Ethical and Professional Issues in Information Technology - Assignment Example

Running Head: LEARNING JOURNAL, ETHICAL AND PROFESSIONAL ISSUES IN I.T. Learning Journal, Ethical and Professional Issues in I.T. (Your Name) (Your School) Module 4: Privacy and Surveillance The Australia card proposal is being forwarded by the government headed by Howard and the proposal was introduced in 2006. The government refers to this card as the Access Card for social and health services. This is a surveillance scheme which is being introduced to the public in Australia. The government had tried introducing a similar card in 1987, but it was rejected by the public since it was considered to be too draconian (ABC News on line, 2005). The present Access Card will have a photograph of the holder on the front and on the back. In additional to the data on the card face, sensitive and extensive data will be included in the card. This will be inclusive of an individual’s address which will be constantly updated. The birth date, details of dependants and children and the name that is legally recognized for an alias appearance on the face of the card will be included. The concession status which is permanent will not be included on the face of the card, but will be put in a chip. This makes this card to be different from the previous card which was introduced in Australia since all the information was on the face unlike this access card where all the information which is compulsory will be stored in a chip. This personal information which is very sensitive will be in a locked zone where the data will be encrypted (ABC News on line, 2005). This Access Card will have a personal identification which is very unique in all the adults in Australia. There will be a digitalized signature at the back of the card and this is meant to provide greater security and utility to the card holder and also make it easier for cross checking of signatures. Some optional information will be present in the card such as medical information which can be used in times of emergency. The accessing of the data on the Access card will be controlled by both PIN and encryption. This optional information will be protected through the use of the PIN. The segmentation of the data in the chip will be in two zones with the public zone needing no PIN for access, while the closed zone will require a PIN (ABC News on line, 2005). I think this proposal by the government is great since the card can be used for surveillance and the privacy is well guaranteed. Having the personal information stored on a chip instead of card surface guarantees that dissemination of information is limited, although no PIN is required for the public zone in the chip. The encryption of the closed information guarantees that only relevant and authorized people can access information which is considered to be sensitive. The public is likely to take up this IT innovation better than it did in 1987 due to the availability and easy access to the internet. This is likely to make their work easier since they can easily access government social services. The other factor that may duly influence the public reaction is the improved security on the card that will ensure that access of this public information will be limited. The other factor that will influence the public is the threat of terrorism and people now appreciate that there is need for surveillance of information on people. Module 5: IT in the Workplace: Employer/Employee Rights It is a fact that Productivity has been doubled by automation since World War Two, but the week hasn’t gotten shorter because through automation the workforce has been greatly reduced by the employers since the systems have leaner productions. This type of system has replaced the mass techniques of production that were earlier used prior to automation. The production role of workers has been broadened by automation which is normally referred to as multi-skilling as the workers involved take greater responsibility in doing different tasks. Although the speed of production has doubled, the exhaustion and alienation of workers is on the increase. Sometimes many companies have refrained from employing unionized workers making them more vulnerable to exploitation. This reduced work force that is always under the mandate to ensure optimal production, has made it difficult for the work week to be shortened. Digital divide refers to the gap that exists between those people who are beneficiaries of the digital technology and those people who do not use this technology. This should not limit the scope of this term to just the access, but how much is gained from accessing the digital technology. The global divide has been caused by the digital divide since those countries that have used the digital technologies are ahead of those other countries that have not adopted the use of digital technology. This difference is as a result of provision and access of government services which is made easy by digital technology. A big gap has thus been created between poor countries which don’t use digital technology and developed countries which have adopted its use. The social inequalities that have been present since time immemorial will be intensified by the digital knowledge since those who have no access to it will be further alienated from the social circle and this is what is referred to as social divide. Globalization refers to the fact that people have been brought together by the digital technology since people from all over the world can communicate via it in the shortest time possible. Telework refers to the adjustments that have been brought about in workplaces since one can work from anywhere and not within the restrictions of an office due to the presence of digital technology. The kind of mistakes that may cause the production of a fault input is the incorrect input of data which may lead to production of mediocre results. Sometimes the data input might be correct but the analysis method used may be wrong and this will still give incorrect results. When software users identify and report bugs they can help the soft ware company to improve their software programs as bugs makes programs to freeze and crash. The users can affect the sales of the software since they are likely to report that the bugs have made the software less effective. Automation eliminates jobs since the time of production is minimized and people can specialize in many fields. The machines also replace a lot of labor force. Conversely, more jobs are created by increased production thus automation creates more jobs in this way. Module 6: Intellectual Property and its Protection Discuss the challenges that digital technologies pose for national and international regulation of intellectual property rights. Discuss the various means of protection currently available, including their respective benefits and limitations. Intellectual property can be referred to as property that is intangibly created by corporations or individuals. Such property has a right to be protected from being interfered with by other people. The internet has made it possible for people to easily, cheaply and copy music from the web where it is stored and shared in music files. The same internet ha made it easy to copy and transfer TV and movie programs which interferes with the property rights which makes it illegal to copy someone’s work without the possibility of an agreement based on mutual benefit. There are some other businesses created from digital technologies that have allowed broadcast material which is intellectual to be copied. An example of such a business is Scour. Novels, other materials that are printed and textbooks are easily and cheaply copied by counterfeiters who never pay the authors and publishers a single cent towards intellectual property. Encryption