The Ethical and Legal Implications of Information Technology

Chapter 12
The Ethical and Legal Implications of

Information Technology
Learning Objectives
Upon successful completion of this chapter, you will be able
to:
• Describe what the term information systems ethics
means.
• Explain what a code of ethics is and describe the
advantages and disadvantages.
• Define the term intellectual property and explain the
protections provided by copyright,
patent, and trademark.
• Describe the challenge that
information technology brings to
individual privacy.
Information Systems Ethics
• Ethics
– Set of moral principles.
– Principles of conduct that guide an individual or
group.
• New Technology
– Creates new uses in society
– Creates environments and situations
that people haven’t seen before.
Technology & Ethics
• Henry Ford’s Assembly Line
– Created advantage in that cars could be
manufactured more quickly.
– De-valued human work/skill in the production
process.
• Volkswagen Diesel Deception
– Sensors in cars for testing and
software programming allowed
VW to cheat on emissions testing.
Code of Ethics
• Documented set of acceptable behaviors for
professional or social groups.
• Defined by the group.
• Identifies specific actions as appropriate or
inappropriate.
• Sample Codes
– American Marketing Association
– Academy of Management
Association for Computing Machinery (ACM)
Code of Ethics
• 24 imperatives of personal responsibility.
– Contains issues that professionals will have to deal with.
– Section 1: General Moral Imperatives (ex. Avoid harm to
others.)
– Section 2: Professional Conduct (ex. Maintain
professional competence.)
– Section 3: Individuals with Leadership
Roles (ex. Create opportunities for people.)
– Section 4: Compliance with the
Ethical Code (ex. Promote ethics.)
Examples of Specific Admonitions
• “No one should enter or use another’s computer
system, software, or data files without permission.”
• “Designing or implementing systems that
deliberately or inadvertently demean individuals or
groups is ethically unacceptable.
• “Organizational leaders are responsible for ensuring
that computer systems
enhance, not degrade, the quality
of working life.”
Advantage of Ethical Codes
• Adds clarity to the understanding of
acceptable standards of behavior.
• Communicates common guidelines for
everyone to follow.
• What happens if you don’t follow the
organizations ethical code?
– ACM – voluntary
– State Bar Association – revoke license
Disadvantage of Ethical Codes
• May not reflect the ethical of every member
of the group.
• Many times it isn’t enforceable. It’s a code of
conduct, not a legal document.
Acceptable Use Policies (AUP)
• Guidelines for behavior when using
technology services.
• Virginia Tech AUP
• CPP AUP
– “Individuals may not access, copy, add, alter, damage, delete or destroy any
data or computer software on any other computer unless specifically
authorized.”
– “The student shall be held accountable for his/her own behavior and for the
inappropriate activity originating from his/her unit or computer. All passwords
should be secure.”
Intellectual Property (IP)
• Intellectual Property: “Property (as an idea,
invention, or process) that derives from the
work of the mind or intellect.”
– Song Lyrics
– Computer Program
– Painting
– New Process to Manufacture
AirBags
Intellectual Property (contd.)
• Problem: It is hard to protect an idea.
• IP laws protect the results of an idea.
• Advocates of IP argue:
– It gives inventors a reason to innovate. They have
a right to profit from their own labor.
– Without that protection, there is
less incentive to invent.
• IP laws are different globally.
Copyright
• Applies to songs, computer programs, books,
art work…any work with an author.
• The author/owner of the copyright controls:
– Who can make copies of the work.
– Who can make derivative works from the original.
– Who can perform the work publically.
– Who can display the work publically.
– Who can distribute the work.
Copyright (contd.)
• Copyright protection lasts for the life of the
original author plus 70 years.
• If the work is owned by a publisher, the
copyright can last for 95 years.
• Happy Birthday to You
– This song is rarely in movies and not sung at
restaurants because of copyright.
– “Happy Birthday song copyright is not valid, judge r
ules.”
LA Times, 9/22/2015
Obtaining Copyright Protection
• The acts of creation gives something a
copyright.
• Even your doodles on notes are copyrighted.
• You don’t need © either.
• If the work is going to be sued commercially,
register for a copyright with the US Copyright
Office.
Fair Use
• Sometimes you can use a small piece of a
copyrighted work without permission.
• Guidelines are not well defined. Depends
upon:
– Purpose of use
– Nature of copyrighted work
– Amount of work copied
– Effect of the use on the
potential market
Digital Millennium Copyright Act
• 1998 to extend copyright law to digital
technologies.
• Illegal to circumvent technologies that enforce
copyright. (ex. games requiring you to be
connected to the Internet)
• “Safe Harbor” limits liability of online service
providers. (ex. YouTube isn’t liable for someone
posting a copyrighted
movie.
Not Everyone Likes DMCA
• Users are unhappy with the DCMA
• Electronic Frontier Foundation and others feel
the DMCA limits free speech.
• We Can’t Let John Deere Destroy the Very Idea
of Ownership
, Wired 4/21/2014.
• Everyone hates the DMCA, VoxIndie,
3/17/2014.
Creative Commons
• Offers alternative copyright licensing that is
less restrictive than traditional copyright.
• …like our textbook.
Patents
• Protection for someone who creates a new
product or process.
• Patent holder has the right to “exclude others
from making, using, offering for sale or selling
the invention…”
• US patent lasts 20 years.
• Must apply for a patent: must be
original, useful, and non-obvious.
Trademarks
• A word, phrase, logo, shape or sound that
identifies a source of goods or services.
Trademarks (contd.)
• Common Law Trademark - “TM”
• Registered Trademark - ®
Privacy
• Privacy: The ability to control information
about oneself.
• Information Systems have eroded personal
privacy in the United States.
– Balance between consumer protection and
commerce
– In Europe, EU considers privacy a fundamental
right that outweighs commerce.
NORA
• NORA: Process of collecting large quantities of
information and combining it to create profiles
of individuals.
Privacy Legislation
• Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act
(COPPA): Organizations need to make an effort
to detect someone’s age prior to accessing a
Website.
• Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act
(FERPA): Protects student’s records.
• Health Insurance Portability and Accountability
Act (HIPPA):
Protects patient records.
Summary
• Describe what the term information systems ethics
means.
• Explain what a code of ethics is and describe the
advantages and disadvantages.
• Define the term intellectual property and explain the
protections provided by copyright,
patent, and trademark.
• Describe the challenge that
information technology brings to individual privacy.
Chapter 4
Ethical and Social Issues in

