Social and Ethical Issues Technology Technology is not

Social and Ethical Issues

Technology · Technology is not an immutable force – people make decisions about what technologies and products to develop and how to use them. · People make decisions about access to and use of personal information. · People make laws and set rules and standards.

Should IT professionals be making computing policy / defining ethics? • Decisions are being made that profoundly affect other people, who often don’t understand the issues. • Professional values/priorities and societal values/priorities are not always aligned. • Examples: – Who decides features to include? Chooses “target audience”? – Should software try to keep us “hooked”? – Who owns our personal information, professional information and societal information?

Ethics in Computer Science · Questions to ponder · How does the field of computer science change the landscape of ethics? · What sort of ethical issues are raised by advances in computer science? · What are the guidelines that computer scientists should follow? · What issues do you see?

Ethical Guidelines for Computing Understand what success means. Include users in the design and testing stages to provide for safe and useful systems. Do a thorough, careful job when planning and scheduling a project and when writing bids or contracts. Design for real users. Don’t assume that existing software is safe. Be open and honest about capabilities, safety and limitations of software. Require a convincing case for safety.

Computer Ethics · Computer ethics could include issues such as · · · · unequal access, algorithmically-driven inequities, environmental impact, impact on employment, impact on individual’s health, safety, and well-being, privacy (e. g. , personal data, home conversations), system security, intellectual property rights, and use of computers by the police, military, other groups. · These are social and political issues, not just technical issues.

Example: Privacy of information • • Identity Theft Corporate Databases Government commandeering corporate databases or information • Public Cameras

Example: Intellectual Property • Fair use is a copyright principle based on the belief that the public is entitled to freely use portions of copyrighted materials for purposes of commentary and criticism. • Absent this freedom, copyright owners could stifle any negative comments about their work. http: //fairuse. stanford. edu/Copyright_and_Fair_Use_Overview/chapter 9/

Example: Issues with fair use • With the computer it is now easier to copy large amounts of data. • With the internet it is now easier to access large amounts of data. • Many people feel that users have overstepped fair use and there is no way to prosecute everyone.