Download Are Computer Ethics Unique

Computer Ethics
Chapter 2
Why Computer Ethics
Hassan Ismail Abdalla
Why Computer Ethics?
Are Computer Ethical Issues Unique?
Are the issues so different from other ethical
issues that they require a “new ethics” or they are
old, but in in a new context
The uniqueness issue is linked with some
important questions:
– Why or how does computer & IT give rise to
ethical issues?
– Is a new field of study needed to address the
ethical issues surrounding computer & IT?
– Is there a special methodology required?
6.2
Are Computer Ethics Unique
 Computer & IT is not the first nor the last technology to
raise moral concerns (Nuclear power and atom bomb)
 They raise ethical issues when they create new possibilities
for human action. Should I (we) do this??
 The new possibilities created by technology often have a
mixed value, they bring benefits as well as problems
 Because they are not purely good, they need to be
evaluated morally, the same as in other ways
6.3
Are Computer Ethical Issues Unique?
 With computer & IT many possibilities have been created
for individual and institutional behavior
 We could now use computers to detect, diagnose & treat
illness, invade the space, monitor others …etc
 Since computer technology is far from being stagnant, so
with each new innovation new policy vacuum have been
created
 The policy vacuums continue to arise and are not easy to fill
 We find ourselves confronted with complex issues and
conceptual muddles making it difficult to figure out which
way to go
6.4
Traditionalist Account
 How policy vacuum are filled?
 How a computer ethical issue be resolved?
 It is a matter of methodology
 Traditionalist methodology:
 all that is necessary is to take traditional moral norms and the
principles on which they are based, and apply them to the new
situations created by computer and information technology
 e.g. filling the vacuum for ownership of software judges
should apply property law of copy right, patent to the new
thing
 e.g. on online communication they suggest to apply the ready
conventions that are followed on face-to-face, telephone and
written communication
6.5
Traditionalist Account
 The traditionalist account is important both as a descriptive and as
a normative account .
 That is, it describes both how policy vacuums are often filled and
recommends how policy vacuums ought to be filled.
 Filling policy vacuums is not a simple process of applying known
laws and principles to entities that can be classified under them. A
good deal of negotiation is required to get the technology and the
law or principle to fit.
 The traditionalist account is correct in suggesting that in resolving
computer ethical issues, we need to extend norms and principles
from familiar situations to new situations.
6.6
Traditionalist Account
 The account goes wrong, however, when it suggests that this
process is simple, routine, or mechanical.
 A traditionalist could take the position that norms and principles
must be modified when they are extended to new situations.
Thus, moves somewhat away from simply recommending that
we extend the old to the new.
 The traditionalist account is a good starting place for
understanding how the ethical issues surrounding computer and
IT should be resolved and how policy vacuums are and should be
filled, but it has serious limitations
 As a descriptive, it does not capture all that is involved.
 As a normative, it runs the risk of not taking advantage of the
new features of, and new opportunities created by computer
6.7
Computers Used in a Social Context
 Clearing up the conceptual muddles and filling policy vacuums
involves understanding the social context in which the
technology is embedded
 Computer and information technology is developed and used in
a social context rich with moral, cultural, and political ideas
 The technology is used in businesses, homes, education,
medicine, science, government, and so on.
 In each one of these environments, there are human purposes
and interests, institutional goals, social relationships, traditions,
social conventions, regulations … that have an influence on
how a new technology is understood and how policy vacuums
are filled.
 So you have to understand the envts. in which it is used
6.8
Moral and Legal Issues
 To say that computer ethical issues arise because there is a
vacuum of policies leaves open whether the vacuum should
be filled with laws or with something else.
 It is quite possible that some vacuums are better left to
personal choices, institutional policies, or social conventions
rather than to the imposition of law
 In a wide variety of cases, what seems to be needed is a
multiplicity of approaches (laws + internal polices)
6.9
Are Computer Ethical Issues Unique?
 The uniqueness of computer and IT is not in dispute. It is
unique although it has features in common with other
technologies
 The claim that computer and IT creates situations that never
existed before is, also, not in dispute ( Before, it was not
possible to make images of internal human organs, or to
monitor, record, and analyze employee's activity as we can
today)
 What is in dispute is whether this unique technology and the
situations it creates pose unique ethical issues.
 Are the ethical issues surrounding computer and information
technology special, unusual, or distinct in some way?
6.10
New Species of Traditional Moral Issues
 The idea is that the ethical issues surrounding computer and IT
can be understood as variations of traditional ethical problems or
issues.
 They involve familiar moral concepts such as privacy, harm,
taking responsibility for the consequences of one's action,
putting people at risk, and so on.
 At the same time, the presence of computer and IT often means
that the issue arises with a new twist-a new feature, a new
possibility
 The presence of this new feature or new possibility makes it
difficult to draw on traditional moral concepts without some
interpretation or modification
6.11
New Species of Traditional Moral Issues
 For example; in terms of uniqueness, the software ownership
issue is not unique in the sense that it is an ownership issue and
ownership is an old-familiar, standard-ethical issue
 The software ownership issue is unique, however, in the sense
that it involves ownership of something that had never been a
candidate for ownership before
 Software has features that make it difficult to mechanically
apply current norms and laws
 It has features that are distinct from other things that have been
defined as property
6.12
Are Computer Ethical Issues Unique?
 The principles of ethics are relatively constant, no matter
to what areas these principles might be applied
 Theft is theft no matter whether it is done at the point of a
gun or with a computer
 However, unique features of the computer do give rise to
new ethical problems
 Consider the following list:
Speed: an example where speed can cause problems is the "flame"
phenomena
Storage: information about people (whether accurate or inaccurate)
can take on a life of its own and invade privacy in a way never before
possible in history
6.13
Are Computer Ethical Issues Unique?
Identity: It is possible with a computer to steal a
person's identity, forge a message from a person, or
send a message anonymously
Transnationality: Computer transmissions do not stop
at national boundaries
Copying: Images and text can taken by few clicks of a
mouse and be used without attribution to the author or
out of context
Perversion:
Pornography: Sites exist which display material
without regard to the age of the viewer and which
can be disguised to avoid detection by pornography
filters
6.14
Are Computer Ethical Issues Unique?
 Gambling: Sites exist where you can gamble for real
money through use of a credit card
 Stalking: A case exists where a stalker used a computer
to monitor his ex-girlfriend by checking how often she
logged on, from what terminal she logged on, and with
whom she communicated
 Power:

Gender: Computer Science is still a male-dominated
field. Is this male domination an inequity, or just an
amoral accident?
 Race and Social Class: Clearly, the rich have more
access to computing resources than do the poor
6.15
Are Computer Ethical Issues Unique?
 Privacy:
 Selling private data: Is it unfair for someone to harvest
e-mail addresses on the Web, and then sell that
information to mass marketers who will then send
unwanted Spam to those addresses?
 Opt-in vs. opt-out for solicitation: Is it unfair to
marketers to prevent them by law from sending e-mail
only to those who have in some way requested it?
 There is a claim that the computer is something more than a tool because
of its impact on society. Do You Agree?
 do you believe that computer ethics are different from any
other kind of professional ethics?
6.16
END OF CHAPTER TWO
THANKS