ABHILASHA VASRSHNEY

LECTURER , IT DEPARTMENT
Identify ethical issues in how the use of information
technologies in business affects
 Employment
 Individuality
 Working Conditions
 Privacy
 Crime
 Health
 Solutions to societal problems

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 Business Ethics
 Employee privacy
 Security of company records
 Workplace safety
 Theories of Corporate Social Responsibility
 Stockholder Theory
 Social Contract Theory
 Stakeholder Theory
 Technology Ethics
 Proportionality
 Informed Consent
 Justice
 Minimized Risk

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Identify and describe clearly the facts
Define the conflict or dilemma
Identify the stakeholder
Identify the options that you can reasonably take
Identify the potential consequences for your options

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Golden Rule
Immanuel Kant’s Categorical Imperative
Utilitarian Principle
Descartes' Rule of change
Risk Aversion Principle
No free lunch

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INFORMATION RIGHTS
PROPERTY RIGHTS
ACCOUTABILTY AND CONTROL
SYSTEM QUALITY
QUALITY OF LIFE

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PRIVACY:
The claim of individuals to be left alone , free
from surveillance or interference from other
individuals, organizations, or the state.

FAIR INFORMATION PRACTICES:

 Set of principle originally set forth in 1973 that governs
the collection and use of information about individuals
 Based on the notion of a mutuality of interest between
the record holder and the individual.
Freedom of Information Act, 1966
Privacy Act of 1974
Electronic Communication Privacy Act of 1986
Computer Security Act of 1987
Fair Credit reporting Act of 1970
Privacy Protection Act of 1980
Right to Financial Privacy Act of 1978
System is capable of monitoring, capturing , and
storing communications that pass through it.
Help organizations determine who is visiting their
Web Sites and how to better target their offerings.
Web Sites can also capture information about visitors
without their knowledge using “cookie “ technology.
Cookies:
 Tiny Files deposited on a computer hard drive when an
individual visits certain Web Sites.
 Used to identify the visitor and track visits to the Web
Site.
 There is an another Web Site monitoring tool known as
WEB BUGS.
 WEB BUGS:
 Tiny Graphic Files embedded in e-mail messages and
Web pages that are designed to monitor online Internet
user behavior.
 They are tiny, colorless , and virtually visible , they can be
difficult for unsophisticated Internet users to detect.
 Spyware
 Secretly install itself on user’s computer.
 Report the user movement on the internet to other computer
Managing Cookies : Block or limit Cookies from being
placed on the user’s computer. Example-Microsoft
Internet Explorer 5 and 6 Cookie Crusher.
Blocking Ads : Control ads that pop up based on user
profiles and prevent ads from collecting or sending
information . Example : BHO Cop AdSubtract
Encrypting e-mail or data : Scramble e-mail or data
that they can’t be read. Example: Pretty Good
Privacy(PGP).
Anonymizers: Allow users to surf the Web without
being identified
Intellectual Property is the intangible property
created by individuals or corporation.
Computerized information can be so easily copied or
distributed on networks.
Intellectual property is subject to protections under -
 Trade Secret
Copyright Law
Patent Law
Any intellectual work or product used for a business
purpose that can be classified as belonging to that
business , provided it is not based on information in
the public domain.
Grant a monopoly on the ideas behind a work product.
Protects the actual ideas in a work product.
To make this claim, creator or owner must take care to
bind employees and customers with nondisclosure
agreements and to prevent the secret from falling into
the public domain.
• Limitation:-
Although virtually all software programs of any
complexity contain unique elements of some sort , it
is difficult to prevent the ideas in the work falling
into the public domain when the software is widely
distributed.
A statutory grant that protects creators of intellectual
property against copying by others for any purpose
during the life of author plus an additional 70 years
after the death of the author.
Encourage creativity and authorship by ensuring that
creative people receive the monetary and other
benefits.
It does not protect ideas – just their expression in a
tangible medium.
It grant the owner of a patent an exclusive monopoly
to the ideas behind an invention for 20 years.
Patents are different from copyrights in that they
protect the ideas themselves and not merely the
expression of ideas.
There are 4 types of inventions for which patents are
granted under patent law:
Machines.
Man-Made products.
Compositions of Matter .
Processing Methods.
The key concepts in patent law are Originality,
Novelty, and Invention.
The strength of patent protection is that it grants a
monopoly on the underlying concepts and ideas of
software .
The difficulty is passing stringent criteria of non-
obviousness, originality, as well as years to receive
protection.
Cyber Theft
Intellectual Property Protections
Software Piracy
Illegal File Sharing

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If a person is injured by a machine partly controlled
by software, who should be hold accountable , and
therefore liable?
Responsibility means that as free moral agents:
individuals , organizations, and societies are
responsible for the actions they take.
Accountability means that individuals, organizations ,
and societies should be held accountable to others
for the consequences of their actions.
Liability is a feature of political systems in which a
body of law is in place that permits individuals to
recover the damages done to them by other actors,
systems, or organizations.
Exercising control means governing the Internet and
E-commerce.
Correcting bugs may be very expensive and is not
economically feasible.
Three principal sources of poor system performance
are
Software bugs and Errors
Hardware or Facility failures caused by
natural or other causes
Poor input data quality
Balancing Power- decentralized decision making
Maintaining Boundaries: Family, work and Leisure
Equity and Access: Increasing racial and social class
cleavages
Employment: Reengineering Job Loss
Health Risk

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Association of Information Technology
Professionals (AITP) definition includes
 The unauthorized use, access, modification, and
destruction of hardware, software, data, or network
resources
 Unauthorized release of information
 Unauthorized copying of software

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 Who commits computer crime?

