Legal and Ethical /Professional

Issues in Computing
INSTRUCTOR: MARY KOMUNTE
Tel No: 0787 122 810
Email Address: mkomunte@utamu.ac.ug

Mary Komunte
Module 1: Introduction to Social and Ethical/ Professional
Issues in Computing
Learning Objectives
– Historical Development of Computing
– Development of the Internet
– Development of the World Wide Web
– The Emergence of Social and Ethical / professional
Problems in Computing ( Change & unexpected
developments)
– Understanding decision and ethical theories.
– The Case for Computer Ethics Education
 Historical Development of computing & Information
Technology Cont’d
The Pace of Change
Discussion Question
What devices are now computerized that were not
originally? Think back 10, 20, 50 years ago.
Change and Unexpected Developments
Cell Phones
 Relatively few in 1990s. Approximately 5 billion worldwide in
2020.
 Used for conversations and messaging, but also for:
 taking and sharing pictures
 downloading music and watching videos
 checking email and playing games
 banking and managing investments
 finding maps
 Smartphone apps for many tasks, including:
 monitoring diabetes
 locating water in remote areas
 Change and Unexpected Developments
Cell Phones (cont.):
• Location tracking raises privacy concerns.
• Cameras in cell phones affect privacy in public
and non-public places.
• Cell phones can interfere with solitude, quiet and
concentration.
• Talking on cell phones while driving is dangerous.
• Other unanticipated negative applications:
teenagers sexting, terrorists detonating bombs,
rioters organizing looting parties.
 Change and Unexpected Developments
Communication and the Web
 In the 1980s, email messages were short and contained only text.
 People worldwide still use email, but texting, tweeting , and other social
media are now preferred.
• Social media networks
– The themes are: privacy, anonymity and trust
– Cyber bullying / cyber harassment
– web-enabled cell phones allow for the instantaneous collection of
information for sharing on these sites
– Users (youth ) erode privacy through intrusion, misuse of information,
interception of information, and information matching
– Free speech
– Data Leakage
– Identity theft: used by criminals to impersonate someone’s identity
with intention to pursue or commit for crime.
Change and Unexpected Developments
Communication and the Web
 Blogs (“Web log”) began as outlets for amateurs
wanting to express ideas, but they have become
significant source of news and entertainment.
 Inexpensive video cameras and video-manipulation
tools have resulted in a burst
of amateur videos.
 Many videos on the Web can infringe copyrights owned
by entertainment companies
Change and Unexpected Developments
Telemedicine
 Remote performance of medical exams and procedures,
including surgery.
 Legal and ethical aspects of telemedicine.
 the responsibilities and potential liabilities of the
health professional
 the duty to maintain the confidentiality and
privacy of patient records
 Manufacturer will be strictly reliable for harm
arising from product- safety of the patient
Change and Unexpected Developments
Collaboration
 Wikipedia: The online, collaborative encyclopedia
written by volunteers.
 Informal communities of programmers create and
maintain free software.
 Informal, decentralized groups of people help
investigate crimes.
Change and Unexpected Developments
E-commerce and trust concerns
 People were reluctant to provide credit card information
to make online purchases, so PayPal.com grew out of
need for trusted intermediary to handle payments.
 Encryption and secure servers made payments safer.
 The Better Business Bureau established a Web site to
help consumers see if others have complained about a
business.
 Auction sites implemented rating systems.
 Change and Unexpected Developments
Free stuff
 Email programs and email accounts, browsers, filters,
firewalls, encryption software, word processors,
spreadsheets, software for viewing documents, software to
manipulate photos and video, and much more
 Phone services using VOIP such as Skype
 University lectures
 In order for companies to earn added revenue to fund
multimillion-dollar services, many free sites collect
information about our online activities and sell it to
advertisers.
Change and Unexpected Developments
Artificial intelligence
 A branch of computer science that makes
computers perform tasks normally requiring
human intelligence.
 Researchers realized that narrow, specialized skills
were easier for computers than what a five-year-
old does: recognize people, carry on a
conversation, respond intelligently to the
environment.
 Many AI applications involve pattern recognition.
 Speech recognition is now a common tool.
Change and Unexpected Developments
 AI is relevant in the context of Social, Professional and Ethical
Issues in Information Systems subject area. Artificial intelligence is
a vast area consisting of various ethical issues;
 Robot rights,
 threats to privacy and
 threats to human dignity