Information Systems
Management Information Systems
Chapter 4 Ethical and Social Issues in Information Systems
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
• Identify the ethical, social, and political issues that are

raised by information systems.
• Identify the principles for conduct that can be used to
guide ethical decisions.
• Evaluate the impact of contemporary information
systems and the Internet on the protection of
individual privacy and intellectual property.
• Assess how information systems have affected
everyday life.
Is Your Student Loan Data on Loan?
• Problem: Insufficient privacy protections for sensitive

data related to student loans.
• Solutions: Improve system security and protect student
information to restore confidence in the system.
• Revoke over 52,000 user IDs suspected of misusing
access to students’ private information.
• Demonstrates IT’s role in providing quick and convenient
access to data.
• Illustrates how the very same technology has the
potential to threaten privacy and cause more harm than
good.
Understanding Ethical and Social Issues Related to Systems
• Past five years: One of the most ethically challenged periods in U.S.
history
• Lapses in management ethical and business judgment in a broad
spectrum of industries
• Enron, WorldCom, Parmalat, etc.
• Sub-prime loans and the failure of risk analysis: CitiBank and Societe
Generale
• Information systems instrumental in many recent frauds
• Stiffer sentencing guidelines, obstruction charges against firms, mean
individual managers must take greater responsibility regarding ethical and
legal conduct
• Ethics
• Principles of right and wrong that individuals, acting as free moral agents,
use to make choices to guide their behavior
• Information systems and ethics
• Information systems raise new ethical questions because they create
opportunities for:
• Intense social change, threatening existing distributions of power,
money, rights, and obligations
• New kinds of crime
• A model for thinking about ethical, social, and political issues

