Chapter 4 - Ethical and Social Issues in Information Systems

Chapter 4 started by identifying five moral dimensions of the Information Age.

The 5 Moral Dimensions of the Information Age:

1.  Information rights and obligations - what information rights do individuals and organizations possess with respect to themselves?  What can they protect?

2.  Property rights and obligations - how will traditional intellectual property rights be protected in a digital society in which tracing and accounting for ownership are difficult and ignoring such property rights is so easy?

3.  Accountability and control - Who can and will be held accountable and liable for the harm done to individual and collective information and property rights?

4.  System quality - What standards of data and system quality should we demand to protect individual rights and the safety of society?

5.  Quality of life - What values should be preserved in an information and knowledge based society?

There are some key technology trends that raise ethical issues.  Computing power doubles every 18 months, this has made it possible for companies to use IS for their core production processes.  Now most corporations are dependent on systems; which makes us even more vulnerable to system errors and poor data quality.  Data storage costs are quickly declining so organizations can easily maintain detailed databases on individuals.  That opens more opportunities for profiling, which is when different computers are used to compile different pieces of information on individuals and create electronic dossiers to store the information.  Within the trend of profiling non-obvious relationship awareness (NORA) technology has given the public even more ways to profile individuals.  When data flows over the Internet it can be viewed and monitored at any point.  Not all websites have strong enough privacy protection policies and cookies also make it easy for private information to become public information.  Traditional copyright laws are outdated and insufficient for protecting against software piracy.

Chapter 4 teaches us that there must be ethical choices within IS.  Ethical choices are decisions made by individuals who are responsible for the consequences of their actions.  Responsibility is a main element of ethical action - it means that you accept the potential costs, duties and obligations for the decisions you make.  Accountability is a feature of systems and social institutions.  It means that mechanisms are in place to determine who took responsible action and who is responsible.  Liability extends the concept of responsibility further to the area of laws.    These three fairly basic concepts help form the basis of ethical analysis of IS and those who manage them.

There are six ethical principles for judging conduct and they include the Golden Rule, Immanuel Kant's Categorical Imperative, Descartes' rules of change, the Utilitarian Principle, the Risk Aversion Principle and the ethical "no free lunch rule".  In addition to ethical analysis these principles should be used to guide behavior when managing IS.

Information systems have had an impact on our everyday life.  Advancing technology and computer systems have made some invaluable, positive changes to our lives but they've also made some negative changes.  Computer errors can cause harm to a person's professional and personal life and poor data quality can have a negative impact on the professional environment.  Positions can be eliminated when employees are replaced by computers or tasks become unnecessary due to advancements made to technology.  Widespread usage of computers also increases the likelihood of computer crimes and computer abuse.