Ethics and Privacy

Rainer, Prince, and

Cegielski
 Chapter 3
Ethics and Privacy
Learning Objectives

• After reading this Chapter, you should be able to:

1. Define ethics, list and describe the three fundamental tenets of ethics,
and describe the four categories of ethical issues related to information
technology.
2. Identify three places that store personal data, and for each one, discuss
at least one potential threat to the privacy of the data stored there.
What’s
in IT for
us?
 • Read the problem of Wikileaks and
try to answer the following
questions:
Wikileaks 1. How can governments,
Marches organizations, and even individuals
prevent future disclosures?

On 2. Is it possible to accomplish this

task, given that the sources of
WikiLeaks’ information appear to
be internal?
What we learned from WikiLeaks case?

Ethics Privacy
 “principles of right and wrong
that individuals use to make
choices that guide their
behavior”.
What is
Ethics?
Deciding what is right or wrong is
not always easy or clear cut.
Ethical
Frameworks
There are mainly four ethical
standards:
1. The Utilitarian approach.
2. The Rights approach.
3. The fairness approach.
4. The Common Good approach.
 The utilitarian approach states that an ethical
action is the one that provides the most good or
does the least harm.

The rights approach maintains that an ethical

action is the one that best protects and respects
Ethical the moral rights of the affected parties.

Frameworks The fairness approach posits that ethical actions

treat all human beings equally, or, if unequally,
then fairly, based on some defensible standard.

The common good approach highlights the

interlocking relationships that underlie all
societies.
Combining the four frameworks results of
general framework for ethical decision making
˚ Does this decision ˚ Does this issue involve
˚ Could this decision or
involve a choice between more than legal
Recognize an ethical issue situation damage Get the facts
a good and a bad considerations? If so, in
someone or some group?
alternative? what way?

˚ Do I have sufficient ˚ Which individuals and/or ˚ Have I consulted all

˚ What are the relevant Evaluate alternative
information to make a groups have an important relevant persons and
facts of the situation? actions
decision? stake in the outcome? groups?

˚ Which option best

˚ Which option will ˚ Which option best ˚ Which option treats
serves the community as
produce the most good respects the rights of all people equally or Make a decision and test
a whole, and not just
and do the least harm? stakeholders? (the rights proportionately? (the it
some members? (the
(the utilitarian approach) approach) fairness approach)
common good approach)

˚ Considering all the ˚ How can I implement my ˚ How did my decision

approaches, which option Act and reflect on the decision with the greatest turn out, and what did I
best addresses the outcome of your decision care and attention to the learn from this specific
situation? concerns situation?
Ethics in the Corporate Environment

Code of ethics

collection of principles intended to guide

decision making by members of the
organization.
Ethics and Information
Technology
• The diversity and ever-expanding use of IT applications have
created a variety of ethical issues. These issues fall into four
general categories: privacy, accuracy, property, and accessibility.
• Privacy issues involve collecting, storing, and disseminating
information about individuals.
• Accuracy issues involve the authenticity, fidelity, and correctness
of information that is collected and processed.
• Property issues involve the ownership and value of information.
• Accessibility issues revolve around who should have access to
information and whether a fee should be paid for this access.
• Table 3.1 lists representative
questions and issues for
each of these categories.
Privacy

Privacy is the right to be left alone and to be free of

unreasonable personal intrusions.

Information privacy is the right to determine when,

and to what extent, information about you can be
gathered and/or communicated to others.
Ethical • According to the American Civil Liberties
Union (ACLU), tracking people’s activities with

Surveillance
the aid of information technology has become
a major privacy-related problem. The ACLU
notes that this monitoring, or electronic
surveillance, is rapidly increasing, particularly
with the emergence of new technologies.
Electronic surveillance is conducted by
employers, the government, and other
institutions.

• Emerging technologies such as low-cost digital

cameras, motion sensors, and biometric readers
are helping to increase the monitoring of
human activity. In addition, the costs of storing
and using digital data are rapidly decreasing.
The result is an explosion of sensor data
collection and storage.
 • There are several concerns about the
information you provide to these record
keepers. Some of the major concerns are:
• Do you know where the records are?

Personal • Are the records accurate?

• Can you change inaccurate data?

Information • How long will it take to make a change?

• Under what circumstances will personal data be
in Databases released?
• How are the data used?
• To whom are the data given or sold?
• How secure are the data against access by
unauthorized people?
Information on Internet Bulletin Boards,
Newsgroups, and Social Networking Sites

• There is no better illustration of the conflict between free speech and privacy than the
Internet.
• Many Web sites contain anonymous, derogatory information on individuals, who
typically have little recourse in the matter. The vast majority of U.S. firms use the Internet
in examining job applications, including searching on Google and on social networking
sites (see IT’s About Business 9.6). Consequently, derogatory information contained on
the Internet can harm a person’s chances of being hired.
Privacy
Codes and
Policies
International Aspects of Privacy

• The United States and the EU share the goal of privacy protection for their citizens, but
the United States takes a different approach. To bridge the different privacy approaches,
the U.S. Department of Commerce, in consultation with the EU, developed a “safe
harbor” framework to regulate the way that U.S. companies export and handle the
personal data (such as names and addresses) of European citizens. See
www.export.gov/safeharbor and
http://ec.europa.eu/justice_home/fsj/privacy/index_en.htm.

• Check General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR): https://gdpr-info.eu/