By Nausheen Saba Shahid

By Nausheen Saba Shahid

 What is Ethics:  Study of what it means to “do the right thing”  Assumes people are rational and make free choices  Rules to follow in our interactions and our actions that

affect others

Ethics are moral values, principles by which people act or do business. These values are guiding principles.

These values must be absolute Must take them seriously enough to override any human rationalization, weakness, ego, or personal faults.

They all provide behavioral rules. It may seem like splitting hairs, but the differences can be important when persuading others.

Values are the rules by which we make decisions about right and wrong, should and shouldn't, good and bad. Knowledge based values, aesthetic values, moral values,

Morals have a greater social element to values and tend to have a very broad acceptance. People judge others more on morals than values.

Ethics tend to be codified into a formal system or set of rules which are explicitly adopted by a group of people. Ethics are thus internally defined and adopted, whilst morals tend to be externally imposed on other people.

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Software piracy Income taxes Copying of Videos or CD’s Plagiarism

The person’s ethical standards are different from those of society as a whole. The person chooses to act selfishly.

In many instances, both reasons exist.

1. Responsibilities Professionals should exercise sensitive and moral judgments in all their activities. 2. Public Interest Members should accept the obligation to act in a way that will serve and honor the public.

3. Integrity Members should perform all responsibilities with integrity to maintain public confidence. 4. Objectivity and Independence Members should be objective, independent, and free of conflicts of interest.

5. Due Care Members should observe the profession’s standards and strive to improve competence. 6. Scope and Nature of Services A member in public practice should observe the Code of Professional Conduct.

Conflicting demands: Loyalty to company and colleagues Concern for public welfare Personal gain, ambition

Ethical standards are usually relative and personal, there is seldom an absolute standard

Our society has attached a special meaning to the term professional. A professional is expected to conduct himself or herself at a higher level than most other members of society.

Fundamental Canons  

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Perform services only in areas of competence. Issue public statements only in an objective and truthful manner. Act in professional matters for each employer or client as faithful agents or trustees. Hold paramount the safety, health and welfare of the public in the performance of their professional duties.

Technology “Term Technology derives from Greek word techne” Today, technology refers to technical means, methods, and knowledge used in achieving a practical purpose and providing objects for human sustance and comfort. In a comparison to ancient technology, Martin Heidegger (1889-1976) argues on problems of modern technology and criticize modern technology as:  dangerous due to its inherent complexity  possible mis-management of the saving power

Hans Jonas (1903-1993) stated that since technology expands human power, but expansion of human responsibility as well. Information Technology IT is the applications of appropriate technologies to the organization, manipulation and distribution of information by computers and telecommunications.

 Founded by Norbert Wiener in mid-1940s  Professor of mathematics and engineering at MIT  Originally called “Cybernetics”

 Walter Maner coined “Computer Ethics” in 1976

According to James Moor (1985)...... CE is to be defined as:

'the analysis of the nature and social impact of computer technology and the corresponding formulation and justification of policies for the ethical use of such technologies. CE includes consideration of both personal and social policies for the ethical use of computer technology. Typical Problems in Computer Ethics:  Policy vacuum about how computer technology should be used.  Often no policies for conduct exist or seem inadequate.  How to formulate policies to guide our actions.

Computer Ethics and Morality In general, ethics related to code of conduct or set of principles, standards or rules that guide the moral actions of an individual within particular social framework. e.g. Moral judgment, moral decision, or how a person ought to act responsibly in a particular case.

 Exaggerate traditional ethical problems (new ways of invading privacy)

 Convert already known ethical issues into analogous

issues (change the idea of ownership and intellectual property)  Creating new ethical problem (computer viruses and hacking).

Commandments of computer ethics have been defined by the Computer Ethics Institute: 1.

Not use a computer to harm other people

2.

Not interfere with other people's computer work (undue access to their systems, Generating or consciously spreading computer viruses)

3.

Snoop around in other people's files (invading privacy of other people)

4.

Not use a computer to steal (bank robbery, break into company accounts)

5.

Not use a computer to bear false witness (The Internet can spread untruth as fast as it can spread truth, e.g.., spreading rumors, false propogadanda).

6.

Not use or copy software for which you have not paid (Software is an intellectual product. Obtaining illegal copies of copyrighted software is crime. Don't watermarking.

7.

Not use other people's computer resources without authorization (Hacking)

8. Not appropriate other people's intellectual output (software piracy)

9.

Think about the social consequences of the program you write

For example, if you are working for an animation house, and producing animated films for children, you are responsible for their contents. Do the animations include scenes that can be harmful to children? In the United States, the Communications Decency Act (CDA) was an attempt by lawmakers to ban certain types of content from Internet websites to protect young children from harmful material.

10. Use computer in ways that show consideration and respect (use in public for example).

According to National Institute of Justice: any illegal activity act for which knowledge of computer technology is used to commit the offense is computer crime.

Computer Crime, E-Crime, Hi-Tech Crime or Electronic Crime is a crime in which a computer plays an essential part. Development of IT, and rapid spread of personal computer and computer network, brings forth new potentials for electronic crime and illegal activities.

Hi-Tech crime is the illegal exploitation of computer technologies, usually involving the Internet, to support crimes such as fraud, identity theft, sharing of information etc. Examples:  Fraud achieved by the manipulation of computer records.  Deliberate circumvention of computer security systems  Writing or spreading computer viruses or worms.  Intellectual property theft, including software piracy

A.

Computer-assisted crimes.

e.g. Computer sabotage and hacking. Sabotage; A deliberate action aimed at weakening another entity through subversion, obstruction, disruption, or destruction. examples of sabotage;  An ex-employee cuts telephone cables serving half a million people.  A plumber puts small nails in the pipes of a new building.  A computer programmer deletes all copies of data on a computer system.

