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Computer ethics

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Computer ethics is a branch of practical philosophy which deals with how computing professionals should make decisions regarding professional and social conduct. The term “computer ethics” was first coined by Walter Maner in the mid-1970s, but only since the 1990s has it started being integrated into professional development programs in academic settings.

The importance of computer ethics increased through the 1990s. With the growth of the Internet, privacy issues as well as concerns regarding computing technologies such as spyware and web browser cookies have called into question ethical behavior in technology.

Issues

The core issues of computer ethics include, but are not limited to: professional responsibility, intellectual property rights, privacy, censorship, and the impact of technology in society:

  • Professional responsibility relates to the decisions the computer professional makes regarding customer–professional and professional–professional relationships.
  • The issue of intellectual property rights relates to respecting established copyright rights as defined by law.
  • Issues of privacy relate to the usage of information collected about individuals and stored in databases.
  • The final issue, the impact of technology in society, is perhaps the controlling issue in computer ethics. This issue relates to the consequences of the introduction of technology for society as a whole, as well as the place computers have in society.

An issue that now goes hand in hand with ethics today is social responsibility. This is an attempt by organizations to find equilibrium between all their commitments, including investors, employees, customers and competitors alike. Social responsibility is an obligation for managers to serve and protect the investments of the other people involved in the company, not only themselves.

Identifying issues

Identifying ethical issues as they arise, as well as defining how to deal with them, has traditionally been problematic in computer ethics. Some have argued against the idea of computer ethics as a whole. However, Collins and Miller proposed a method of identifying issues in computer ethics in their Paramedic Ethics model. The model is a data-centered view of judging ethical issues, involving the gathering, analysis, negotiation, and judging of data about the issue.

In solving problems relating to ethical issues, Davis proposed a unique problem-solving method. In Davis's model, the ethical problem is stated, facts are checked, and a list of options is generated by considering relevant factors relating to the problem. The actual action taken is influenced by specific ethical standards.

Ethical standards

One of the most definitive sets of ethical standards is the Association for Computing Machinery Code of Ethics. The code is a four-point standard governing ethical behavior among computing professionals. It covers the core set of computer ethics from professional responsibility to the consequences of technology in society.[1]

Another computer ethics body is the BCS (British Computer Society)[2] who have published a code of conduct and code of pratice for computer professionals in the UK.

The Uniform Computer Information Transactions Act (UCITA) defines ethical behavior from the standpoint of legality, specifically during the contracting process of computing. It defines how valid computing contracts are formed, and how issues such as breach of contract are defined and settled. However, legality does not completely encompass computer ethics, being just one facet of the constantly expanding field of computer ethics. [3]

References

  • Association for Computing Machinery, Inc. Association for Computing Machinery: Code of Ethics.
  • Dessler, Gary, Cole, Nina & Sutherland, Virginia, Human Resources Management in Canada, 2005
  • Cummings, Donavan, Haag, McCubbrey, Pinsonneault, Management Information Systems: For the Information Age, McGraw-Hill Ryerson, 2004
  • Martin, C. Dianne and Weltz, Elaine Yale, "From Awareness to Action: Integrating Ethics and Social Responsibility into the Computer Science Curriculum," Computers and Society, June 1999.
  • National Conference on Uniform State Laws. Uniform Computer Information Transactions Act.
  • Tavani, Herman T. "Applying an Interdiscplinary Approach to Teaching Computer Ethics," IEEE Technology and Society Magazine, Fall 2002.
  • Bynum, Terrell Ward. "The Foundation of Computer Ethics," Computers and Society, June 2000,
  • Werth, Laurie Honor. "Getting Started with Computer Ethics," Proceedings of the twenty-eighth SIGCSE technical symposium on Computer science education
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