MIS 2000 Ethical and Legal Aspects of Information Systems Updated: June 2015

MIS 2000MIS 2000

Ethical and Legal Aspects of Ethical and Legal Aspects of

Information SystemsInformation Systems

Updated: June 2015Updated: June 2015

Outline

Law & Ethics

Impacts of IT & IS

Privacy

Intellectual Property & Copyright

Discussion cases

Ethical & Legal Aspects MIS 2000 Information Systems for Management 2


Ethics Ethics: Principles of right and wrong acquired through socialization.

Also called morale (ethical=moral)

Unwritten norms, more stable over time – part of culture

There are different ethics, we usually talk about norms shared by a majority

Violation of ethics leads to social condemnation (sanctioning)

Law

Law: Legislated rules to be followed in society

Defined by judicial system and approved ultimately by legislators

Written in law code and cases; change over time

Violation of law leads to financial and physical liability (prison)



Ideally, the ethical and legal are in sync: what is right is protected by law; or legal rules are morally right.

Example: hardware/software & data theft (stealing) – both illegal and immoral

BUT, this may not be the case, especially in dynamic social domains like electronic IT/IS and their various deployments.

New IS and digital data crate a tension or dilemmas between ethics and law (see discussion cases in this lecture).

Example: Computer Abuse (e.g., using firm’s computer for private business - “cyberslacking” – not sentenced by law but may feel wrong)

Ethics vs. Law


In new segments of social relationships it often happens that ethics precedes law.

This applies to information systems; examples:

hackers damaging IS of others first were condemned as bad behavior, but then hacking become illegal (1980s)

selling data about customers was sometimes criticized as ethically inappropriate, but then it became illegal (1990s)

spamming (unsolicited massive e-mailing of ads) went unchecked for awhile, and became illegal in 2000s

Global context magnifies the ethics/law dilemmas

Ethics Turns to Law


Privacy Privacy

A cultural (ethical) belief that individuals are to be left alone, free from surveillance or interference from other individuals, organizations, or government

Backed by law

Canada’s Privacy Legislation

Bill C-6 (PIPEDA), Privacy Commissioner; Businesses must also comply since 2004 (Note)

Compliant with Fair Information Practices (Note)

Every province has its own laws too


Intellectual Property

A sort of private property. Protected by law and mostly supported by ethics. Exceptions: free sharing on the Internet; cyclical trend.

Intangible property created by individuals or organizations. Three main kinds:

Trade Secret – Any content communicated in confidence (biz report, idea on product, planning data)

Copyright - Law protecting artistic products and software in Canada from being copied for 50 years (literature, music, software in Canada)

Patent – Law guaranteeing monopoly on the ideas behind an invention for 20 years (machines, medical drugs, software in U.S.)


Discussion Questions for the Ethical & Legal Dilemmas

1. A company monitors communications of employees. Is company’s action ethical? Legal? Explain your assumptions and reasoning.

2. A social media uses member-generated data to profile members and thus improve its proposition value toward advertisers. Is this legal? Ethical?

3. The government monitors Internet traffic to detect “dangerous content.” Is this ethical? Legal?

4. Company A sues company B for copying user interface design (the look of web pages). Who is right? Who has ethics on their side?

5. A flash drive with business data is found in a new employee’s bag by a security guard, and the company sues. The employee claims extra work was going to be done at home. Is the employee’s act ethical/legal? What about the company’s action?



6. Google offers free Google Education Apps (email, calendar, a dropbox) in exchange for the opportunity to advance its data mining software. A school’s stakeholders are pressed to cut budgets but worry that data privacy may be compromised sooner or later. What would you do?



Documents

MIS 2000 Ethical and Legal Aspects of Information Systems Updated: June 2015