Ethical and Social Issues

Legal and Ethical Issues: an Overview

Privacy Intellectual Property
Difficult to protect since it is easy and inexpensive to copy and disseminate digitized information

Free Speech
Internet provides the largest opportunity for free speech

Taxation
Illegal to impose new sales taxes on Internet business at the present time

Consumer Protection
Many legal issues are related to electronic trade
2

Ethical Issues
What is considered to be right and wrong?
What is unethical is not necessarily illegal. Whether these actions are considered unethical depends on the organization, country, and the specific circumstances surrounding the scenarios.
3

Ethical Issues (cont.)

Code of Ethics
Many companies and professional organizations develop their own codes of ethics A collection of principles intended as a guide for its members A guide for members of a company or an association
4

Organize IT Ethical Issues into a Framework

Privacy
Collection, storage, and dissemination of information about individuals

Property
Ownership and value of information and intellectual property

Accuracy
Authenticity, fidelity, and accuracy of information collected and processed

Accessibility
Right to access information and payment of fees to access it

Protecting Privacy
Privacy
The right to be left alone and the right to be free of unreasonable personal intrusions

Information Privacy
The claim of individuals, groups, or institutions to determine for themselves when, and to what extent, information about them is communicated to others
6

Protecting Privacy (cont.)

Two rules
The right of privacy is not absolute. Privacy must be balanced against the needs of society. The publics right to know is superior to the individuals right of privacy.
7

How is Private Information Collected?

Reading your newsgroups postings
Finding you in the Internet Directory

Making your browser record information about you Recording what your browsers say about you
Reading your e-mail
8

Web-Site Self-Registration
Registration Questionnaires
type in private information in order to receive a password to participate in a lottery, to receive information, or to play a game

Uses of the Private Information

collected for planning the business may be sold to a third party used in an inappropriate manner
9

Cookies
Piece of information that allows a Web site to record ones comings and goings
Web sites can remember information about users and respond to their preferences on a particular site, process is transparent to users Web sites can maintain information on a particular user across HTTP connections

10

Cook Cookies (cont.)

Reasons for using cookies

to personalize information to improve online sales/services to simplify tracking of popular links or demographics to keep sites fresh and relevant to the users interests to enable subscribers to log in without having to enter a password every visit to keep track of a customers search preferences personal profiles created are more accurate than self-registration

Solutions to cookies
users can delete cookie files stored in their computer use of anti-cookie software (e.g. Cookie Cutter and Anonymous Cookie)
11

Privacy Protection
5 basic principles
Notice/Awareness Customers must be given notice and be
able to make informed decisions.

Choice/Consent Customers must be made aware of their

options as to how their personal information may be used. Consent may be granted through opt-Out clauses requiring steps.

Access/Participation Consumers must be able to access

their personal information and challenge the validity of the data.

Integrity/security Consumers must be assured that the data

is secure and accurate.

Enforcement/Redress There must always exist a method of

enforcement and remedy. The alternatives are government intervention, legislation for private remedies, or self-regulation.
12

Protecting Your Privacy

Think before you give out personal information on a site Track the use of your name and information Keep your newsgroups posts out of archives Use the Anonymizer when browsing Live without cookies Use anonymous remailers Use encryption Reroute your mail away form your office Ask your ISP or employer about a privacy policy
13

Protecting Intellectual Property

Copyright
A statutory grant that provides the creators of intellectual property with ownership of it for 28 years

Trade Secret
Intellectual work such as a business plan, which is a company secret and is not based on public information

Patent
A document that grants the holder exclusive rights on an invention for 17 years
14

Copyright Protection Techniques

Digital watermarks
embedding of invisible marks can be represented by bits in digital content hidden in the source data, becoming inseparable from such data

15

Controlling Spamming
What is spamming, why is it bad?
Spamming
the practice of indiscriminate distribution of messages (for example junk mail) without permission of the receiver and without consideration for the messages appropriateness

Spammings negative impacts

Spam comprised 30% of all mail sent on America Online
slowing the Internet in general shutting ISPs down completely now less than 10%
16

Controlling Spamming (cont.)

Legislation, Legal
The Electronic Mailbox Protection Act The Unsolicited Commercial Electronic Mail Act The Netizens Protection Act The Telephone Consumer Protection Act

17

Controlling Spamming (cont.)

How to cut spamming
Tell users not to validate their addresses by answering spam requests for replies if they want to be taken off mailing lists Disable the relay feature on SMTP (mail) servers so mail cannot be bounced off the server Delete spam and forget it its a fact of life and not worth wasting time over Use software packages, e.g. www.getlost.com and www.junkbusters.com
18

Fraud on the Internet

Internet Stocks Fraud

SEC brought charges against 44 companies and individuals who illegally promoted stocks on computer bulletin boards, online newsletters and investment Web sites

Other Financial Fraud

Other Fraud in EC
Customers may
receive poor quality products and services not get products in time be asked to pay for things they assume will be paid for by sellers
19

Selling bogus investments, phantom business opportunities, and other fraud schemes