Computer Ethics for IT Professionals - Term Paper Example

Why Ethics are Important to the IT Professional Introduction The advent of technology has leaped mankind to a new level in almost every field oflife, ranging from education to business, tourism to medicine. IT departments and computer professionals have grown to become one of the important assets of any organization since they have the power to drive the organization towards the attainment of an effective and structured infrastructure. IT professionals are known to be involved in different activities like development, analysis, design, implementation and maintenance pertaining to computer applications and hardware, as well as data mining and data warehousing techniques. The computer applications that are developed by IT professionals have an impact on their environment and society; some effects may not be as positive as the others. Therefore, it is important for the IT professionals to understand the magnitude of the probable effects of their creations so that they can aim to produce applications that benefit the society, rather than cause harm. Thomson and Schmoldt (2001) defined professional ethics as the concepts of doing good or bad, right or wrong; it involves the decision making aspects of any professional conduct. Computer ethics have gained much importance over the last two decades since many articles, journals and conferences discuss its relevance in the prevailing times. It has been attempted to be explained by many researchers, however, Bynum and Rogerson (1996) defined it comprehensively as the field of analysis that identifies the effects of information technology on the health, wealth, intellect, freedom, privacy, security and work of individuals in the society. Therefore it can be stated that computer ethics involve the effects on humans as well as on the society. Crnkovic (n.d) pointed out that an IT professional possesses the power to ‘create’; this power has to be exercised with greater responsibility since it influences people and their lives. The IT professionals should have strong ethical mindsets to overcome the unjust temptations and continue to use their tools and platforms for the betterment of mankind. 2. Literature Review An IT professional maintains relationships with several figures including, employer, clients and society. Some conflicts of interest might rise among these entities; it is the responsibility of the IT professional to tackle the conflicts with ethical considerations. Keil (2008) categorized the ethical concerns of IT professionals as following: data protection, privacy and security, intellectual property and honesty. Moor (1998) stressed on the relevance of computer ethics by defining it as a ‘special field of ethical research’. He classified the area of computer ethics into two broad divisions; firstly, the social effects of the computer technology on humans and society, and secondly, the policies and standards that are formulated for the implication of computer ethics in different fields. He argued that there exists a ‘policy vacuum’ in the area of computer ethics. Moor (1985) also agreed with the minimal focus on formulation of policies of computer ethics on an international level. Few efforts that have been made in this respect have resulted in the development of ‘ACM Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct’ (Association for Computing Machinery, 2011). The guideline compels the IT professionals to develop software that protect the users from health and safety threats. It discourages all actions that are aimed to intentionally destroy data or files that might be present in any individual’s system i.e. development of viruses. Computer ethics are also important so that due credit for the development of any software is given to the deserving side. ACM Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct also promotes this notion and strictly prohibits any unauthorized replications or usage of programs or tools (Association for Computing Machinery, 2011). Weckert (1997) defined intellectual property rights as the rights over intangible things like ideas, concepts, knowledge etc; intellectual property rights also inquire about the sense in which the property is owned and to what extent. The main question of intellectual property arises when a company develops a system for their clients; the idea of the system is given by the respective company and the man hours have been spent by the computer professionals. This raises the question about the owner of the intellectual property rights of the system with reference to the two concerned parties. Weckert (1997) stated that it would be unethical for the computer professionals to assume intellectual property rights over the respective system since it is a result of the client’s vision and concept. The modern technological times have witnessed a great influx of data that might constitute personal information of individuals. Mason (1986) described the unauthorized usage of such data as an invasion of privacy. Keil (2008) agreed with this aspect and gave a practical example to explain such frequent occurrences of invasion of privacy. He stated that one entity may be responsible for collecting the names and the employment numbers while another entity may collect the employment numbers along with the health insurance claims. The data fusion of such data assets will result in the disclosure of sensitive information. The set of individuals may even be unaware of such activities. Therefore, it is important for the IT professional to behave ethically in such activities of data fusions that might be witnessed in the development of database applications or data warehousing techniques. Keil (2008) also pointed out the need to ethically manage the transfer of information from one source to the other. He stated that the identification of the unreliable intermediate sources is also an ethical responsibility of the IT professionals of any organization since otherwise; they would be threatening the privacy of their customers. Forester and Morrison (1994) stated that information is the key to success of any business. Organizations have realized this aspect more than ever and adapt various approaches to gain customer data, whether through ethical or unethical means. Bella (1992) explained that IT ethics have become increasingly relevant for the ceasing of usage of customer’s data by organizations for the informed decision making and prediction of the consumer behaviour. The advent of technology has also made revolutionary changes in the field of advertising. The IT professionals in the advertising departments are designated with the tasks of sending massive promotional emails regarding their company’s products and services. Aragon (1997) defined it as the ‘push technology’, in which the recipient receives unwanted messages and emails. The ethical issue that revolves around this technology is the undesired receiving of the advertisement messages without the permission of the recipient, as well as the consumption of bandwidth on the internet. Moor (1985) stressed on the need for IT professionals to comply with the ethical code of conduct since many effects and impacts are not even noticed by individuals (who are being affected). He termed these