Legal and Ethical Issues in ICT Learning Goal

Legal and Ethical Issues in ICT Learning Goal: I will understand of ethical issues apply to business and information communication technology

Solving Ethical Dilemmas � Scenario � You have been looking for full-time work for a year, but the best you can come up with is a series of short-term, dead-end contract jobs. A friend says it is because you are too honest. He says you should exaggerate your experience and skills on your resumé and tell a few white lies, if necessary, in job interviews. He says that everyone does it, and the chances of anyone catching you are remote. Should you take his advice?

Corporate Social Responsibility Most Canadians believe that people in business have a responsibility to act in a manner that is in the best interest of society, and the company. To do this, people in business need to make ethical decisions. ◦ This is called corporate social responsibility (CSR). ◦ Consumers, governments, and other stakeholders have spent years pressuring companies to improve their ethical performance.

Corporate Social Responsibility The following are some areas of CSR: ◦ selling products that do not harm people or the environment ◦ conducting business in a way that has a positive impact Example: finding alternative energy sources to reduce pollution ◦ treating employees in a fair manner ◦ not engaging in practices that are meant to deceive or steal from others Example: manufacturing counterfeit designer handbags and selling them to customers as though they were authentic

Corporate Social Responsibility Watch the video about false claims made by Vibrams Running Shoes http: //www. youtube. com/watch? v=d. P 9 yp. D 7 Q 7 d. Y

How Do Ethics Apply to ICT? ICT raises a number of unique ethical issues. ◦ Should your employer make sure the workplace is designed to minimize ergonomic health risks, such as carpal tunnel syndrome, for those who work on computers? ◦ Should your employer be able to stop you from sending personal memos via electronic mail to a friend at the other side of the bank, hospital, newsroom, or business office? ◦ Should your employer be allowed to monitor your computer activities at work? If so, should you be warned beforehand? If warned, does that make the practice acceptable?

How Do Ethics Apply to ICT? ◦ What if computer research found that people of your ethnic background had a higher-than-average chance of getting a specific disease? Should insurance companies be allowed to use that information to charge you more? ◦ Can all products be advertised ethically on the Internet? If not, which sorts of product advertisements are not ethical? ◦ Should individuals or companies be allowed to copy and distribute information or artistic works, such as music produced by others? If so, under what circumstances should they be allowed to do this?

Solving Ethical Dilemmas in ICT � Scenario � You are in charge of the company exhibit for a coming trade show. Management would like music played in the company booth for background atmosphere. You are known to have a personal collection of popular CDs, and your boss asks that you use these in the exhibit. You fear this constitutes unauthorized use of copyrighted music in a commercial manner, but your boss insists that everybody does it. Do you do as you are told or go over his head and tell senior management about your legal concerns?

Guidelines for Ethical Computing

How Did We Do? Learning Goal: I will understand of ethical issues apply to business and information communication technology