Question :
Share your views on ethical, legal and moral constraints on information system.
Answer:
Share your views on ethical, legal and moral constraints on information system.
Answer:
Information system
Ethics Issues
- Ethics refers to rules of right and wrong that people use to make choices to guide their behaviors.
- Ethics in MIS seek to protect and safeguard individuals and society by using information systems responsibly. Most professions usually have defined a code of ethics or code of conduct guidelines that all professionals affiliated with the profession must adhere to.
- Ethics in MIS seek to protect and safeguard individuals and society by using information systems responsibly. Most professions usually have defined a code of ethics or code of conduct guidelines that all professionals affiliated with the profession must adhere to.
- In a nutshell, a code of ethics makes individuals acting on their free will responsible and accountable for their actions. An example of a Code of Ethics for MIS professionals can be found on the British Computer Society (BCS) website.
Some of this ethics are :
1) Responsibility is a key element and means that you accept the potential costs, duties, and obligations for the decisions you make.
2) Accountability is a feature of systems and social institutions and means mechanisms are in place to determine who took responsible action, and who is responsible.
3) Liability is a feature of political systems in which a body of laws is in place that permits individuals to recover the damages done to them by other actors, systems, or organizations.
4) Due process is a related feature of law-governed societies and is a process in which laws are known and understood, and there is an ability to appeal to higher authorities to ensure that the laws are applied correctly.
Legal Issues
1. Privacy
1) Responsibility is a key element and means that you accept the potential costs, duties, and obligations for the decisions you make.
2) Accountability is a feature of systems and social institutions and means mechanisms are in place to determine who took responsible action, and who is responsible.
3) Liability is a feature of political systems in which a body of laws is in place that permits individuals to recover the damages done to them by other actors, systems, or organizations.
4) Due process is a related feature of law-governed societies and is a process in which laws are known and understood, and there is an ability to appeal to higher authorities to ensure that the laws are applied correctly.
Legal Issues
1. Privacy
Most people have their personal data spread throughout the digital world. Even things thought to be secure, such as email or private accounts, can be accessed by unintended sources. Most employers actively check their employees’ computer habits. Privacy has evolving legal implications, but there are also ethical considerations. Do people know how their accounts are monitored? To what extent is such monitoring occurring? As Computer World points out in this article, privacy concerns can easily become a slippery slope, slowly eroding an individual’s right to privacy completely.
2. Digital Ownership
Digital mediums have allowed information to flow more freely than before. This exchange of ideas comes with a legal and ethical backlash. How can ownership be established in the digital realm? Things can be easily copied and pasted online, which makes intellectual property hard to control. Legal notions such as copyright have struggled to keep up with the digital era. Companies in the music and entertainment industries have pushed for greater legal protections for intellectual properties while other activists have sought to provide greater freedoms for the exchange of ideas in the digital realm.
3. Data Gathering
On some level, everyone knows that their online lives are monitored. The United States has even passed legislation allowing the government to actively monitor private citizens in the name of national security. These measures have revived a debate about what information can be gathered and why. This debate applies on a smaller scale as well because companies need to consider what information to collect from their employees. This issue invokes a question of consent. Do people know what information is being monitored? Do they have a right to know how their data is being used?
Many organizations are collecting, swapping, and selling personal information as a commodity, and many people are looking to governments for protection of their privacy. The ability to collect information, combine facts from separate sources, and merge it all with other information has resulted in databases of information that were previously impossible to set up. One technology that was proposed in the past was intended to monitor or track private communications. Known as the Clipper Chip, it used an algorithm with a two-part key that was to be managed by two separate government agencies, and it was reportedly designed to protect individual communications while allowing the government to decrypt suspect transmissions.
Many organizations are collecting, swapping, and selling personal information as a commodity, and many people are looking to governments for protection of their privacy. The ability to collect information, combine facts from separate sources, and merge it all with other information has resulted in databases of information that were previously impossible to set up. One technology that was proposed in the past was intended to monitor or track private communications. Known as the Clipper Chip, it used an algorithm with a two-part key that was to be managed by two separate government agencies, and it was reportedly designed to protect individual communications while allowing the government to decrypt suspect transmissions.
4. Security Liability
In the past, security issues were resolved by locking a door. Digital security is much more complicated. Security systems for digital networks are computerized in order to protect vital information and important assets. However, this increased security comes with increased surveillance. All security systems have inherent risks, which means it is a question of what risks are acceptable and what freedoms can be forfeited. Ultimately, IT professionals need to balance risk with freedom to create a security system that is effective and ethical at the same time.
5. Access Costs
Net neutrality has become a trendy issue thanks to legislative efforts in the last few years. The issue of net neutrality is essentially a question of access. Proponents want the Internet to remain open to everyone while some businesses want to create tiered access for those who are willing to pay. The issue even extends to private Internet usage since the cost of service in some areas may be cost prohibitive. The larger ethical question is whether or not digital exchange is now a universal right. The cost of access can impede business growth, entrepreneurial spirit and individual expression.
These issues are essential for everyone, but they carry extra weight for those who work with information technology. It is important to remember that working with technology is not separated from ethical contexts but can actually help define a legal and ethical code for generations to come.
Moral Issues
Moral Issues
- Information rights and obligations. What information rights do individuals and organizations possess with respect to themselves? What can they protect?
- 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?
- Accountability and control. Who can and will be held accountable and liable for the harm done to individual and collective information and property rights?
- System quality. What standards of data and system quality should we demand to protect individual rights and the safety of society?
- Quality of Life. What values should be preserved in an information- and knowledge-based society?
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