INFORMATION SYSTEM.

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Week 7

Ethics and Privac y

Fundamentals of Business Information Systems

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Why are we doing this?

By completing the activities in this week, you should be able to:

1. Describe the four categories of ethical issues related to information technology.

2. Discuss potential threats to the privacy of personal data stored in different locations and how they may violate the common good.

3. Have practical skills to work with database

Essential Question

What are the major areas of ethical and privacy concerns due to the use of information technology?

1. In our career, we often encounter numerous ethical and privacy issues.

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2. Many of which will involve IT in some manner.

3. The objective of this chapter is to gain an understanding of and how to respond to these issues.

4. It will help us to make contributions to our company’s code of ethics and its privacy policies.

5. You will also be able to provide meaningful input concerning the potential

ethical and privacy impacts of your organisation’s information systems on people inside and outside the organisation.

Ethical issues

Ethics: principles of right and wrong that individuals use to make choices that guide their behavior

Deciding what is right or wrong is not always easy or clear-cut.

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Fortunately, many frameworks are available to help us make ethical decisions.

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General Framework for ethical decision making

Evaluate

alternative

actions

under all 4

ethical

standards

(next page)

Which

option best

addresses

the

situation?

Does this

decision

damage

someone?

Does this

decision

involve a

choice

between

good/bad

alternative?

Does it go

beyond what

is legal?

Identify

stakeholders

and consult

relevant

persons /

groups What

are the

relevant

facts of the

situation?

Do I know

enough to

make a

decision?

Implement the

decision with

greatest care -

Evaluate the

outcome,

reflect on

lessons learnt

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Ethical standards

Utilitarian approach • States that an ethical action is the one that provides the most good or does the least

harm. This approach would be the one that produces the greatest good and does the least harm for all affected parties – customers, employees, stakeholders, the community and the environment.

Rights approach • Maintains that an ethical action is the one that best protects and respects the moral

rights of the affected parties. Moral rights can include the rights to make one’s choices about what kind of life to lead, to be told the truth, not to be injured and to a degree of privacy. These are actually the moral rights that people are entitled to.

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Ethical standards

Fairness approach • States that ethical actions treats all humans equally, or if unequally, then fairly, based

on some defensible standard. For example, the difference between the salaries of employees and that of an CEO in a company. Is it fair? Is it based on a defensible standard? Is it a result of imbalance of power hence unfair?

Common good approach • Highlights an ethical action that best serves the community as a whole. It is important

to the welfare of everyone, not just some members.

• It emphasises the common conditions that are important to the welfare of everyone. These conditions can include a system of laws, effective police, fire department, healthcare, public education and even public recreational areas.

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Ethics and information technology

Privacy issues • Involve collecting, storing, and disseminating information about individuals

• Example: Google Street View

Accuracy issues • Involve the authenticity, fidelity (degree of correctness), and accuracy of information

that is collected and processed

Property issues • Involve the ownership and value of information

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Accessibility issues • Revolve around who should have access to information and whether they should have

to pay for that access

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Ethics and Information

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Technology

Privacy

Privacy • The right to be left alone and to be free of unreasonable personal intrusions.

Privacy Law • The protection of an individual’s personal information that could identify the

individual.

• The Privacy Act 1988

• Regulates the use of personal information

• Includes 10 NPPs (National Privacy Principles) and 11 IPPs (Information Privacy Principles)

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• Freedom of information

• The public’s right to access government information

Threats to privacy

Electronic surveillance • The tracking of people’s activities, online or offline, with the aid of computers

• The Surveillance Devices Bill 2004 regulates the use of surveillance data by law enforcement agencies.

Personal information in databases • Banks, utility companies, government, and credit reporting agencies

Information on Internet bulletin boards,

newsgroups, and social networking sites

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Privacy codes and policies

They are an organisation’s guidelines with respect to protecting the privacy of customers, clients, and employees.

Informed consent models: • Opt-out model

• Organisations are permitted to collect personal information until the customer specifically requests that the data not be collected

• Opt-in model (Preferred by privacy advocates)

• Organisations are prohibited from collecting any personal information unless the customer specifically authorises it

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Chapter Summary

This chapter focused on • The ethical issues related to information technology

• The potential threats to the privacy of personal data stored in different locations