Mis Bba 10+Chapter Four Fall+2012 Beta

Copyright © M @dil @ K@zi

Copyright © M @dil @ K@zi

National University of Computer & Emerging Sciences, Islamabad

Management Information Systems

Title of Book: Management Information Systems:

(Managing the Digital Firm. 10th ED)

By: Laudon, Kenneth C & Laudon, Jane P.

Faculty: M Adil A Kazi [email protected]

Batch/ Section: BBA- 10/ A-B

Semester: Fall-2012

Credit Hrs: 3

Monday, August 27, 2012

mailto:[email protected]

Ethical and Social

Issues in Information

Systems

National University of Computer & Emerging Sciences, Islamabad

Copyrights © 2011- M @dil @ K@zi

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

Management Information Systems Chapter 4 Ethical and Social Issues in Information Systems

• Analyze the relationships among ethical, social, and

political issues that are raised by information systems.

• Identify the main moral dimensions of an information

society and specific principles for conduct that can be

used to guide ethical decisions.

• Evaluate the impact of contemporary information systems

and the Internet on the protection of individual privacy and

intellectual property.

• Assess how information systems have affected everyday

life.


Understanding Ethical and Social Issues Related to Systems

Information System & Technology a two-edge weapon

Opportunity & Threat go together

While it is a source of many benefits whereas it carry high risks; create

new opportunities for breaking the law or exploiting sensitive information

to get benefits away from others. Creating ethical dilemma…

Warning: “Just because you can, doesn’t mean you should!”

Does Location Tracking Threaten Privacy?

• Problem: New opportunities from new technology and need for

greater security.

• Solutions: Redesigning business processes and products to

support location monitoring increases sales and security.

• Deploying GPS and RFID tracking devices with a location

tracking database enables location monitoring.

• Demonstrates IT’s role in creating new opportunities for

improved business performance

• Illustrates how technology can be a double-edged sword by

providing benefits such as increased sales and security while

compromising privacy.




• The SECURITY and ETHICAL ISSUES

raised by the Information Age & INTERNET

are the most explosive to face our society in

decades.

• SOCIALLY RESPONSIVE &

ACCEPTABLES policies & practices need

time to evolve.

• IS & T is rapidly changing and require a

strong grip to understand its effects & impacts

to make erudite legislations, regulations,

policies & practices.

• And by then a lot of water had run under the

bridge.

• It remain a big challenge more for

Information System dependent societies that

less developed ones.

Each American is listed in about

60 government and 80 private

sector databases.

On a typical day, each person‘s

name is passed between

computers 10 times.

A lot of personal information

about us has always been

available, just not as easily and

as readily as today.

Massive databases maintained

by commercial companies and

governments at all levels now

allow profiling like that above to

be accomplished easier and

faster than ever before.

A model for thinking about ethical, social, &

political issues

• Freedom of speech,

• Personal responsibility,

• Corporate responsibility

• Right of access to information

As individual actors are confronted with new situations

often not covered by the old rules

Social institutions cannot respond overnight to these

ripples...may take years to develop etiquette,

expectations, social responsibility, politically correct

attitudes or approved rules!

Political institutions also require time before developing

new laws and often require the demonstration of real

harm before they act.

In the meantime, you may have to act. You may be

forced to act in a legal ‗Gray Area.‘



The U.S & EU governments are just beginning to pass laws against cybercrimes but it‘s

difficult to stay one step ahead of the cybercriminals

Ever since 30 years of Internet &

10 years of www, the societies

globally face the IT cropped ethical

issues & dilemmas.

Ethics being a relative term

extends the opportunity to one

person‘s whimsies & desire to use

or abuse information; a much

easier ability facilitated by the

Internet

How you act, individually and as

groups, in this Gray Area may well

define the future of our society

Relationship

Ethical, Social, and Political Issues in an Information Society

Figure 4-1

The introduction of

Information Systems

Technology has a ripple effect,

raising new ethical, social, and

political issues that must be

dealt with on the individual,

social, and political

institutional levels.

These issues have five moral

dimensions:

• Information rights and obligations,

• Property rights and obligations,

• System quality,

• Quality of life, and

• Accountability and control.



Relationship Ethical, Social, and Political Issues in an Information Society Information rights & obligations: a) What information rights do individuals & organizations possess w.r.t.

themselves?

b) What can they protect?

c) What obligations do individuals & organizations have concerning this

information?

