ACM Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct It

ACM Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct • It has four sections … – – Section 1: Fundamental ethical considerations Section 2: Specific ethical considerations Section 3: For people in leadership roles Section 4: Principles involving compliance with the code • Lets look at the fundamental in section 1 1

ACM Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct • Contribute to society and human well being (1. 1) – Obligation to protect fundamental human rights and to respect the diversity of all cultures. – Minimize negative consequences of computing systems – Must attempt to ensure that the products of their efforts will be used in socially responsible ways – avoid harmful effects to health and welfare. – avoid potential damage to the local or global environment. • Avoid harm to others (1. 2). – Harm means injury or negative consequences – Example: loss of information, property/environmental damage, etc. Strive to include features which discourage abuse in the investment world. – Design systems so that time & effort is not wasted on overhead items such as the time it takes to purge viruses. – Sometimes well intended actions may lead to harmful results. 2

ACM Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct • Be honest and trustworthy (1. 3) – Why should this directive have to be encoded by the ACM – should it not be obvious - maybe not! Maybe I should have started with the 10 Commandments! … Thou shalt not bear false witness! – Do not make deceptive or false claims about the system – Full discloser limitation and problems with the system! … no sins of omission! – Sometimes following this one could get you not promoted or even fired … but you must be able to live with yourself. • Be fair and take action not to discriminate (1. 4). – No discrimination based on race, sex, religion, disability, etc. – Although this seems obvious, violations may be inadvertent, and there may be tradeoffs with cost and performance aspects of the system … what if special but costly features are needed for disabilities. 3

ACM Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct • Honor property rights including copyrights and patent (1. 5). – – – Thou shalt not steal! Do you download illegal mp 3’s! … bye-bye Ka. Za. A No bootleg software Violating this rule could result in in lawsuits against your employer Also protect intellectual property and “secrets” owned by ytour company even if you came up with them and they are not patented or copyrighted as yet – your ideas could end up in a competitor’s system – Violations were considered grounds for firing at IBM. • Give proper credit for intellectual property (1. 6). – No taking credit for other people’s work – why must this be said! Is it not obvious? … thou shalt not covet! – This must be followed even for intellectual property that is not protected by copyrights or patents. 4

ACM Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct • Respect the privacy of others (1. 7). – Because of the awesome power computers have in gathering, storing, and processing data – including personal data, this principle has immense social consequences. – Professionals must ensure: • integrity and accuracy of personal data • take precautions to prevent unauthorized access – even accidental disclosures • allow individuals whose information is stored to access and check records or correctness. – Personal example: I was once issued a credit card from a local bank with another persons account number encoded on the magnetic strip. A technical slip up, but it made me nervous! 5

ACM Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct • Honor confidentiality (1. 8). – A client may reveal confidential information to you that you may ned in designing some aspect of a system – A bit of “lawyer/client”, “doctor/patient”, or “confessor/penitent” constraints are needed here. – The only exceptions may be when something like a court order is issued. 6

ACM Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct section 2 – more specifics • (2. 1) Strive to achieve the highest quality, effectiveness and dignity in both the process and products of professional work. • (2. 2) Acquire and maintain professional competence. • (2. 3) Know and respect existing laws pertaining to professional work. • (2. 4) Accept and provide appropriate professional review • (2. 5) Give comprehensive and thorough evaluations of computer systems and their impacts, including assessment of possible risks. • (2. 6) Honor contracts, agreements, and assigned responsibilities. • (2. 7) Improve public understanding of computing and its consequences. • (2. 8) Access computing and communication resources only when authorized to do so. 7