 Robot rights are the moral obligations of society towards its

machines, similar to human rights. These include the right to life,
liberty, freedom of thought and equality before the law. This may
lead to an ethical issue since there will be a requirement of robot
rights governing the above aspects like humans.
 the professionals and professional firms involved with
development of artificial intelligence programmes or systems need
to be responsible to ensure that the creations will not violate any
laws and the same will not harm human beings.
 Possibility of getting infected by virus or even getting hacked.
 AI Robots
• The other ethical issue under the robot ethics category includes the treat to privacy. If an
artificial intelligent program exist that can understand speech and then with adequate
processing power it could listen to every phone conversation and read every e mail in
the world, understand and report back to the program’s operators exactly what is said
and exactly who is saying it. An AI programme of this nature could allow governments
or other entities to efficiently suppress dissent and attack their enemies. Further AI
surveillance systems which are capable of monitoring human activities using cameras
such as instruments used to monitor traffic and robots used to take care of elders may
create a threat to human privacy.
• The threat to human dignity. Artificial intelligence should not be used to replace people
in positions that require respect and care such as customer service representative,
therapist, nurse maid for the elderly, judge and police office.
• the affect it can have on human relationship: may lead to increased social isolation.
• Has led to automation of most of the activities leading to reduction of many human
oriented tasks and jobs. Introduction of the AI software "e- discovery" replaced lawyers
as the software could be used for analyzing millions of documents and discovery of
facts.
• The job loss can lead to ethical and social implications as unemployment may lead to
stealing and other unethical activities of making money in order to survive.
• High usage of artificial intelligence technology may lead to environmental pollution
Change and Unexpected Developments
Tools for disabled people
 Assistive technology devices help restore
productivity and independence to people with
disabilities.
 Researchers are experimenting with chips that
convert brain signals to controls for leg and arm
muscles.
Change and Unexpected Developments
Discussion Questions
How will we react when we can go into a hospital for
surgery performed entirely by a machine? Will it be scarier
than riding in the first automatic elevators or airplanes?

How will we react when we can have a conversation and

not know if we are conversing with a human or a
machine?

How will we react when chips implanted in our brains

enhance our memory with gigabytes of data and a search
engine? Will we still be human?
 Themes
 Old problems in a new context: cyber crimes,
pornography, copyright infringement, gambling
and others
 Adapting to new technology: thinking in a new
way: Changes in technology require adaptive
changes in laws, social institutions, business
policies, personal skills, attitudes, and behavior.
 Why a class on Ethics?
• Technology can be a blessing and a curse…
Fire is a prime example of a technology that
kicked off civilization, yet no doubt with a
down side. Many people have died from
fires, but countless many people lived long
productive lives because society had fire….
 What is ethics?
• Derived from the Greek word “ethos "which
means “custom”, “habit”, and “way of living”
• Ethics is concerned with human conduct, i.e.,
behavior of individuals in society.
• Ethics is a set of moral principals that govern the
behavior of a group or individual.
• Moral: means dealing with, or capable of,
distinguishing between right and wrong, and
between just and unjust.
 Ethical issues
• Ethical
1. pertaining to or dealing with morals or the principles of
morality; pertaining to right and wrong in conduct.

2. in accordance with the rules or standards for right conduct

or practice, especially, the standards of a profession.

• Examples:
– Should companies collect and/or sell customer data?
– Should IT specialists monitor and report employee
computer use?
 The Three Ethical Decision Theories
• The purpose of ethics is to interpret human conduct,
acknowledging and distinguishing between right and
wrong.
• The interpretation is done based on a system. This system
uses a process of argumentations which are based on
ethical theories.
• These theories explain how people make ethical
decisions, and are guidelines to how individuals look at an
ethical issue and make a decision.
Codes of ethics are based on various ethical theories. Hence
the processes of reasoning , explanations and justifications
used in ethics are based on these theories.
 Utilitarianism Theory
• Considers the ethical issue and its relationship to
individuals. This theory puts a group’s interest and
happiness above those of an individual.
• Makes decision choices that offer the greatest
good for the greatest number of people
• "The greater good of the most people".
• As such, it moves beyond the scope of one's own
interests and takes into account the interests of
others.
 Pluralism Theory
• Believes there are two options in an ethical issue,
right and wrong decisions
• Pluralism stresses each person has a decision-
making duty, must make ethical decisions based
on that duty, and never break away from the
decision-making duty.
• All decisions are clear-cut, black and white
• E.g. No one should ever lie.
 Rights-based Theory

