Related Content: CS507 - VU Lectures, Handouts, PPT Slides, Assignments, Quizzes, Papers & Books of Information Systems
Information is a source of power. Consequently, developments in information systems also involve social and political relationships-- and so make ethical considerations in how information is used all the more important. Electronic systems now reach into all levels of government, into the workplace, and into private lives to such an extent that even people without access to these systems are affected in significant ways by them. New ethical and legal decisions are necessary to balance the needs and rights of everyone.
Ethics are moral choices made by individuals in relation to the rest of the community, standards of acceptable behavior, and rules governing members of a profession. ETHICS are principles and rules concerning duty to society, profession and business. Ethics is about how we ought to live. The purpose of ethics in information systems is not philosophical or academic, it can mean the survival of a business or industry. The issues relating to electronic information systems include control of and access to information, privacy and misuse of data, International considerations. Issues of ethics and privacy have always been there even when computerized environments were in their natal phase. However, with the advancement in technology, the issues have grown sophisticated and so are the remedies.
Information system security association of USA has listed down following ethical challenges
Netiquette, or on-line civility, is a matter of common sense and of remembering the context of behavior. The etiquette guidelines for posting messages to online services, and particularly Internet newsgroups. Netiquette covers not only rules to maintain civility in discussions (i.e., avoiding flames), but also special guidelines unique to the electronic nature of forum messages.
Many companies and professional organizations develop their own codes of ethics. A code of ethics is a collection of principals intended as a guide for the members of a company or an organization. The diversity of IT applications has increased and the increased use of the technology have created a variety of ethical issues.
Whenever one has to talk of privacy, ethics is the second half of it. It won’t be wrong to say that privacy may not have been an issue had it not been linked with the ethical view a society has. There are certain aspects which when put together formulate a set of ethical issues. These are
Following aspects should be covered when privacy is dealt with.
Following are some of the accuracy issues.
Following are some of the property issues.
These mostly comprise of two aspects.
Before we start of with the concept of privacy in computerized environments let’s take a look
what privacy is in its literal terms. Privacy means the quality or condition of being secluded from
the presence or view of others, the state of being free from unsanctioned intrusion: a person's
right to privacy, the state of being concealed; secrecy. Privacy is quite a subjective/relative concept.
The limits and boundaries for it are defined by everybody in his own context.
There are certain important considerations. The rights of privacy must be balanced against the
needs of the society. Every society has to decide somewhere on the gray area between hiding all
and knowing all extremes. Public’s rights to know is superior to the individual’s rights of
privacy. Usually public and individual’s rights stand in conflict with each other. Since
government agencies have their concerns in priority e.g. criminal investigation, undesirable
social activities. Various aspects can be seen as a threat to privacy.
As technology has grown sophisticated, various aspects can be seen as a threat to privacy.
Secret video surveillance is quite a common technology used at offices and public places and events. CCTV’s commonly known as Closed Circuit Televisions can be seen at almost every place. Privacy and civil liberties advocates condemn the use of this technology for recognition of criminals. Since, in part such technologies tend to hit privacy of many who are productive part of the society. Civil libertarians advocate against this kind of monitoring. Employees have limited protection against employers. Many countries are getting serious on finding the right balance between personal privacy and electronic surveillance in terms of threats to national security.
As we make our way through everyday life, data is collected from each of us, frequently without our consent and often without our realization. We pay our bills with credit cards and leave a data trail consisting of purchase amount, purchase type, date, and time. Data is collected when we pay by check. Our use of supermarket discount cards creates a comprehensive database of everything we buy. When our car, equipped with a radio transponder, passes through an electronic toll booth, our account is debited and a record is created of the location, date, time, and account identification. We leave a significant data trail when we surf the Internet and visit websites. When we subscribe to a magazine, sign up for a book or music club, join a professional association, fill out a warranty card, give money to charities, donate to a political candidate, tithe to our church or synagogue, invest in mutual funds, when we make a telephone call, when we interact with a government agency.
News stories of Internet privacy threats are commonplace these days. The Internet was designed as an inherently insecure communications vehicle. Hackers easily penetrate the most secure facilities of the military and financial institutions. Internet companies have designed numerous ways to track web users as they travel and shop throughout cyberspace. "Cookie" is no longer a word associated solely with sweets. It now refers to cyber-snooping. Identity thieves are able to shop online anonymously using the credit-identities of others. Web-based information brokers sell sensitive personal data, including Social Security numbers, relatively cheaply.
Privacy advocates often use these words to describe the workplace. Many forms of monitoring
technologies are available in the marketplace and are becoming cheaper each year video
surveillance, telephone monitoring, e-mail and voice mail monitoring, computer keystroke
tracking, Internet Web site monitoring, location tracking using badges worn by employees and
satellite tracking of the company fleet.
Privacy issues in Work place monitoring
What makes matters worse is that these systems can be deployed secretly and invisibly.