has been used for electronic books but this protection scheme has not made them fool proof since people have been able to crack the scheme. The improvement of global technologies has made it possible to copy software which is used for both noncommercial and commercial purposes. The businesses and individuals continue raking millions through the sale of this copied software, supporting material and manuals. The methods that are used for protection of this intellectual information are: Copyright is provided through statutory grants which give the creators ownership for a time that is limited but which is really long of the intellectual property. Whenever material is marked as copyrighted on the internet people are not supposed to use it for any profit making as this profit is supposed to be shared between the owner and the user. This never happens as users of the internet rarely share the profit with the owner even after using copyrighted material thus this method of intellectual property protection is not very effective. Patents normally give exclusive rights to the owner of coming up with an invention for several number of years. This is supposed to mostly protect software and the software companies have used patents to protect their software but the internet has made it possible for people to copy these programs and sell them making high profits. Pirating of software ahs limited patents in protecting the owners having their materials violated and sold off. Trade marks are used by the law to protect materials belonging to individuals and companies. People are not supposed to copy this material without legal consent from the owners or companies and violating of this law could lead to a jail term or suing. The internet has made it possible for people to copy material which has a trademark of an individual without any consent and hardly has any legal action been taken against such people. Module 7: Censorship and the Internet The globe is surrounded by many laws which make it possible to identify the area of jurisdiction. The internet has come to interfere with such laws since it is not restricted in a specific place but unites the whole world. The internet banking which has gained a lot of momentum can be carried out by individuals within different jurisdictions. Although this method of banking is used by millions of customers, the cost of these transactions is less than the one that could be charged if this was conducted over the counter. This denies the bank the huge profits it could be making out of such deals which contravenes the banking Act. For internet banking to take place a lot of personal information is collected and stored on the internet and there is limited unauthorized access to such information. However, this material can be easily accessed by hackers from the internet and this will contravene the privacy and confidentiality Act that the bank is supposed to observe when it comes into dealing with their customers. Storing the information electronically on the net makes it more susceptible to being accessed than when it is in the bank systems which are easier to monitor and limit access. The question of offending someone on the internet is very common since one can easily use offensive speech on someone, which can be done through spamming and flaming. Spamming can be described as distributing messages that are unsolicited indiscriminately without taking into consideration if such messages are appropriate. Flaming is whereby angry messages are sent back in response to the spamming messages sent earlier on. A good example is if someone wrote something like; Africa is still a dark continent because its people have lower brain capacity, which is a spamming message. Another person will respond by saying; if Africa is a dark continent then why did the whites want to colonize it? and Africans are not stupid since they have made several contributions to the world. The whites are more stupid and careless since they started the current global crisis which has affected everyone, which is a flaming message. The credibility of the information from the internet is determined by the website from which it obtained from. Websites by governments and organizations are likely to have more reliable material than those that are created by individuals. Individuals mostly use the internet to try and sell their ideas and command a huge number of followers. This makes them susceptible to twisting information to suit their own selfish needs and unduly influence the public. A group of individuals, for example feminists will support anything they think violates women even if it is biased. Information from journals and scholarly articles provided better intellectual information since they involve a lot of research that has been carried out by professionals. This information is superior from the one from blogs where people are allowed to make their own personal contribution on a matter. The source of information should make a significant difference in deciding about the credibility of the information. Module 8: Computer Crime Previously the term hacker had a very positive meaning where the person was adored as a computer whiz. Nowadays this term has a very negative meaning and hackers are also known as crackers. This term refers to accessing of information or technology system of communications by unauthorized persons. Hacking has been associated with other forms of crimes such as theft of information, fraud, altering of information and pirating software. Hackers have advanced their techniques and they have easily accessed information from government departments, financial institutions, banks and universities. Some victims of such hackers include; NASA, defense departments of USA and UK. Hackers normally interrupt media broadcasts, break into phones to access free calls and break into computer systems that are secured. Successful break in to a computer system without changing anything is harmful and it is essential to check out such a break in. Most of the information about any business is stored in an electronic format and thus it is good to be wary incase of any break in, since people can view the information on the systems and use it against their rivals. Such people who break into the system put the security and privacy of the information at risk. This kind of break in increases the vulnerability of systems to computer crimes and unreliability. Successful break-ins are a proof that there are a lot of lapses in the security and the company can use this to tighten their security and avert any future risks. Module 9: The IT Professional Professional ethics cannot be considered as laws since these ethics are developed by organizations to guide their own practice, thus they differ from one place to another. The codes of conducts are extensive since they cover areas such as confidentiality respect, fairness, honesty, maintenance of professional competence, understanding relevant laws and protection of individual’s privacy. These conducts are meant to guide workers in their daily schedules and minimize conflicts at places of work. It would be very inappropriate to consider that professional ethics as a checklist for exhaustive ethics because every company has different professional ethics that guide it in its every day running. Most companies compile their code of ethics around the kind of business that they do. The codes of ethics that are used in hospitals are different from the ones that are used in the banking industries. This is why it would be inappropriate for any company to take its code of ethics to be the checklist for ethics to be used by other companies. References: ABC News on line (2005). Identity plan no Australia card: Ruddock. Retrieved on June 10, 2009 from http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200501/s1286213.htm Read More