B.

Computer Related Crimes

Victims failure to report CC on following reasons: o Fear of bad publicity and reputation. o Lack of specialized personnel to investigate computer crimes o Ignorance of who is in charge in these cases o Ignorance of rights o Frustration with expensive prosecution, time consuming investigations

and light sentences.

o Lack of confidence in existing laws. Juries not regard CC as serious

crimes.

Other aspects of this problem:  Public opinion. (Silent pleasure)  Media Attitude.

 To perform irresponsible or unacceptable acts. (sending electronic messages with offensive language, or pornographic material, spam)

 Cheap advertisement.  Computer abuse result in financial and managerial

problems to businesses.

 Security measures like anti-viruses, filtering anti-spam  software and firewalls.  Block unsolicited(not asked for) messages  To educate anti-spam behavior

Steven Mandell describes computer criminals as ambitious persons with impressive educational credentials- technically competent individuals who regard themselves as hero's challenging an impersonal computer as an opponent in a game. Insider and Outsider Criminals

 Desire to win easy money or other goods  To enjoy themselves by fooling others  To sabotage people, machines  To take revenge for personal reasons

 To perform act of terrorism  To produce propagandistic and revolutionary actions

Edgar divides computer crimes into two basic categories: 1. 2.

Crimes against computers (Damage to hardware/software) Crimes committed using computers (Theft of services/information, computer crime, counterfeiting)

 Internet Society (ISOC)  Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF)  Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and

Numbers (ICANN)  Internet Architecture Board (IAB)  Council of Registrars (CORE)  InterNIC  (ASSIGNMENT: Read what are the roles of these

organizations)

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Be careful what you write about others. Assume that anyone about whom you are writing will read your comments or receive them in a way other than intended.

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Online messages can be quite informal, but try, nevertheless, to express your-self using proper spelling, capitalization, grammar, usage, and punctuation.

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Be truthful. Do not pretend to be someone or do something that you are not.

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Use titles that accurately and concisely describe the contents of e-mail and other postings. Consider your audience, and use language that is appropriate. Excessive use of abbreviations or slang in a nontechnical chat room, for example, can be bad manners, and remember your peers may not understand your chat abbreviations. Avoid offensive language, especially comments that might be construed as discriminatory. Remember that the law still applies in cyberspace. Do not commit illegal acts online, such as libeling or slanderi ng others, and do not joke about committing illegal acts. Be careful with humor and sarcasm. One person’s humorous comment may push another person’s buttons or may even be seen as offensive.

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Avoid putting words into full capitals. Online, all-caps is considered SHOUTING. Especially in the chat area if you are following up a previous message or posting, summarize that message or posting. When summarizing, summarize. Do not post irrelevant messages. Do not post messages whose sole purpose is to sucker others into an irrelevant or unimportant discussion. Read existing follow-up postings and don’t repeat what has already been said. Respect other people’s intellectual property. Don’t post, display, or otherwise provide access to materials belonging to others, and cite references as appropriate. Online expressions of hostility will not be tolerated. Never send online chain letters. Some e-mail programs allow one to place signatures containing text and graphics at the ends of mailings. Remember that elaborate materials take up valuable transmission time. Do not send e-mail to people who might have no interest in it. In particular, avoid automatically copying e-mail to large numbers of people. Avoid chastising others for their online typos. To err is human. To forgive is …what we do. In online chats typos and misspellings may occur. Do not retype the message or correct unless the message cannot be understood. In discussions please be sure to use proper spelling, capitalization, grammar, usage, and punctuation

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1. Always think before you write. In other words without the use of nonverbals with your message, your message can be misinterpreted. So please think twice before you hit submit. 2. Keep it relevant. There are places to chat and post for fun everyday stuff. Do not stray from the discussion in the assigned questions. 3. Never use all caps. This is the equivalent of yelling in the online world. It is not fun to read. Only use capital letters when appropriate. 4. Make sure that you are using appropriate grammar and structure. In other words I don’t want to see anyone writing “R U” instead of “are you”. There are people in the class that may not understand this type of abbreviation, not to mention it does nothing to help expand your writing and vocabulary skills. Emoticons are fine as long as they are appropriate. A smile ☺ is welcome, anything offensive is not. 5. Treat people the same as you would face-to-face. In other words it is easy to hide behind the computer. In some cases it empowers people to treat others in ways they would not in person. Remember there is a person behind the name on your screen. Treat all with dignity and respect and you can expect that in return. 6. Respect the time of others. This class is going to require you to work in groups. Learn to respect the time of others in your group and your experience will be much better. Always remember that you are not the only person with a busy schedule, be flexible. Do not procrastinate! You may be one that works best with the pressures of the deadline looming on you, but others may not be that way. The same is true for the reverse. The key to a successful group is organization, communication and a willingness to do what it takes to get it done

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What is your opinion of the behaviors involved? What equitable solutions can you suggest? Describe a parallel situation in which computers are NOT involved. Remember your answer must be at least 5 sentences in length.

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1) David is an Internet expert. He reads a question from a newcomer in an online discussion group. For him the answer is easy but the "newbie" is having trouble. Alan responds, "Hey newbie! Can't you read a book? Don't ask such a dumb question!"

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2) Alexi wants to post a comment to an online message board. She really wants to emphasize her opinion. She responds in ALL UPPERCASE LETTERS!

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3) Dana wants to ask a question about her new iPad on a discussion board. Which is the best way to phrase her question?

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4) Josh is really upset about his classmate, M.D. He is so angry that he decides to post a mean comment about M.D. anonymously in an online discussion group.

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5) Marcie is in the middle of an email she is writing to a friend. The phone rings and Marcie leaves her computer with the email still on the screen. You decide to check it out.