• Society as a calm pond
• IT as a rock dropped in pond, creating ripples of new situations not
covered by old rules
• Social and political institutions cannot respond overnight to these ripples
— it may take years to develop etiquette, expectations, laws
• Requires understanding of ethics to make choices in legally gray areas
The Relationship Between Ethical, Social, and Political Issues in an

Information Society
The introduction of new

information technology has a ripple
effect, raising new ethical, social,
and political issues that must be
dealt with on the individual, social,
and political levels. These issues
have five moral dimensions:
information rights and obligations,
property rights and obligations,
system quality, quality of life, and
accountability and control. Figure 4-1
• Five moral dimensions of information age

• Major issues raised by information systems include:
• Information rights and obligations
• Property rights and obligations
• Accountability and control
• System quality
• Quality of life
• Four key technology trends that raise ethical

issues
• Computing power doubles every 18 months
• Increased reliance on, and vulnerability to, computer systems
• Data storage costs rapidly declining
• Multiplying databases on individuals
• Data analysis advances
• Greater ability to find detailed personal information on individuals
• Profiling and nonobvious relationship awareness (NORA)
• Networking advances and the Internet
• Enables moving and accessing large quantities of personal data
Nonobvious Relationship Awareness (NORA)
NORA technology can take

information about people
from disparate sources and
find obscure, nonobvious
relationships. It might
discover, for example, that an
applicant for a job at a casino
shares a telephone number
with a known criminal and
issue an alert to the hiring
manager. Figure 4-2
Ethics in an Information Society
• Basic concepts form the underpinning of an ethical analysis of

information systems and those who manage them
• Responsibility: Accepting the potential costs, duties, and
obligations for decisions
• Accountability: Mechanisms for identifying responsible parties
• Liability: Permits individuals (and firms) to recover damages done
to them
• Due process: Laws are well known and understood, with an
ability to appeal to higher authorities
• Ethical analysis: A five-step process

1. Identify and clearly describe the facts
2. Define the conflict or dilemma and identify the higher-order values
involved
3. Identify the stakeholders
4. Identify the options that you can reasonably take
5. Identify the potential consequences of your options
• Candidate Ethical Principles

• Golden Rule
• Do unto others as you would have them do unto you
• Immanuel Kant’s Categorical Imperative
• If an action is not right for everyone to take, it is not right for
anyone
• Descartes' rule of change
• If an action cannot be taken repeatedly, it is not right to take
at all
• Candidate Ethical Principles (cont.)

• Utilitarian Principle
• Take the action that achieves the higher or greater value
• Risk Aversion Principle
• Take the action that produces the least harm or least potential
cost
• Ethical “no free lunch” rule
• Assume that virtually all tangible and intangible objects are
owned by someone unless there is a specific declaration
otherwise
• Professional codes of conduct

• Promulgated by associations of professionals
• E.g. AMA, ABA, AITP, ACM
• Promises by professions to regulate themselves in the general interest of
society
• Real-world ethical dilemmas
• One set of interests pitted against another
• E.g., Right of company to maximize productivity of workers vs. workers
right to use Internet for short personal tasks
The Moral Dimensions of Information Systems
• Information rights and obligations

• Privacy
• Claim of individuals to be left alone, free from surveillance or
interference from other individuals, organizations, or the state.
• Ability to control information about yourself
• In U.S., privacy protected by:
• First Amendment (freedom of speech)
• Fourth Amendment (unreasonable search and seizure)
• Additional federal statues
• Privacy Act of 1974
• Fair information practices:

• Set of principles governing the collection and use of information
• Basis of most U.S. and European privacy laws
• Based on mutuality of interest between record holder and
individual
• Restated and extended by FTC in 1998 to provide guidelines for
protecting online privacy
• Used to drive changes in privacy legislation
• COPPA
• Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act
• HIPAA
• FTC FIP principles:

