer viruses or worms.
 Intellectual property theft, including software piracy
A. Computer-assisted crimes.
e.g. Computer sabotage and hacking.
Sabotage; A deliberate action aimed at weakening another entity
through subversion, obstruction, disruption, or destruction.
examples of sabotage;
 An ex-employee cuts telephone cables serving half a million
people.
 A plumber puts small nails in the pipes of a new building.
 A computer programmer deletes all copies of data on a
computer system.
B. Computer Related Crimes
Victims failure to report CC on following reasons:
o Fear of bad publicity and reputation.

o Lack of specialized personnel to investigate computer crimes

o Ignorance of who is in charge in these cases

o Ignorance of rights

o Frustration with expensive prosecution, time consuming investigations

and light sentences.

o Lack of confidence in existing laws. Juries not regard CC as serious

crimes.
Other aspects of this problem:

 Public opinion. (Silent pleasure)

 Media Attitude.
 To perform irresponsible or unacceptable acts. (sending
electronic messages with offensive language, or pornographic material, spam)

 Cheap advertisement.

 Computer abuse result in financial and managerial

problems to businesses.
 Security measures like anti-viruses, filtering anti-spam
 software and firewalls.

 Block unsolicited(not asked for) messages

 To educate anti-spam behavior

Steven Mandell describes computer criminals as ambitious
persons with impressive educational credentials- technically
competent individuals who regard themselves as hero's
challenging an impersonal computer as an opponent in a game.

Insider and Outsider Criminals

 Desire to win easy money or other goods
 To enjoy themselves by fooling others
 To sabotage people, machines
 To take revenge for personal reasons
 To perform act of terrorism
 To produce propagandistic and revolutionary actions
Edgar divides computer crimes into two basic categories:

1. Crimes against computers (Damage to hardware/software)

2. Crimes committed using computers (Theft of services/information,
computer crime, counterfeiting)
 Internet Society (ISOC)
 Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF)
 Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and
Numbers (ICANN)
 Internet Architecture Board (IAB)
 Council of Registrars (CORE)
 InterNIC

 (ASSIGNMENT: Read what are the roles of these

organizations)
 Be careful what you write about others. Assume that anyone about whom you are writing will read
your comments or receive them in a way other than intended.
 Online messages can be quite informal, but try, nevertheless, to express your-self using proper
spelling, capitalization, grammar, usage, and punctuation.
 Be truthful. Do not pretend to be someone or do something that you are not.
 Use titles that accurately and concisely describe the contents of e-mail and other postings. Consider
your audience, and use language that is appropriate. Excessive use of abbreviations or slang in a
nontechnical chat room, for example, can be bad manners, and remember your peers may not
understand your chat abbreviations. Avoid offensive language, especially comments that might be
construed as discriminatory. Remember that the law still applies in cyberspace. Do not commit illegal
acts online, such as libeling or slanderi ng others, and do not joke about committing illegal acts.
Be careful with humor and sarcasm. One person’s humorous comment may push another person’s
buttons or may even be seen as offensive.
 Avoid putting words into full capitals. Online, all-caps is considered SHOUTING. Especially in the
chat area if you are following up a previous message or posting, summarize that message or posting.
When summarizing, summarize. Do not post irrelevant messages. Do not post messages whose sole
purpose is to sucker others into an irrelevant or unimportant discussion. Read existing follow-up
postings and don’t repeat what has already been said. Respect other people’s intellectual property.
Don’t post, display, or otherwise provide access to materials belonging to others, and cite references as
appropriate. Online expressions of hostility will not be tolerated. Never send online chain letters.
Some e-mail programs allow one to place signatures containing text and graphics at the ends of
mailings. Remember that elaborate materials take up valuable transmission time. Do not send e-mail
to people who might have no interest in it. In particular, avoid automatically copying e-mail to large
numbers of people. Avoid chastising others for their online typos. To err is human. To forgive is
…what we do. In online chats typos and misspellings may occur. Do not retype the message or correct
unless the message cannot be understood. In discussions please be sure to use proper spelling,
capitalization, grammar, usage, and punctuation
 1. Always think before you write. In other words without the use of nonverbals with your message,
your message can be misinterpreted. So please think twice before you hit submit.
 2. Keep it relevant. There are places to chat and post for fun everyday stuff. Do not stray from the
discussion in the assigned questions.
 3. Never use all caps. This is the equivalent of yelling in the online world. It is not fun to read. Only
use capital letters when appropriate.
 4. Make sure that you are using appropriate grammar and structure. In other words I don’t want to see
anyone writing “R U” instead of “are you”. There are people in the class that may not understand this
type of abbreviation, not to mention it does nothing to help expand your writing and vocabulary
skills. Emoticons are fine as long as they are appropriate. A smile ☺ is welcome, anything offensive is
not.
 5. Treat people the same as you would face-to-face. In other words it is easy to hide behind the
computer. In some cases it empowers people to treat others in ways they would not in person.
Remember there is a person behind the name on your screen. Treat all with dignity and respect and
you can expect that in return.
 6. Respect the time of others. This class is going to require you to work in groups. Learn to respect the
time of others in your group and your experience will be much better. Always remember that you are
not the only person with a busy schedule, be flexible. Do not procrastinate! You may be one that
works best with the pressures of the deadline looming on you, but others may not be that way. The
same is true for the reverse. The key to a successful group is organization, communication and a
willingness to do what it takes to get it done
 What is your opinion of the behaviors involved? What equitable solutions can you
suggest? Describe a parallel situation in which computers are NOT involved. Remember
your answer must be at least 5 sentences in length.

 1) David is an Internet expert. He reads a question from a newcomer in an online
discussion group. For him the answer is easy but the "newbie" is having trouble. Alan
responds, "Hey newbie! Can't you read a book? Don't ask such a dumb question!"

 2) Alexi wants to post a comment to an online message board. She really wants to
emphasize her opinion. She responds in ALL UPPERCASE LETTERS!

 3) Dana wants to ask a question about her new iPad on a discussion board. Which is the
best way to phrase her question?

 4) Josh is really upset about his classmate, M.D. He is so angry that he decides to post a
mean comment about M.D. anonymously in an online discussion group.

 5) Marcie is in the middle of an email she is writing to a friend. The phone rings and
Marcie leaves her computer with the email still on the screen. You decide to check it out.