Employers are not required by law to disclose to their employees that such monitoring is being
conducted. A requirement of Employer Disclosure is not a normal practice in various countries.
The only places where employees can expect to be free from surveillance are in bathrooms and
locker rooms, but even this protection is not absolute.
Employers make several arguments to justify their use of monitoring systems.
The products and services offered by the wireless industry are also hitting the privacy aspects.
The signals emitted by a cell phone may be used to track location of a user from the nearest
communications towers. Cell phones these days have the ability to pinpoint the user's location
to the nearest 100 feet for emergency assistance. Marketers also use this cell positioning
technology to market their products. For instance if we are passing by a food chain, we might
receive a message telling us that just off the next exit is a restaurant that serves our favorite
cuisine or a new discount package.
More and more organizations try to check back ground history of the employees in certain respects. For instance banks for issue of loans, leasing companies, insurance companies and employers. Usual aspects are credit profiling e.g. credit worthiness reports by Credit Information Bureau of SBP, Ethnic background, criminal background, addiction and medical records.
The cost of background checks has decreased dramatically in recent years. As a result, more employers are conducting them. Mostly the retrieved information in background checks is either incorrect or misleading. The reason is that there is no such thing as a perfect database.
Banks, insurance companies, and brokerage firms are now able to affiliate with one another
under one corporate roof. Credit card companies, banks, insurance companies, and brokerage
firms may share their respective databases with one another but they cannot sell customer data
to third parties without prior notice to customers commonly known as affiliate sharing. Certain
outcomes of affiliate sharing are "junk" mail, e-mail, telemarketing solicitations and SPAM
(simultaneously produced advertised message). Elderly individuals with cash-rich portfolios
could be vulnerable to fraud artists' promises of lucrative returns on risky investments. In
certain countries legislation on Financial Information Privacy has been successfully enacted
that requires an “opt in” by customers before a financial institution can sell personal
information to third parties.
Most individuals consider their medical information to be among the most sensitive of any information about them.
In the field of health care, another privacy issue on the healthcare front is genetic profiling. In many countries, the use of genetic data to discriminate in both employment and health insurance is of growing concern to consumers, healthcare professionals, and policymakers alike.
The migration of print, music, and images to the Internet has spawned new technologies called "digital rights management" systems (DRM) that infringe upon intellectual freedom. Intellectual property scholars point out that copyright and privacy have traditionally been compatible because copyright provisions control public distribution of content. The right to explore ideas in books, music, and movies without having to identify ourselves. The right to anonymity is a vital foundation stone of our democratic society.
Download of content from internet for misusage must be controlled. Private use of copyrighted material has been governed by various legislations. The most recent development in this regard is TRIPS.
Trips is an AGREEMENT ON TRADE-RELATED ASPECTS OF INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS. The agreement has been instituted by World Trade Organization for all its members. The agreement sets minimal rules for national intellectual property law in order to prevent member nations from using intellectual property as a hidden trade barrier against other nations. Part II of the agreement specifically defines the scope and use of various intellectual property rights
Article 10.1 of TRIPS provides that computer programs, whether in source or object code, shall be protected as literary works under the Berne Convention (1971).
Since Pakistan is signatory to WTO it had to take necessary steps to ensure transfer of intellectual property rights from / to Pakistan. Accordingly the Electronic Data Protection Act 2005 was enacted by the parliament covering various aspects relating to various forms of data, privacy and consent issues of data subjects whose data is processed, security of electronic data, disclosure and dissemination issues and addressing complaints and offences.
Take a situation where a transaction is done online. The server processing the transaction for execution may be in USA. The supplier of the product may be in Canada. The shipment may be made from UK. The owner of the website may be in Australia. The person paying online may be physically in Pakistan. The Question is where should the transaction be taxed: at the source of origin or the place of execution. The E-commerce while giving convenience has also complicated the situation. Electronic transfers are made to foreign countries which may be known to the banks but are hidden from tax authorities. Covert banking channels are used. Undisclosed assets are accumulated.
These were some of the issues developing on privacy. An organization may think of developing and implementing a privacy policy. One way to protect privacy is to develop privacy policies or codes which can help organizations avoid legal problems. Senior management should take acceptance of employees, customers and suppliers and address issues accordingly.
It should cover issues like an overview on what the policy aims to cover, scope of application of the policy, all employees of the organization, customers both online and offline, random visitors registering for the information extraction in case of web privacy, Giving customers and employees an idea what sort and extent of processing and handling may be performed on the data being collected from them every time they visit, Informing web visitors that as they visit the website, the web server will save cookies on their terminal and the benefit which the visitors will get i.e. the web-server will recognize the visitor when the website is visited next time and the fact that IP addresses are being saved by the web server and if combined with the ISP address, can help to locate computer originating message. This is not an exclusive detail of issues. Other issues may also be added according to the need of the organization.