• Notice/awareness (core principle): Web sites must disclose
practices before collecting data
• Choice/consent (core principle): Consumers must be able to
choose how information is used for secondary purposes
• Access/participation: Consumers must be able to review,
contest accuracy of personal data
• Security: Data collectors must take steps to ensure accuracy, security
of personal data
• Enforcement: Must be mechanism to enforce FIP principles
• European Directive on Data Protection:

• Requires companies to inform people when they collect information
about them and disclose how it will be stored and used.
• Requires informed consent of customer (not true in the U.S.)
• EU member nations cannot transfer personal data to countries without
similar privacy protection (e.g. U.S.)
• U.S. businesses use safe harbor framework
• Self-regulating policy and enforcement that meets objectives
of government legislation but does not involve government
regulation or enforcement.
• Internet Challenges to Privacy:

• Cookies
• Tiny files downloaded by Web site to visitor’s hard drive
• Identify visitor’s browser and track visits to site
• Allow Web sites to develop profiles on visitors
• Web bugs
• Tiny graphics embedded in e-mail messages and Web pages
• Designed to monitor who is reading a message and transmitting that
information to another computer on the Internet
• Spyware
• Surreptitiously installed on user’s computer
• May transmit user’s keystrokes or display unwanted ads

How Cookies Identify Web Visitors
Cookies are written by a Web site on a visitor’s hard drive. When the visitor returns to that Web site, the Web server
requests the ID number from the cookie and uses it to access the data stored by that server on that visitor. The Web
site can then use these data to display personalized information.
Figure 4-3
• U.S. allows businesses to gather transaction information and use this for
other marketing purposes
• Online industry promotes self-regulation over privacy legislation
• Self regulation has proven highly variable
• Statements of information use are quite different
• Some firms offer opt-out selection boxes
• Online “seals” of privacy principles
• Most Web sites do not have any privacy policies
• Many online privacy policies do not protect customer privacy, but rather
protect the firm from lawsuits
Web sites are posting their privacy policies for visitors to review. The TRUSTe seal designates Web sites
that have agreed to adhere to TRUSTe’s established privacy principles of disclosure, choice, access, and
security.
• Technical solutions
• The Platform for Privacy Preferences (P3P)
• Allows Web sites to communicate privacy policies to
visitor’s Web browser – user
• User specifies privacy levels desired in browser settings
• E.g., “medium” level accepts cookies from first-party host
sites that have opt-in or opt-out policies but rejects third-
party cookies that use personally identifiable information
without an opt-in policy.
The P3P Standard
P3P enables Web sites to translate their privacy policies into a standard format that can be read by the user’s Web
browser software. The user’s Web browser software evaluates the Web site’s privacy policy to determine whether it is
compatible with the user’s privacy preferences.
Figure 4-4
• Property Rights: Intellectual Property

• Intellectual property: Intangible property of any kind created by
individuals or corporations
• Three ways that intellectual property is protected
• Trade secret: Intellectual work or product belonging to
business, not in the public domain
• Copyright: Statutory grant protecting intellectual property
from being copied for the life of the author, plus 70 years
• Patents: Grants creator of invention an exclusive monopoly
on ideas behind invention for 20 years
• Challenges to Intellectual Property Rights

• Digital media different from physical media (e.g. books)
• Ease of replication
• Ease of transmission (networks, Internet)
• Difficulty in classifying software
• Compactness
• Difficulties in establishing uniqueness
• Digital Millenium Copyright Act (DMCA)
• Makes it illegal to circumvent technology-based protections of
copyrighted materials
• Accountability, Liability, Control

• Computer-related liability problems
• If software fails, who is responsible?
• If seen as a part of a machine that injures or harms,
software producer and operator may be liable
• If seen as similar to a book, difficult to hold software
author/publisher responsible
• What should liability be if software is seen as service?
Would this be similar to telephone systems not being liable
for transmitted messages (so-called “common carriers”)
• System Quality: Data Quality and System

Errors
• What is an acceptable, technologically feasible level of system quality?
• Flawless software is economically unfeasible
• Three principal sources of poor system performance:
• Software bugs, errors
• Hardware or facility failures
• Poor input data quality (most common source of business
system failure)
• Quality of Life: Negative social consequences of systems