Property rights and obligations: How will traditional intellectual property rights be protected in a digital society,

in which tracing & accounting for ownership are difficult & ignoring such

property rights is so easy?

System quality: What standards of data & system quality should we demand to protect

individual rights & the safety of society

Quality of life: a) What values should be preserved in a information & knowledge based

society?

b) Which institution should we protect from violation?

c) Which cultural values & practices are supported by the new information

technology?



Accountability & Control: Who can & will be held

accountable & liable for the harm

done to individual & collective

information & property rights?

Key technology trends that raise ethical issues

IT has heightened ethical concerns, taxed existing social arrangements, & made some laws

obsolete or severely crippled as it has created new approaches & opportunities for criminal

behaviour & mischief



DoubleClick: a major Internet advertising broker, announced in early 2000 that it would use data

gathered from web sites in conjunction with data collected from sources other than the Internet to

identify people by name — a process known as profiling. It intended to sell the data to marketers who

would be able to target advertising campaigns more efficiently. Public outcry about privacy issues

forced DoubleClick to cancel its plans.

Key technology trends that raise ethical issues

IT has heightened ethical concerns, taxed existing social arrangements, & made some laws

obsolete or severely crippled as it has created new approaches & opportunities for criminal

behaviour & mischief



ChoicePoint: is one of the largest data brokers with more than 5,000 employees, gathers data from

police, criminal, & motor vehicle records: credit & employment histories, current & previous addresses;

professional licenses, & insurance claims – assembling & maintaining e-dossiors on almost every

adult in US. Choicepoint sells these personal information to business & government agencies



Key technology trends that raise

ethical issues

Profiling is possible through the

technique called data mining. Adding to

that the capabilities of NonObvious

Relationship Awareness (NORA) data

analysis technology, as being shown in, a

complete stranger might know just as

much about you as you do. It can and has

been done. So you should be concerned

and you should care.

Technological trends are posing

new situations and questions we

haven’t had to deal with before. As

it’s you, your world and your

future, and you should be

concerned and become involved in

their resolution.



• Read the Interactive Session: Management, and then discuss the

following questions:

• Do data brokers pose an ethical dilemma? Explain your

answer.

• What are the problems caused by the proliferation of data

brokers? What management, organization, and technology

factors are responsible for these problems?

• How effective are existing solutions to these problems?

• Should the U.S. federal government regulate private data

brokers? Why or why not? What are the advantages and

disadvantages?

Data for Sale

• Responsibility, Accountability,

Liability

• Ethical analysis

• Candidate ethical principles

• Professional codes of conduct

• Some real-world ethical

dilemmas

Ethics in an Information Society


BASIC CONCEPTS:

Ethics - are principals of right & wrong that can be used by individuals (acting as free moral agents) to make

choices to guide their behaviours.

Having alternative courses of action, one has to determine…

WHAT is the correct moral choice? WHAT are the main features of ethical choices?

Ethical choices are decisions made by individuals who are responsible for the consequences of their chosen

courses of action! Responsibility: Accepting potential costs, duties, and obligations

for your decisions.

Accountability: Determining who should take responsibility for

decisions and actions.

Liability: Legally placing responsibility with a person or group.

Due Process: ensuring the laws are applied fairly and correctly.


Liability





dilemmas



BASIC CONCEPTS:






courses of action!

These basic concepts form the underpinning of an

Ethical Analysis of Info Systems & those who manage

them.

Identify and describe clearly the facts.

Separate fact from fiction.

Define the conflict or dilemma and identify the higher-order values involved.

Remember, no matter how thin you slice it, there’s always two sides.

Identify the stakeholders.

Determine who’s really involved.

Identify the options that you can reasonably take

Compromise; it doesn’t always have to be an “either-or” outcome.

Identify the potential consequences of your options.

Anticipate the outcome; it will help you devise better solutions.


Liability





dilemmas



BASIC CONCEPTS:






courses of action! Candidate Ethical Principals are deeply rooted in cultures around the

world in their everyday business. But they are equally valid even in

cyberspace!

Golden rule — do unto others as you would have them do unto you.

Immanuel Kant’s Categorical Imperative — if an action is not right for

everyone to take, it is not right for anyone.

Descartes’ rule of change — if an action cannot be taken repeatedly, it is

not right to take at all.

Utilitarian Principle — take the action that achieves the higher or greater

value.

Risk Aversion Principle — take the action that produces the least harm

or the least potential cost.