 Hacking
 The obsessive use of
computers, or the
unauthorized access and
use of networked
computer systems
 Cyber Theft
 Involves unauthorized
network entry and the
fraudulent alteration of
computer databases

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Unauthorized use at work
 Also called time and resource theft
 May range from doing private consulting or personal finances,
to playing video games, to unauthorized use of the Internet on
company networks
Piracy of intellectual property
 Other forms of intellectual property covered by copyright laws
Music
Videos
Images
Articles
Books
Other written works

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Software Piracy
 Unauthorized copying of software
Software is intellectual property protected by copyright law
and user licensing agreements
Computer viruses and worms
 Virus
A program that cannot work without being inserted into
another program
 Worm
A distinct program that can run unaided

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IT makes it technically and economically feasible to
collect, store, integrate, interchange, and retrieve data
and information quickly and easily.
 Benefit – increases efficiency and effectiveness
 But, may also have a negative effect on individual’s
right to privacy

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Privacy on the Internet
 Users of the Internet are highly visible and open to
violations of privacy
 Unsecured with no real rules
 Cookies capture information about you every time you
visit a site
 That information may be sold to third parties

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Privacy on the Internet (continued)
 Protect your privacy by
Encrypting your messages
Post to newsgroups through anonymous remailers
Ask your ISP not to sell your information to mailing list
providers and other marketers
Decline to reveal personal data and interests online
Privacy laws
 Attempt to enforce the privacy of computer-based files
and communications
 Electronic Communications Privacy Act
 Computer Fraud and Abuse Act

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Computer Libel and Censorship
 The opposite side of the privacy debate
Right to know (freedom of information)
Right to express opinions (freedom of speech)
Right to publish those opinions (freedom of the press)
Spamming
Flaming

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Employment
 New jobs have been created and productivity has
increased, yet there has been a significant reduction in
some types of jobs as a result of IT.
Computer Monitoring
 Concerns workplace privacy
Monitors individuals, not just work
Is done continually. May be seen as violating workers’ privacy
& personal freedom
Workers may not know that they are being monitored or how
the information is being used
May increase workers’ stress level
May rob workers of the dignity of their work

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Working Conditions
 IT has eliminated many monotonous, obnoxious tasks,
but has created others
Individuality
 Computer-based systems criticized as impersonal
systems that dehumanize and depersonalize activities
 Regimentation

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Repetitive Stress Injury
Carpal Tunnel Syndrome
Computer Vision Syndrome
Techno stress
Some solutions
 Ergonomics (human factors engineering)

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Encryption
 Passwords, messages, files, and other data is
transmitted in scrambled form and unscrambled for
authorized users
 Involves using special mathematical algorithms to
transform digital data in scrambled code
 Most widely used method uses a pair of public and
private keys unique to each individual

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Firewalls
 Serves as a “gatekeeper” system that protects a
company’s intranets and other computer networks from
intrusion
Provides a filter and safe transfer point
Screens all network traffic for proper passwords or other
security codes

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Denial of Service Defenses
 These assaults depend on three layers of networked
computer systems
Victim’s website
Victim’s ISP
Sites of “zombie” or slave computers
 Defensive measures and security precautions must be
taken at all three levels

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E-mail Monitoring
 “Spot checks just aren’t good enough anymore. The
tide is turning toward systematic monitoring of
corporate e-mail traffic using content-monitoring
software that scans for troublesome words that might
compromise corporate security.”
Virus Defenses
 Protection may accomplished through
Centralized distribution and updating of antivirus software
Outsourcing the virus protection responsibility to ISPs or to
telecommunications or security management companies

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Security codes
 Multilevel password system
Log onto the computer system
Gain access into the system
Access individual files
Backup Files
 Duplicate files of data or programs
 File retention measures
 Sometimes several generations of files are kept for
control purposes

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Security Monitors
 Programs that monitor the use of computer systems and
networks and protect them from unauthorized use, fraud,
and destruction
Biometric Security
 Measure physical traits that make each individual unique
 Voice
 Fingerprints
 Hand geometry
 Signature dynamics
 Keystroke analysis
 Retina scanning
 Face recognition and Genetic pattern analysis

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Computer Failure Controls
 Preventive maintenance of hardware and management
of software updates
 Backup computer system
 Carefully scheduled hardware or software changes
 Highly trained data center personnel

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Fault Tolerant Systems
 Computer systems that have redundant processors,
peripherals, and software
Fail-over
Fail-safe
Fail-soft
Disaster Recovery
 Disaster recovery plan
Which employees will participate and their duties
What hardware, software, and facilities will be used
Priority of applications that will be processed

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Information System Controls
 Methods and devices that attempt to ensure the
accuracy, validity, and propriety of information system
activities
 Designed to monitor and maintain the quality and
security of input, processing, and storage activities
Auditing Business Systems
 Review and evaluate whether proper and adequate
security measures and management policies have been
developed and implemented
 Testing the integrity of an application’s audit trail

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