• Balancing power: Although computing power is decentralizing,
key decision-making power remains centralized
• Rapidity of change: Businesses may not have enough time to
respond to global competition
• Maintaining boundaries: Computing and Internet use lengthens
the work-day, infringes on family, personal time
• Dependence and vulnerability: Public and private organizations
ever more dependent on computer systems
What Should We Do About Cyberbullying?
• Read the Interactive Session: Organizations, and then discuss the

following questions:
• What are some of the technologies and communication methods
used by cyberbullies? Why are they so effective?
• What measures have been taken by school districts and
governments to combat cyberbullying? How helpful are they? Can
you think of any other ways to effectively control cyberbullying?
• Should there be stronger laws outlawing cyberbullying? Why or why
not?
• Does a social networking site catering to teems such as MySpace
represent an ethical dilemma? Why or why not?
• Computer crime and abuse

• Computer crime: Commission of illegal acts through use of
compute or against a computer system – computer may be
object or instrument of crime
• Computer abuse: Unethical acts, not illegal
• Spam: High costs for businesses in dealing with spam
• Employment: Reengineering work resulting in lost jobs
• Equity and access – the digital divide: Certain ethnic and income
groups in the United States less likely to have computers or Internet
access
Flexible Scheduling at Wal-Mart: Good or Bad for Employees?
• Read the Interactive Session: Management, and then discuss the

following questions:
• What is the ethical dilemma facing Wal-Mart in this case? Do
Wal-Mart’s associates also face an ethical dilemma? If so,
what is it?
• What ethical principles apply to this case? How do they
apply?
• What are the potential effects of computerized scheduling on
employee morale? What are the consequences of these
effects for Wal-Mart?
• Health risks:
• Repetitive stress injury (RSI)
• Largest source is computer keyboards
• Carpal Tunnel Syndrome (CTS)
• Computer vision syndrome (CVS)
• Technostress
• Role of radiation, screen emissions, low-level electromagnetic fields
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Copyright © 2010 Pearson Education, Inc.

Publishing as Prentice Hall
INS 800- ICT MANAGEMENT
LEGAL & ETHICAL IMPLICATIONS

OF ICT SYSTEMS
Presenters:
Introduction
According to Merriam-Webster-online, ethics is the discipline
dealing with what is good and bad and with moral duty and
obligation
Likewise,Kesar and Rogerson (1998), refer 'ethics' to a code or set of

principles by which people live and involve a process of self-reflection.
The definition mentions "moral duty", "obligation" and "self-

reflection", indicating that it's not enough to simply know the
difference between good and bad, but that your decisions and
actions should be ethically correct, and that you have a responsibility
to do so.
Ethics and law
• Law -the principles and regulations established in a
community by some authority and applicable to its people,
whether in the form of legislation or of custom and policies
recognized and enforced by judicial decision
(dictionary.com).
• A law can be legally enforced, usually also specifying the

penalties that can be imposed on those found to have
broken the law. Only a judge or a jury can decide whether a
law has been broken.
....Law and ethics
• Ethics is often organized into a Code of Ethics for
professionals or for members of a professional
organization, are principles by which members of the
profession or professional organization agree to act or
behave.
• The penalty for breaching the Code of Ethics is usually

limited to termination of membership (expulsion from
the organization), unless the Code of Ethics is also
regulated by law.
Computer ethics
• Computer ethics has its roots in 1940s from work by

Norbert Wiener but his works were ignored till 1970s.
• Computer ethics as defined by Maner is the field of study

that examines ethical problems aggravated, transformed
or created by computer technology.
Ethical implications of ICT
 Abuse of electronic messaging-Today we have seen a rise of email hoaxes,

spam and pestering mobile messages. We all receive email forwards some
are of promotional nature which promise you to be rewarded if you
forward the email to a certain number of people and a certain email.
Recently we also had the circulation of an SMS alerting people not to
receive calls allegedly from a red number. Whether it’s for good purposes
or ill-intended, people have surely gone overboard in electronic messaging.
 Anonymity-one can use an assumed name or an alias instead of real name.