Ethical “no free lunch” Rule — assume that virtually all tangible and

intangible objects are owned by someone else unless there is a specific

declaration otherwise.

Information rights: Privacy and freedom in the Internet Age

Privacy is the claim of individuals to be left alone, free from surveillance or interference from other

individuals or organisations, including the state

IS & T has threatened individual claims to privacy by making the invasion of privacy cheap, profitable and

effective (e.g. workplace surveillance technologies etc. )

Fair Information Practices (FIP) – (Euro-Americana privacy law regime). is a set of principles

governing the collection and use of information about individuals. FIP principles are based on the notion

of a mutuality of interest between the record holder and the individual.

• The European directive on data protection – Companies to inform and disclose people when they collect info. about them & how it ‗d be stored & used

The customer‘s Informed Consent is a pre-requisite to legally use data about them for business purposes.

• Internet challenges to privacy – Many websites make their privacy policies obvious and others don‘t.

Be careful about the terminologies used by websites/ portals as some actually abide by their policies and others don‘t.

They distinguishes between personally identifiable information and anonymous information. They can match the two types of information to further identify you.

The Moral Dimensions of Information Systems


Information rights: Privacy and freedom in the Internet Age

Privacy is the claim of individuals to be left alone, free from surveillance or interference from other

individuals or organisations, including the state

IS & T has threatened individual claims to privacy by making the invasion of privacy cheap, profitable and

effective (e.g. workplace surveillance technologies etc. )

Fair Information Practices (FIP) – (Euro-Americana privacy law regime). is a set of principles

governing the collection and use of information about individuals. FIP principles are based on the notion

of a mutuality of interest between the record holder and the individual.

• The European directive on data protection – Companies to inform and disclose people when they collect info. about them & how it ‗d be stored & used

The customer‘s Informed Consent is a pre-requisite to legally use data about them for business purposes.

• Internet challenges to privacy – Many websites make their privacy policies obvious and others don‘t.



How do these organizations gather the information?

By using cookies; part of every browser program - a tiny file deposited on the hard disk when

an individual visits certain site. It identifies the user & track his visits to the website.



How Cookies identify web visitors

Spyware detection software - helps you secure your identity theft attempts

Opt-in & Opt-out Models – one permits collection of personal information until the user revokes for so and

the other prohibits from collection of personal information unless the user specifically approves information

collection & its use. (Europeans practice opt-in whereas Americans practice opt-out)



Technical solutions

Some tools that can help you block

someone from tracing your Internet

activities.

PGP (Pretty Good Privacy) – a freeware

encryption software programs for e-mail.

Its limitations are that both the SENDER

and RECIPIENT must have the program

installed in order for it to work

Platform for Privacy Practices (P3P) -

embedded in Internet Explorer version 6.0

that allows the user to determine what

sites can collect information behind the

scenes through the user‘s cookie files.

Because the P3P standards are ―machine-

readable‖ the user doesn‘t have to search

each Web site for its privacy policy. The

user can let the computers do the

comparison and automatically block any

site not conforming to the user‘s wishes.



Property rights: Intellectual property The laws and policies in place to settle disputes about trade secrets, copyrights, and patents have to

be rewritten to apply to the Internet.

Intellectual property is a result of someone’s effort at creating a product of value based on their

experiences, knowledge, and education. We may say - intellectual property is brain power.

Patents

A legal document that grants the owner an

exclusive monopoly on the ideas behind an

invention for 17 years; designed to ensure that

inventors of new machines or methods are

rewarded for their labor while making widespread

use of their inventions.

Trade secrets 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.

Copyright © A statutory grant that

protects creators of

intellectual property

against copying by others

for any purpose for a

minimum of 70 years

Challenges to intellectual

property rights (no return of

your product)

Everything on the Web is

considered to be protected

under copyright and intellectual

property laws unless the

contents specifically stated to

be public domain.

Digital Millennium Copyright©

Act (DMCA) 1998 makes it a

federal offense to violate

Copyright© laws on the

Internet, punishable with a fine

up to $250,000

Accountability, liability, and control

One tenet of the Communications Decency Act and the Child Online Protection Act is that the Internet

Service Providers (ISP) should somehow be liable for content placed on the Internet through their users.

“If you receive an obscene phone call, is the telephone company responsible and liable for the problem?

“If you receive a threatening letter in the mail, is the Post Office department responsible for reading every piece

of mail on the chance that there might be a problem in one of the letters?”