• All people have rights, and those rights

must be respected e.g. the right to life, right
to free expression and others.
• Decisions are based on respecting individual
rights
• E.g. you should never read a person’s email
because it violates a person’s rights to
privacy, and resist the temptation.
 Computer Ethics
• Computer ethics is a new branch of ethics that is
growing and changing rapidly as computer
technology also grows and develops.

• Computer ethics is a set of moral principles that

regulate the use of computers.

• Some common issues of computer ethics include

intellectual property rights such as copyrighted
electronic content, privacy concerns and how
computer affect society.
 Computer Ethics (1) Cont’d….
• For example, while it is easy to duplicate
copyrighted electronic /digital content,
computer ethics would suggest that it is wrong
to do so without the authors approval.
• And while it may be possible to access someone
‘s personal information on a computer system ,
computer ethics would advise that such an
action is unethical.
 Computer Ethics Cont’d….
INTELLECTUAL
• You have certainly heard the word property
before: it is generally used to mean a possession,
or more specifically, something to which the
owner has legal rights.
• You mighty have also encountered the phrase
intellectual property. This term has become
commonplace during the past few years,
especially in the context of computer ethics. But
want exactly does it refer to?
 Computer Ethics cont’d…..
• IP refers to creations of the intellect (hence the
name): inventions, literary and artistic works,
symbols, names, images, and designs used in
commerce as part of it that are protected by law.
In summary, copyright laws protect IP which includes
literary, & artistic works such as novels, poems, plays, films,
music works and artistic works such as drawings, paintings,
photographs, sculptures & architectural designs.
 Copyright on the Internet
• But what of works made available to the public on the
internet? Are they at all protected by copyright? Yes, for
works made available over communications network ( such
as the internet), the copyright protects original authorship.

• But , according to the copyright law, it does not protect

ideas, procedures, systems, or methods of operation. This
means that once such an online work has been made
public , nothing in the copyright law s prevents others
from developing another work based on similar principles
or ideas
 Software Piracy
• Software piracy is morally bad when someone
reproduces a copy of the software and sells it for
profit, produces exactly the same or similar version
without giving proper credit to the original author or
simply produces it and distributes it to others.
• It is not immoral to copy the software if someone has
a licensed copy of the software and simply makes a
backup copy of the original. One back-up copy of the
commercial software can be made, but the back-up
copy cannot be used except when the original
package fails or is destroyed.
 How Computers affect Society
• Creation of computer worms & viruses is morally
bad when it is intended for malicious purposes like to
steal information or destroy data.
– However it could be used like a vaccine to gather
information to protect computer users
• Plagiarism is copying someone else’s work & then
passing it on as one’s own. It is morally bad b’se it is
an act of stealing.
– Copying programs written by programmers & claiming it
as your own is an act of plagiarism. It involves lying,
cheating , theft and dishonesty
• File privacy : No one should open a document unless
authorized by the individual who created the file .
 How Computers affect Society
• Computer ethical hacking: an ethical hacker is usually
employed by an organization who trusts him or her to
attempt to penetrate networks and / or computer systems
using the same methods as a hacker, for the purpose of
finding & fixing computer vulnerabilities. Unauthorized
hacking is a crime in most countries, but penetration
testing done by request of the owner of the victim system
or network is not.
• In summary, as technology advances , computers continue to have
an impact on society. Therefore computer ethics promotes
discussion of how much influence computers should have in areas
such as artificial intelligence & human communication. As the
world of computers evolves, computer ethics continues to create
ethical standards that address new issues raised by new
technologies.
 Why do we need computer Ethics?
• The growth of the World Wide Web (WWW) has
created several novel legal issues.
• The existence of new questions that older laws can
not answer.
• Traditional laws are outdated in this world, a more
coherent body of law is needed to govern internet and
computers
• Studying computer ethics make us behave like
responsible professionals.
• Helps us to learn how to avoid computer abuse and
cyber crime.