When on the net ,you may not know who you are associating with.
.... Ethical implications of ICT
 Cultural effects - The rapid growth of ICT does not only
provide us with different ways of working, playing and
thinking but also presents challenges to our moral &
cultural values.
 ICT has changed the way we talk, affected our privacy,

human rights & integrity. For example internet users
are exposed to form of communication called flaming.
• Flaming is writing on-line messages that use
obscene or dirty language.
• These free flow of immoral information has

negatively influenced the behaviour of both
young and old in society.
 Forgery
- People with eroded integrity have used
computers as a tool to accomplish their vices.
 Forexample where a person would use a computer to

forge certificates, passports and other documents.
 Thismeans that the person is cheating and therefore

his/her moral integrity has been compromised.
 Invasiveness- ICT has made it easier to
perform some activities and to some extent
changing the very nature of society, even our
understanding of what it means to be human.
 Mansell (2007) notes that new and different

forms media have emerged based on ICT
infrastructure and include:
 text and video blogs, Internet radio and television, real time news sites
with individualized feeds, podcasting and web portals among others.
 New ways of interacting e.g. email, online forums, virtual chat, web
cams, peer-to-peer file sharing, and online multiplayer games
 Also mobile telephone infrastructure, as well as Voice-over Internet

Protocol (VoiP),
 With
all these, the possibilities for ICT mediated sociality
seem almost endless.
 Discriminative / not all-inclusive - ICT technologies

bring out a service in relation to how the originator of
the technology thought it out. A good example is an
ATM machine which assumes a particular type of
person in front of it.
 It assumes a person that is able to see the screen, read

it, remembers and enter a pin code, and so on.
Questions is, what about those who can’t do that?
 Cyber morality - The growth of interactions in cyberspace

raises moral concerns particularly in relation to the distribution
of pornographic materials involving adults, children, and even
babies through the internet. Through the internet one can view
pornographic materials that affect moral values negatively.
 Virtual sex has also become a boom business partly driving

internet growth. Digital technology has created the ultimate
“safe sex” i.e. making love with sex robots is a reality now.
Totalitarianism - Ryan (2008) notes that the

Internet can be a gift to totalitarian states. He
argues that with the Internet a government
has access and control over an unimaginable
amount of information and since information
is power, such governments can deny their
people their power.
• Harder to find criminals - Distributors of

illegal materials in the digital world can easily
use false identities and often wipe their traces
clean. Catching this people becomes harder
since one has to incorporate assistance from
different people and in most cases of global
nature.
• Artificial intelligence - Hamelink (2000)

argues that AI not only attempts to replicate
human brain capacity in digital systems, but
also tries to find forms of man/machine
symbiosis that enlarge the problem-solving
capacities of both human beings and
machines.
 It’s
hard to make an expert system be liable
for harmful choices it might make.
 Thisis an issue of concern because as

humans we have a need to seek some form
of retribution for evil deeds conducted by
the members of a community.
 The threat to human dignity-Weizenbaum (1976) makes

the crucial distinction between deciding and choosing.
Deciding is a computational activity, something that can
ultimately be programmed.
 He notes that it is the capacity to choose that ultimately

makes us human. Choice, however, is the product of
judgment, not calculation. Comprehensive human
judgment is able to include non-mathematical factors such
as emotions.
 He argues that AI technology should not be used to replace

people in positions that require respect and care for instance
customer service.
 However the trend of late is to apply AI even in such areas e.g.

the telephone-based interactive voice response systems – Dial
100.
 Such raises questions of how much respect to human dignity are

we willing to loose in order to let technology serve our purpose.
Legal Implications
 Computercrime - any criminal act that has been

committed using a computer as the principal tool.
 Or all crimes where a computer has been the object,

subject or instrument of a crime.
include hacking/cracking, software piracy, computer

viruses, computer fraud, e.t.c.
Legal Implications
Computer crime
◦ Computer hacking - trying without permission to enter

computer systems by breaking through security
measures.
 ICT technologies have made it easier via a number of

downloadable programs, which scan weaknesses in
computer systems and others which break into the systems.
 Can lead to a great deal of damage if not contained.