All of the following factors require significant interrelated checks & balances, that the usage facilities &

benefits the consumer in socially productive & responsible manner:

Technology – Facility - Security – Privacy – Responsibility – Accountability – Liability - Control

Computer-related liability problems

As our dependence on the use of computer systems grows, legal courts have no choice but to develop

laws designed to deal with computer-related liability problems.

Traditionally, software producers have not been held physically or economically liable for any harm that

comes about through the use of their software products.





System quality: Data quality and system errors

If your record has been presented somewhere with wrong information - who’s fault is it?

While driving a fully loaded (e-transmission) car on a highway the computer chip controlling

brake system fails resulting in a rather nasty crash. Who’s at fault? <You>, <the car

company>, or <the company that made the computer chip>?

A virus carried by an e-mail or a download product, affecting your system – can fix a

responsibility on <ISP>, <a public domain portals>, <the software manufacturer> or

<the company that licenses the software>?

Three principal sources of poor system performance are described as:

1. Software bugs and errors

2. Hardware or telecommunication facility failures caused by natural or other causes

3. Poor input data quality



Quality of life: Equity, access, and boundaries:

• Losing the face-to-face contact with other human beings

• Under-developed normal social skills in children who spend most of their time on computers

• Online love affairs & obnoxious or false identity relationship crimes

• Exposures and theft of digital images – confidential or personal - to hacker (groups & individuals)

Some of Acts and Foundations have been in service to encounter such issues:

• The Child Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) April 2000.

• The Electronic Frontier Foundation, http://www.eff.org/, an organization dedicated to ―protecting rights and

preserving freedom in the electronic frontier,‖ has lots of information about protecting free speech on the

Internet.

Balancing power: Center versus periphery (out-streams)

• Centralized mainframe computers centralized power at corporate headquarters levels.

• Shift toward highly decentralized computing, decentralized of decision making to respective (Strategic –

Tactical & Operational) organizational level making business organizations a flatten structure



Rapidity of change: Reduced response time to competition

• Created much more efficient national and international markets.

• Competitive positioning: are we at risk of developing a “just-in-time society” with “just-in-time jobs” and “just-

in-time” workplaces, families, and vacations?

Maintaining boundaries: Family, work, and leisure

• One quality-of-life issue that affects more and more people personally is the ability to work from home.

• Life becomes too mechanized & swiveling man into family – workplace & leisure paradox adversely effecting

social patterns of life.

Dependence and vulnerability

Societies becoming incredibility dependent on information systems - putting ourselves in a highly vulnerable

position if these systems fail.

Information systems – becoming a commonplace requirement as having a television in our homes (Beware - no

regulatory or standard-setting forces in place to regulate IS).

Computer Crime & Abuse

Computer Crime - Commission of an illegal act thru the use of computer or against the computer system.

Computer Abuse – Commission of acts involving a computer that may not be illegal but considered unethical.

e.g. SPAM



The Spamming Problem

Spam – a junk email sent by an organization or individual to a mass audience of Internet

users who have expressed no interest in the product or service being marketed



Employment: Trickle-down technology and reengineering job loss

• Job losses and career changes caused by technology - you‘ll be a part of the evolution of technology for

the rest of your life.

• Be competitive in the job market by continual update of your technology skills and knowledge.

Equity and access: Increasing racial and social class cleavages

Unequal access to technology has triggered a Digital Divide amongst individuals, organisations, societies

& nations

Health risks: RSI, CVS, and Techno-stress As managers, you should be acutely aware of the health issues caused by computer usage - Repetitive

• Stress Injury (RSI) - also called cumulative trauma disorder (CTD), occupational overuse syndrome, or

work related upper limb disorder (WRULD), is any of a loose group of conditions resulting from overuse of a

tool, such as a computer keyboard or musical instrument or other activity that requires repeated movements.

• Computer Vision Syndrome (CVS) is a temporary condition resulting from focusing the eyes on a

computer display for protracted, uninterrupted periods of time that strain eyesight.

• Technostress is the psychological resistance of change that accompanies newly introduced machines to

work, home & leisure situations

• Read the Interactive Session: Organizations, and then discuss the

following questions:

• Does use of the Internet by children and teenagers pose an

ethical dilemma? Why or why not?

• Should parents restrict use of the Internet by children or

teenagers? Why or why not?

The Internet: Friend or Foe to Children?



Documents

Mis Bba 10+Chapter Four Fall+2012 Beta