impacts as ‘invisible abuses’. The invisibility factor is due to the power vested in the hands of IT professionals like programmers, data analysts etc. He defined ‘invisible abuse’ as the usage of invisible functions (of the computer) to utilize the technology for unethical means. Moore (1985) highlighted another important aspect of computer ethics that is expected from IT professionals i.e. they should comply with computer ethical code of conduct by developing accurate programs according to the requirements of the clients and their respective company. The result, of the research in the field of computer ethics, has been that various vital aspects have been noticed by professionals and researchers to improve the security, safety of user’s data and systems. Moor (1998) highlighted such an ethical code of conduct that is rarely given importance and seldom practiced. He explained that appropriate measures should be taken by the concerned authorities to destroy sensitive information of any client so that it does not fall into the hands of any malicious user. 3. Arguments Computer ethics is an important aspect of the field of computers since the lack of such processes will result in different ‘invisible abuses’ in the society; for example; a programmer has the power to develop a program that can silently extract useful information about an individual’s bank details and passwords. The constant stress on the compliance of computer ethical conduct can cause a significant decrement in such actions. The client is not aware of internal programming of any software that can assure them of the accuracy of the software therefore it is an ethical responsibility of the IT professional to develop the software as accurate as possible. The integration of technology is apparent in every field of life. The non-compliance with customers’ requirements and formulas might result in severe consequences or inconsistent business direction with respect to the vision of the company. Such accuracy is increasingly important if the software involves decision making for sensitive aspects, for instance, military forces might rely on their nuclear systems and their respective calculations for accurate functioning or bankers might rely on the calculation of interest payments for customers in a bank. The importance of the ethical code of conduct should be communicated to IT professionals to make them cautious about their actions and tasks. Platforms, tools and software applications are vital for every IT professional. They depend on these technologies for their operations and functions. The preaching of computer ethics is very important for these professionals so that they do not use the tools without authorization rights and licenses. Software piracy is a very common issue that has widely spread around the world. The commonality of this unethical conduct has increased to such a great extent that it is rarely considered by its users. The ownership rights of any tool belong to the company who develops it and therefore its distribution rights are also reserved with those parties. The usage rights are present with the individuals who buy the tool or software (for a certain frequency of installations). Certain laws and legal actions have even been formulated to reduce such unethical conducts. The deletion and destruction of data also requires ethical conduct from the IT professionals since its possession by malicious intent users can pose serious threats to the safety of the individuals. For example, companies do not maintain old customer data; some companies delete 10 years old data and only keep the last decade data for their analytical purposes. Computer ethics compels the IT professionals to delete the data in an effective and reliable manner to protect the privacy of the customers and their own business processes. Spam emails have become so common that they are not even considered unethical in nature. However, in reality, it is against the ethical code of conduct to send unwanted emails to individuals. This action might occupy inbox space without the permission of the recipient. Computer ethics also discourage the concept of spam emails since the email addresses of recipients are usually attained by unlawful means i.e. either by hacking some data center system or by intrusion activities. The declaration of such actions as unethical, makes individuals worry about the consequences of being caught and thus refrains them from doing it. 4. Conclusion Computers have deeply integrated in the prevailing societies. The consequences of such incorporation are the unethical activities that surround computer systems, data, software and the World Wide Web. The non-existence of the domain of computer ethics would have caused disastrous cases in the application and distribution of software, privacy and security of customer’s data etc. Due to the inception of computer ethics, the designing and development of applications is also executed with excellence and compliance with the ethical code of conduct. The importance of computer ethics should be well communicated among all the IT professionals to make them realize the magnitude of their responsibility. The actions that may seem futile in their own eyes may create great ethical issues. IT professionals should ensure that their efforts and creations do not harm mankind in any manner and increase the dignity of mankind. More research and study needs to be conducted in this domain to formulate effective standards for the code of conduct of IT professionals. This will create greater awareness about the aspects of computer ethics and more efforts will be witnessed for its compliance. The compliance with the ethical standards will result in safer, reliable and effective computer environments. Association for Computing Machinery (2011) stated that the level of success of any computing platform in the future will be dependent on the technical expertise as well as its ethical compliance. References Association for Computing Machinery 2011, ACM Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct, viewed 23 February 2011, http://www.acm.org/about/code-of-ethics Aragon, L 1997, ‘When push comes to shove’, PC Week, 10 February, viewed 23 February 2011, Bella, DA 1992, ‘Ethics and the credibility of applied science’. Bynum TW., Rogerson, S 1996. ‘Introduction and Overview: Global Information Ethics.’ Science and Engineering Ethics, 2/2: 131–6. Crnkovic, GD n.d., On the Importance of Teaching Professional Ethics to Computer Science Students, Mälardalen University Forester, T., Morrison, P 1994, Computer Ethics, MIT Press, Cambridge. Keil, D 2008, Ethics of IT professionals, Information Technology and Society. Mason, RO 1986, ‘Four ethical issues of the information age’. MIS Quarterly. vol. 10 (1), pp. 5– 12. Moor, JH 1998, ‘Reason, Relativity, and Responsibility in Computer Ethics.’, Computers and Society, Vol. 28, No. 1, 1998, pp. 14-21. Moor, JH 1985, ‘What Is Computer Ethics?’ Metaphilosophy, vol. 16(4): pp. 266-75. Thomson, AJ., Schmoldt, DL 2001, ‘Ethics in computer software design and Development’, Computers and Electronics in Agriculture, vol. 30, pp 85–102. Weckert, J 1997, FOCUS: Intellectual Property Rights and Computer Software, Business Ethics: A European Review, vol. 6, Number 2. Read More