Legal Implications
Computer crime
– Piracy - theft of commercially available software,

movies among others through illegal copying
through counterfeiting and distribution of their
imitation or unauthorized versions of software
products.
• Piracy also occurs when someone makes more copies

than permitted, or
• when he or she borrows a copy of a program from

Legal Implications
Computer crime
 Today we have an increased vulnerability to piracy due to advances in technology and though we
have different kinds of software protection, with sufficient effort it is always possible to bypass or
"crack" the protection still using ICT technologies.
 Computer fraud – describes diverse class of electronic crimes that involve

some form of theft of electronic information so as to do harm mostly of
monetary gains to the perpetrators. Include
 Electronic eavesdropping – the act of electronically intercepting conversations without the

knowledge or consent of at least one of the participants. Sometimes also called phishing.
 Offering bogus products or services over the public computer network e.g. the Internet.
 Theft of electronic payment information and using it for shopping online.

Legal Implications
Computer crime
– Computer virus - a program which reproduces
itself.
– It may attach to other programs,
– it may create copies of itself (as in companion viruses).
– It may damage or corrupt data, change data, or degrade the
performance of your system by utilizing resources such as
memory or disk space.
– Examples include: Boot sector computer virus,

Master Boot Record (MBR) computer virus, File
infector computer virus and Macro computer virus
Legal Implications
 Academic Theft-Today’s student has been termed as a

“copy and paste” student as far as term papers is
concerned. This arises due to the ease in which people
can access electronic documents and get information
to use it for their own purpose without acknowledging
the source. This makes up the process popularly
known as plagiarism - where a researcher refers to
another person’s work as theirs without
acknowledging the author.
Legal Implications
 Theft of Intellectual property - Intellectual property refers to

creations of the mind: inventions, literary and artistic works,
symbols, names, images, and designs used in commerce.
Includes:
◦ Industrial property, which includes patents (inventions), trademarks,

industrial designs, and geographic indications of source.
◦ Copyright, which includes literary and artistic works such as novels,

poems and plays, films, musical works, artistic works such as drawings,
paintings, photographs and sculptures, and architectural designs.
Legal Implications
• With the advent of ICT, intellectual property
has been hardest hit since people have had
easier ways of stealing from others and
registering the ideas as their own.
• A good example is the Kikoy patent that was

whisked by a firm in UK and they registered as
their own with a fully fledged website for it.
Legal Implications
• Privacy - Privacy is the claim of individuals to
be left alone, free from surveillance or
interference from other individuals or
organizations including the state.
• Governments have different legal instruments

relating to different aspects of privacy e.g.
defamation, copyright, trespass, etc.
Legal Implications
• Characteristics of computer operations that
might pose potential threat to privacy
1. Computer based record information systems where
retention of data is done.
2. They can make data easily and quickly available from
many different points
3. They make it possible for data to be transferred quickly
from one information system to another
4. The data is stored, processed and often transmitted in a
form that is not otherwise intended
Such complicate the issue of privacy even further.
Legal Implications
• Inter-territorial disputes – Johnson and Post
(1998) argue that law enforcement can
problematic in the special environment of
cyberspace because:
1. it be difficult to locate an internet user within any
specific territorial jurisdiction and
2. the global nature of the internet decreases the
likelihood that the parties to online disputes will be
subject to control by the same territorial law
enforcement entities.
Legal Implications
– This creates a problem for the application of state
law to Internet transactions e.g. defamation, hate
speech, intellectual property among others.
– Consider the difficulties faced by state B trying to

