CLW20103/DLW20103 - INFORMATION SYSTEM Chapter 1: Introduction

ETHICS AND LAW

Chapter 1
INTRODUCTION

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ETHICS AND LAW

• ETHICS
• COMPUTERS AND INFORMATION
• FRAMEWORKS FOR ETHICAL
ANALYSIS

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ETHICS
• Ethics is a study of the principles of right and wrong that ought to
guide human conduct
• Ethical Issues - is governed by the general norms of behaviour and
by specific codes of ethics. Ethical considerations go beyond legal
liability.
• Today most organizations have written codes of ethics for its
members to abide by.

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ETHICS
• The Computer Ethics Institute has developed it’s own Ten
Commandments of Computer Ethics which it believes computer
users should abide by:

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ETHICS
• 1. Thou shalt not use a computer to harm other people.
• 2. Thou shalt not interfere with other people's computer work.
• 3. Thou shalt not snoop around in other people's computer files.
• 4. Thou shalt not use a computer to steal.
• 5. Thou shalt not use a computer to bear false witness.
• 6. Thou shalt not copy or use proprietary software for which you have not
• paid.
• 7. Thou shalt not use other people's computer resources without
• authorization or proper compensation.
• 8. Thou shalt not appropriate other people's intellectual output.
• 9. Thou shalt think about the social consequences of the program you are
• writing or the system you are designing.
• 10.Thou shalt always use a computer in ways that insure consideration and
• respect for your fellow humans

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ETHICS
• Knowledge of ethics as it applies to the issues arising from the
development and use of information systems helps us make
decisions in our professional life. Professional knowledge is
generally assumed to confer a special responsibility within its
domain. This is why the professions have evolved codes of
ethics, that is, sets of principles intended to guide the conduct
of the members of the profession.

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ETHICS
• The principal codes of ethics for information systems professionals
are the:
• ACM Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct
• The Code of Ethics and Standards of Conduct adopted by DPMA
• These codes of ethics provide guidelines for ethical conduct in the
development and use of information technology. End users and IS
professionals would live up to their ethical responsibilities by
voluntarily following such guidelines.

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Ethical Issue in the Development and Use

of Information Systems
• The welfare of individuals and their specific rights, need to be
safeguarded in the environment of an information society. The
principal ethical issues of concern with regard to information
systems have been identified as the issues of:
• Privacy
• Accuracy
• Property
• Access

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PRIVACY
• Privacy is the right of individuals to retain certain information about
themselves without disclosure and to have any information collected
about them with their consent protected against unauthorized
access.
• The Privacy Act serves as a guideline for a number of ethics codes
adopted by various organizations. The Act specifies the limitations on
the data records that can be kept about individuals.
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZNEPaGFApX4

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PRIVACY
• The following are the principal privacy safeguards specified:
• No secret records should be maintained about individuals
• No use can be made of the records for other than the original purposes
without the individuals consent.
• The individual has the right of inspection and correction of records
pertaining to him or her.
• The collecting agency is responsible for the integrity of the record-
keeping systemPersonal Data Protection Act - AGC
www.agc.gov.my › files › Publications › LOM › Act 709 14 6 2016

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PRIVACY POLICY
• https://www.lazada.com.my/privacy-policy/?
spm=a2o4k.home.footer_top.13.75f82e7eVg8Mxt
• https://www.grab.com/sg/terms-policies/privacy-policy/
• https://www.tesco.com.my/html/default.aspx?ID=123&PID=258
• https://shopee.com.my/docs/6906
• https://www.huawei.com/en/privacy-policy
• https://www.uniqlo.com/my/en/information/privacy-policy
• https://www.mcdonalds.com.my/support-privacy/eng

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PRIVACY
• Two database phenomena create specific dangers on privacy and
they are:
• Database matching - makes it possible to merge separate facts collected
about an individual in several databases. If minute facts about a person
are put together in this fashion in a context unrelated to the purpose of
the data collection and without the individual's consent or ability to
rectify inaccuracies, serious damage to the rights of the individual may
result.
• https://courses.lumenlearning.com/computerapps/chapter/reading-info
rmation-privacy
/
• http://web.simmons.edu/~chen/nit/NIT'96/96-025-Britz.html
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PRIVACY
• Statistical databases - are databases that contain large numbers of
personal records, but are intended to supply only statistical
information. A snooper, however, may deduce personal information
by constructing and asking a series of statistical queries that would
gradually narrow the field down to a specific individual.

