Information system
fislal
is_3003_chapter_4.pptxIS 3003
Chapter 4
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Pirates and the web
The Game of Thrones drew more than 11 million subscribers as watchers in 2012, but an additional estimated 4 million watched free; WHY?
Piracy has taken off with better equipment, more players, and better ways getting at the materials; streaming has been a blessing and a curse for content providers
Cable TV subscriptions have been decreasing, DVD sales dropping, and movie attendance declining; could all of this be because of piracy?
Pirated content may cost the U.S. economy as much as $58B each year in lost jobs and taxes
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Streaming has been at the core of much of the problem; video streams can be redirected to storage for later illegal redistribution, and branched for simultaneous illegal sharing
Websites like Pirate Bay using BitTorrent file sharing technology have been among the worst offenders
Search algorithms have been skewed to hide such sites, virus-like programs, like Carnivore, have been used to identify video and audio theft, and to apply content recognition codes to certain lines within a video frame to help prevent illegal uploads
The vertical blanking interval has been used to prevent copying
Apple’s iTunes store has actually helped prevent piracy by charging a small amount for the product so as to make theft less attractive
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Ethical and social issues related to systems
The past 10 years have been challenging for global business
Numerous legal cases have been adjudicated that have resulted in many tarnished reputations among other things
Legal and ethical judgments are, more than ever, an issue for the manager
Table 4.1 presents a small sampling of cases that have impacted large companies in recent years
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What are ethics
Ethics – the principles of right and wrong that individuals, acting as free moral persons, use to make choices; like other technologies, IT can be used to achieve social progress
Ethical issues, in so far as IT is concerned, have been given new urgency by the rise of the Internet, and electronic commerce;
For example, in a simple ecommerce transaction, occurs the safeguarding of customer information, the integrity of the actual transaction, and carrying out the commitments by the seller
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The Ethical Model from an I.T. point-of-view
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Moral dimensions
The five moral dimensions of the information age are:
(1) information rights and obligations – what rights do individuals have?
(2) property rights – how will IP be protected?
(3) accountability and control – who will be accountable for harm done to individual and collective information rights?
(4) system quality – what standards are to be put in place to protect individual rights
(5) quality of life – what values should be preserved? What institutions should be protected? What cultural values are to be supported?
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Technology trends that prompt ethical issues
Computer power – dependence on computers creates critical operational issues
Decline in data storage costs – everything about everybody can be collected and used against them
Data analysis advances – advanced algorithms can be used to establish linkages, and inferences to objects not possible in years gone by
Networking advances – transport of information, access of same at most any location with connections
Mobile device growth – individual cell phones may be easily tracked
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spying
Profiling – use of computers to fuse data from many sources and create electronic dossiers on individuals
Seemingly simple algorithms, such as Double-Click, are used for collecting data on target individuals for the purpose of directed advertising; unfortunately, these same “viruses’ may be used to collect other things about their targets
Other, similar malware, is used to collect legal records about people, under such names as ChoicePoint; this software accumulates records of individuals that can later be used
A capability called NORA (nonobvious relationship awareness) creates powerful profiling
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Carnivore and Prism
Carnivore was an early FBI program that could “surf” the Internet in search of terrorists; this program was deleted for jurisdictional reasons (it was not in the FBI charter to chase bad guys with software)
Later Prism was created by NSA to do the same with added features, but this program was exposed by Snowden; it is still in operation, but even fewer people know so
There is currently a convergence of commercialism and spying that has created a partnership of high tech and secret government activities for mutual benefit
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Ethics in an information society
Basic concepts
Responsibility means that one accepts the costs, duties, and obligations of decisions made
Accountability means assigning responsibility to one taking, or not taking, an action
Liability means that responsibility has consequences; individuals in a society sometimes lay claims against one who has a responsibility to do, or not do something
Due process is a feature of liability such that one has the right a assure that rules are applied equally and justly where liability is concerned
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Ethical analysis
How should one analyze an ethical situation?
Identify and describe the facts clearly – who, what, when, where, and how
Define the conflict or dilemma – the higher ordered values claimed by the opposing parties always have two or more points-of-view
Identify the stakeholders – identify those who have an interest in the outcome of the “game”
Identify the options – none of the possible outcomes will probably satisfy either party entirely; compromise is always the name of the game
Identify the potential consequences – ask, if one were to always choose a single option consistently, “what would be the effect over time?”
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