prosecute an individual resident in state A for
material on the Internet that is illegal in state B
but lawful in state A.
References
 Ryan M. D. 2008, The Challenge of Morality on the Internet, Associated Content. Viewed 29/10/2010, Available at
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/586175/the_challenge_of_morality_on_the_internet.html?cat=9
 Weizenbaum J. 1976. Computer power and human reason: from judgment to calculation, W. H. Freeman, San Francisco.
 Mansell R. (ed.) 2007. The Oxford handbook of information and communication technologies. Oxford University Press,
New York
 Hamelink C. J. 2000. The ethics of cyberspace. SAGE, London
 Kesar and Rogerson (1998) Developing Ethical Practices to Minimize Computer Misuse, Social Science Computer Review
16, no. 3 (fall 1998): 240-251. Reprinted in Computers and Ethics in the Cyberage, pp218-232
 Kitchener, K S (2000). Foundations of ethical practice, research, and teaching in psychology. Mahway, NJ: Lawrence
Erlbaum Associates.
 law. (n.d.). Dictionary.com Unabridged. Retrieved November 02, 2010, from Dictionary.com website:
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/law
 What is Computer Ethics (n.d.) Retrieved November 02, 2010, from

http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/content/BPL_Images/Content_store/Sample_chapter/9781855548442/CEAC01.p
df
 Johnson D. R. and Post D. G. (1998) The New 'Civic Virtue' of the Internet: A Complex Systems Model for the
Governance of Cyberspace. Published in:The Emerging Internet (1998 Annual Review of the Institute for Information
Studies) (C. Firestone, ed. 1998). Viewed on 3/11/2010 at
http://www.temple.edu/lawschool/dpost/Newcivicvirtue.html

The Ethical and Legal Implications of Information Technology

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The Ethical and Legal Implications of Information Technology

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Chapter 12

The Ethical and Legal Implications of

Ethical and Social Issues in

• Identify the ethical, social, and political issues that are

Is Your Student Loan Data on Loan?

• Problem: Insufficient privacy protections for sensitive

Understanding Ethical and Social Issues Related to Systems

Understanding Ethical and Social Issues Related to Systems

Understanding Ethical and Social Issues Related to Systems

• A model for thinking about ethical, social, and political issues

Understanding Ethical and Social Issues Related to Systems

The Relationship Between Ethical, Social, and Political Issues in an

The introduction of new

Understanding Ethical and Social Issues Related to Systems

• Five moral dimensions of information age

Understanding Ethical and Social Issues Related to Systems

• Four key technology trends that raise ethical

Understanding Ethical and Social Issues Related to Systems

Nonobvious Relationship Awareness (NORA)

NORA technology can take

Ethics in an Information Society

• Basic concepts form the underpinning of an ethical analysis of

Ethics in an Information Society

• Ethical analysis: A five-step process

Ethics in an Information Society

• Candidate Ethical Principles

Ethics in an Information Society

• Candidate Ethical Principles (cont.)

Ethics in an Information Society

• Professional codes of conduct

The Moral Dimensions of Information Systems

• Information rights and obligations

The Moral Dimensions of Information Systems

• Fair information practices:

The Moral Dimensions of Information Systems

• FTC FIP principles:

The Moral Dimensions of Information Systems

• European Directive on Data Protection:

The Moral Dimensions of Information Systems

• Internet Challenges to Privacy:

The Moral Dimensions of Information Systems

The Moral Dimensions of Information Systems

The Moral Dimensions of Information Systems

The Moral Dimensions of Information Systems

The Moral Dimensions of Information Systems

The P3P Standard

The Moral Dimensions of Information Systems

• Property Rights: Intellectual Property

The Moral Dimensions of Information Systems

• Challenges to Intellectual Property Rights

The Moral Dimensions of Information Systems

• Accountability, Liability, Control

The Moral Dimensions of Information Systems

• System Quality: Data Quality and System

The Moral Dimensions of Information Systems

• Quality of Life: Negative social consequences of systems

The Moral Dimensions of Information Systems

What Should We Do About Cyberbullying?

• Read the Interactive Session: Organizations, and then discuss the

The Moral Dimensions of Information Systems

• Computer crime and abuse

Understanding Ethical and Social Issues Related to Systems

Flexible Scheduling at Wal-Mart: Good or Bad for Employees?

• Read the Interactive Session: Management, and then discuss the