Dealing with computer ethics in time of Information Technology

What are computer ethics? Does the use of Information Technology cause a new kind of moral problems or do we still have the same old moral problems but in another form?

Computer ethics have been defined in different ways by different thinkers, starting with professor Norbert Wiener in 1940s-1950s, then devolved in later decades and is still developing by new thinkers and workers in the field of computers and IT. Walter Maner, who started using the name" computer ethics'' in 1970s, defines it as a study that examine "ethical problems aggravated, transformed or created by Computer Technology" he thinks that old ethical problems have been worse by computers and some new ethical issues came to the surface because of Computer Technology, and suggest that we should use the traditional ethical theories of philosophers in solving new problems. Deborah Johnson defines computer ethics as the way in which computers pose new versions of standard moral problems, exacerbating old problems and applying ordinary moral norms in new realms. And thus she doesn't think that computers create totally new ethical problems rather than give a "new twist" to ethical questions that were already there. James Moor gives a different and independent definition to computer ethics that is much broader than Johnson's and Manners' definition. He defines computer ethics as a field of study that concerns "policy vacuums'' and “conceptual muddle" regarding the social and moral use of Information Technology. He thinks typical problems arise in computer ethics because there is a policy vacuum about how we should use computer technology in dealing with those problems. Another broad definition of computer ethics was developed by Terrell Ward Bynum, He sees that computer ethics identify and analyze the impacts of IT on human and social values such as health, work opportunity, freedom, democracy, privacy, security..etc. And thus, he believes that information technology will affect everything that human beings hold dear. 

According to the above definitions, Information Technology can transform or create new moral issues and make the old problems worse as Maner says.  But Johnson doesn't believe that Computers could create totally new moral issues, but posing news versions of standard moral problems and force us to apply traditional norms in the new world that has been created by computers. While Bynum sees IT is affecting different fields of our lives and should employ concepts, theories, and methodologies from these disciplines.

The most important moral issues and conflicts that Information Technology creates in society

As Information technology is growing wider and wider every day, and entering into almost all aspects of our lives, it creates new moral and ethical issues that were not easy to occur if there were no such a technology. Some examples of those new moral issues: the unauthorized use of hardware and software, the theft of software, breaking copyrights of products, computer fraud, hacking, violating privacy , using viruses to disable functionality..etc.

Some of these issues can be categorized under computer crime, the criminal here is intelligent enough to enter complicated computer systems and control them. One example of computer crime is stealing money from banks and financial institutions. In many cases that person will be fired (if he is an employee) and face trials, but unfortunately many of them are hired later by other parties because of their skills and knowledge in IT. Unauthorized computer entry can cause stealing a company's secrets and data. This crime could be done by one of the employees for the interest of a competitor party.

Hacking is another face of IT crimes that is creating serious moral issues.  This activity deals with the ethical dilemma; the right of owning information and the right of having access to that information. In most of these causes, it is the privacy that has been violated, because privacy issues are related to the computer's main function, which is the ability of storing, organizing and exchanging data. As all types of data (personal information, records, books, videos, photos..etc) of big amounts can be gathered in one place (computer), this raises the risk of losing and disposing of all information at one time.  The basis of these moral issues doesn't seem to be new, which are stealing information, privacy or copyright violating. But what is new is that the Information Technology (IT) and capability of computers and networks (Internet) and easy access and acquiring of these technologies by a big range of the society, made the flow of data, copying, transferring, exchanging, as easy as possible. And that helped increase the amount of moral issue; however it is not IT itself that is causing this new issue, in reality, it is the people that misuse and abuse this technology. Educating people about the consequences of misusing computers and potential abuse of Information technology, will help decrease the moral issues that occurred by IT.

The new possibilities that are created by the same technology to handle and resolve old and new moral problems

Computer technology (like other new technologies) has raised  moral concerns and brought ethical issues to surface, by creating new possibilities for our actions and behavior.  When it comes to dealing with ethical issues related to computers, there are not totally new ethical theories or philosophies to be invented, but computer-ethical issues that have to be controlled by new “species” or new forms. Although these new species have special features, we still can draw on the traditional moral principles and ethical theories.

New innovation or application leads to new policy vacuums. e.g. placing cookies on the hard drive of users by some websites, data mining, sharing files and software and spam emails make me wonder if these issues are  morally acceptable or not?

We should also know that it is not easy to fill in policy vacuums raised by ethical questions with every new innovation. There are “conceptual muddles” that try to explain why policy vacuums cannot be filled with some moral and legal rules that are already known as principles.  Another problem is normative. If we always try to apply current policies to new technology, then we risk missing opportunities to create better policies than we already have and fail to make a better world. New situations cannot always be comparable to known and familiar situations. If so, then new features of technology won’t have an effect. We should not absolutely think that computer-ethical situations can always be resolved by traditional moral norms, because we don't have an ideal moral world.

Deborah G. Johnson proposes that we have to think of the ethical issues surrounding computers and information technology as new species of traditional moral issues.  That means to classify these new computer-ethical issues into traditional ethical categories that are always involving familiar moral ideas, such as: personal privacy, harm, putting people at risk, and so on. Johnson gave an example of how new policies could be driven from traditional accounts; she thinks that when someone is accessing her computer files, it is similar to someone breaking into her house or office. It is clear that both of them have violated property rights. Thus, the traditionalist account has a major impact on developing policies regarding computers and information technology. We go in the direction of drawing on known social and moral ideas, then extending them to fit new features and issues that we confront while dealing with new technology.

What are the special moral problems that IT professionals, groups and organizations are confronted with? What is their responsibility and how far does it reach?

IT Professional refers to anyone employed in computer and Information technology or communication fields, such as support personnel, network administrators, system designers and developers. It could also include faculties and institutes who teach Information Technology, communications and as well as computer science.