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PRIVACY
• Privacy protection relies on the technical security measures and
other controls that limit access to databases and other information
stored in computer memories or transmitted over the
telecommunication networks.
• Privacy issues in Social media
• These social networks keep track of all interactions used on their
sites and save them for later use. Issues include cyberstalking,
location disclosure, social profiling, 3rd party personal information
disclosure, and government
use of social network websites in investigations without the
safeguard of a search warrant.
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PRIVACY
• Social profiling allows for Facebook and other social networking
media websites of filtering through the advertisements, assigning
specific ones to specific age groups, gender groups, and even
ethnicities.
• What are the causes of privacy invasion?
• Various levels of privacy offered
• Data access methods:
• Third parties
• API
• Search engines
• Location data
• Benefits from the data
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PRIVACY
• Effect/impact
• Identity theft
• Preteens and early teenagers
• Sexual predators
• Stalking
• Unintentional fame
• Employment
• Online victimization
• Surveillance
• Law enforcement prowling the networks
• Location updates
• Invasive privacy agreements
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PRIVACY
• Reading a privacy statements in terms and conditions
• How to protect social networking privacy:
• Aware of the threats
• Be thorough all the time
• Know the sites
• Protect devices
• Be careful about taking drastic actions

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ACCURACY
• Pervasive use of information in our societal affairs means that we
have become more vulnerable to misinformation. Accurate
information is error-free, complete, and relevant to the decisions
that are to be based on it.
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oplOW857sp8
• Accuracy Scenario
• Sebenarnya.my

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ACCURACY
• Professional integrity is one of the guarantors of information accuracy. An
ethical approach to information accuracy calls for the following:
• A professional should not misrepresent his or her qualifications to perform a
task.
• A professional should indicate to his or her employer the consequences to be
expected if his or her judgment is overruled
• System safeguards, such as control audits are necessary to maintain information
accuracy. Regular audits of data quality should be performed and acted upon.
• Individuals should be given an opportunity to correct inaccurate information
held about them in databases.
• Contents of databases containing data about individuals should be reviewed at
frequent intervals, with obsolete data discarded.

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PROPERTY
• The right to property is largely secured in the legal domain. However,
intangibility of information is at the source of dilemmas which take
clarity away from the laws, moving many problems into the ethical
domain. At issue primarily are the rights to intellectual property: the
intangible property that results from an individual's or a
corporation's creative activity.
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EQsZf2G4Sdc

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PROPERTY
• In United States, intellectual property is protected by three
mechanisms:
• Copyright - A method of protecting intellectual property that
protects the form of expression (for example, a given program)
rather than the idea itself (for example, an algorithm).
• Trademark – sound, graphic

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PROPERTY
• Patent - Method of protecting intellectual property that protects a
non-obvious discovery falling within the subject matter of the Patent
Act.

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PROPERTY
• Trade secret - Intellectual property protected by a license or a non-
disclosure agreement. Computer programs are valuable property
and thus are the subject of theft from computer systems.
Unauthorized copying of software (software piracy) is a major form
of software theft because software is intellectual property which is
protected by copyright law and user licensing agreements.

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ACCESS
• What, exactly, do we mean by “computer security” and
“cybersecurity”?
• The expressions computer security and cybersecurity are often
associated with issues having to do with the reliability, availability,
and safety, of computers systems, as well as with the integrity,
confidentiality, and protection of data.

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ACCESS
• Richard Epstein (2007) suggests that security concerns affecting
computers and cyber- technology can be viewed in terms of three
key elements:
• confidentiality,
• integrity,
• accessibility.

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ACCESS
• confidentiality is “about preventing unauthorized persons from gaining
access to unauthorized information,”
• integrity, in computer security contexts, is about “preventing an attacker
from modifying data.”
• accessibility has to do with “making sure that resources are available for
authorized users.”
• cybersecurity aims at preventing “misuse, accidents, and malfunctions” with
respect to computer systems
• In defining cybersecurity, it is important to point out that sometimes issues
involving security in cyberspace overlap with concerns pertaining to
cybercrime; other times they intersect with issues involving privacy.
•
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ACCESS
• privacy and security can overlap
• Privacy concerns affecting cyber- technology often arise because
people fear losing control over personal information that can be
accessed by organizations (especially businesses and government
agencies), many of whom claim to have some legitimate need for
that information in order to make important decisions.
• Security concerns, on the contrary, can arise because people worry
that personal data or proprietary information, or both, could be
retrieved and possibly altered, by unauthorized individuals and
organizations.

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• 3 categories
• Unauthorized access to data, which are either resident in or
exchanged between computer systems.
• Attacks on system resources (such as computer hardware, operating
system software, and application software) by malicious computer
programs.
• Attacks on computer networks, including the infrastructure of
privately owned networks and the Internet itself.

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