Michael Bayles (1989) believes that IT professionals have special obligations toward their clients , and they should be bound  to similar standards of obligations to their clients. As an answer to the question" Do these groups of professionals have a special moral obligation to distinguish them from other workers in computer's field?" Don Gotterbarn says "yes" , because IT professionals can have the opportunity to work in a good way or harm people, enable others to do good or harm, and influence others to act in a good way or be harmful. Thus, the role and the responsibility of a professional differ from that of an ordinary member or employee.

An example of the special moral problems that IT professionals, groups and organizations may confront is the failure of "safety-critical systems" that can have a direct threat to the life of people, such as the software applications that control aircrafts, weapons, radar systems, controlling nuclear reactor..etc. Professionals' responsibility  is much more than that of ordinary employees' or team member's ,because people trust more in professionals ,due to the license, practice and skills they acquired after years of working in their fields.  They are supposed to be aware of the consequence of any ethical problem as a result of using their systems or any failure that will cause moral issues. 

In most cases, professionals' responsibility is a "positive responsibility". That is because of their professional work and skills; they often take the role of project manager, head of developers, data manager, team leader and other main roles of big liability. They have an enormous impact on the way in which the system or the design appears. It is him to be blamed and carry liability, and maybe legal responsibility. While ordinary members of the group may have a" negative responsibility" as they couldn't prevent the problem or the failure from occurring. They may be blamed for that, but people cannot be blamed if they don't have a “free will" (Donald Gotterbarn). Negative responsibility deals with exemption from blame that leads to exemptions from moral responsibility, and exemptions from liability leads to exemption from legal responsibility.

 How can we handle moral problems? And how could IT professionals acquire higher ethical competence?

There are different ways to be used by people when it comes to handling moral problems. They think of either ‘heteronomy’ or ‘autonomy’. Heteronymous thinking is described as automatic, purely emotional and uncontrolled. No doubt thoughts come to mind and we don't make an effort to make a holistic picture of all conflicting values in the ethical problem that we face. While autonomous thinking concentrates more on the actual situation of the problem and searches for relevant aspects. In ‘autonomy’, the focus is on the consideration of the moral feelings, interests and duties of all stakeholders. Thus we can say ‘autonomy’ is a systematic, holistic and self-critical method of solving and dealing with ethical issues.

 Although people see autonomously thinking as a way of making decisions that is unconstrained by authorities, uncontrolled or automatic reactions and it has the ability to analyze the values of the problem critically and systematically, but it is not easy for most people to use these skills  in real situations when confronting problems in real life.  According to researchers, a lot of time and special conditions are required before someone can be able to use the ethical ability of autonomy .There are certain practices and special tools that help to acquire the skill of autonomy.

IT professionals can acquire higher ethical competence by participating in setting standards for appropriate levels of competence, and try hard to achieve those standards, because excellence depends on individual professionals who take responsibility for acquiring and maintaining ethical competence, which is the ability of individuals or groups to choose the right way to handle the problem while confronting a moral issue. This can be done by the ability to recognize the different ways of handling moral problems, then to master thinking and acting in a way that independently, systematically and critically considers all relevant values, principles, interests, feelings, duties, needs and beliefs.

Organizations can help their professionals to get a higher ethical competence in processes for construction of ethical codes and guidelines, revision of ethical codes,   Dialog groups, ethical committees.. etc.

Ethical codes and licensing for IT professionals and what is demanded for them to be usable and applied?

Information and communication Technology has many important ethical and social implications. This was known for many years ago, therefore many computer practitioners and professional organizations have established a number of codes of ethics which are considered as guidelines and accreditation requirement to help and support computer professionals, both individuals and organizations, to understand their ethical responsibility and to help those making better decisions when confronting ethical issues in their work. There are variety sets of ethical codes that have been constructed by different professional organizations and institutions, for example:  the Association of Computing Machinery (ACM), User Experience Professionals Association (UXPA), the Institute for the Management and Information System (IMIS) and many other professional institutions around the world.  

Licensing of computer Professional, is a way to show that a certain person is legally allowed to practice  a specific work professionally. Usually, it is the government who gives licenses to those who are fulfilling a special level of practice in their professions, but of course, those licenses are administered through professional organizations. Licensed IT professionals, nowadays, are becoming a public demand, after people became aware of the impact of Information Technology on their daily lives.  Most of the people now are aware of the malicious-intent and fraudulent-intent designs. They cannot easily trust any system from any company. Here comes the role of the licensing to overcome these worries, and an attempt to control all of these issues. However we should know that possessing  a computer license doesn't fully assure that the licensed person will not be involved in malicious or fraudulent activities. Both license and ethical codes could encourage following professional standards but cannot make a person totally competent or ethical.

The code of ethical conduct and license possessing should be developed to fulfill the needs of the concerned organization. A code’s content and format has to be appropriate to the organization's structure and profession. When constructing an ethical code effectively it should focus on principles and be clear about the purpose, must be designed and written with the user in mind, should be written in plain language in order to be understood and applied quickly and effectively by all users. Long paragraphs and complex sentences are not working here. The code should be as concise as possible, but a document outside the code itself may refer to detailed policies and explain procedures. Accessibility is another qualification of an effective code of ethical conduct; it has to be accessible easily to all users and potential users.

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Resources:

• Terrel W. Bynum & Simon Rogerson, ”Computer Ethics and Professional Responsibility” ,Blackwell, 2006.
• Deborah G. Johnson, “Computer Ethics”, third edition
• Iordanis Kavathatzopoulos , “Independent Agents and Ethics”
• Kenneth E. Himma & Herman T. Tavani “The Handbook of Information and Computer ethics” , Wiley , 2008

The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Kurdistan24.