Privacy in computer ethics. Topics in Computer Ethics 2019-01-05
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Social media research raises privacy and ethics issues
This is specifically applicable in situations where the client is not aware of such merging or the implications thereof. Could computer implants in humans enhance and possibly alter human values? With this approach, every existing entity — humans, other animals, plants, organizations, even non-living artifacts, electronic objects in cyberspace, pieces of intellectual property — can be interpreted as potential agents that affect other entities, and as potential patients that are affected by other entities. These developments have fundamentally changed our practices of information provisioning. Some common issues of computer ethics include intellectual property rights such as copyrighted electronic content , privacy concerns, and how computers affect society. Freenet and other tools have similar problems Douceur 2002. They will see how information gathered in various places is put together and used to make decisions that affect their interactions with government agencies, credit bureaus, insurance companies, educational institutions, and employers, among others.
Second, the Internet facilitates a certain kind of anonymity. Cookies are small pieces of data that web sites store on the user's computer, in order to enable personalization of the site. The logic of computers can be massaged and shaped in endless ways through changes in hardware and software. Homomorphic encryption allows a data processor to process encrypted data, i. Privacy enhancing technologies also have their downsides. I believe that I am living up to be a moral and ethically person. In this instance, the answer to the dilemma regarding the application of privacy in computer ethics is not as clear-cut as some would like it to be, because there are arguments for and against the monitoring of computers while employees are at work.
The challenge for computer ethics is to formulate policies which will help us deal with this dilemma. Because Wiener did not think of himself as creating a new branch of ethics, he did not provide metaphilosophical comments about what he was doing while analyzing an information ethics issue or case. At the same time, many parties collate information about publications, authors, etc. This brings about a redefinition of the role of society big businesses in the personal and private lives of the individual the use of personal information as a commodity. A computer can be programmed to contact another computer over phone lines and surreptitiously remove or alter confidential information. Are flights just before the time requested listed? While computers are not the first technology to raise ethical issues, they have been especially fascinating to scholars, writers, and the public. Such individuals, often called hackers or crackers, may seek personal gain or may just enjoy the challenge of figuring out how to crack security mechanisms.
Still, it may well happen that citizens, in turn, start data collection on those who collect data about them, e. I hope to show something of the nature of computer ethics by doing some computer ethics. Crackers referred to individuals who did. For example, creating software has value in our culture which it didn't have a few decades ago. Logical malleability has both a syntactic and a semantic dimension. Also, computers can be programmed to monitor phone calls and electronic mail without giving any evidence of tampering.
TECHNOLOGY AS A THREAT TO PRIVACY: Ethical Challenges
At Georgia Southern University, Department of Mathematics and Computers professor Margaret Ann Pierce and John W. . As the world of computers evolves, computer ethics continues to create ethical standards that address new issues raised by new technologies. Each school of ethics influences a situation in a certain direction and pushes the final outcome of ethical theory. Many different programs could be written to produce a reservation service. This approach comes with its own problems, as it might be hard to prove that the wrong information was used for a decision. Secondly, increasing use is made of technology in the processing thereof.
As such, they were thought to challenge the distinguishing feature of humankind. Listing all of the subject matter of computer ethics would be difficult as the field continues to expand as the application of computing grows, but broadly speaking traditional areas of investigation and analysis include privacy, property, power, security, and professionalism. Henry, her assistant created three categories that influence computer technology and usage. It also covers cases where an authority forces someone to reveal personal information against that person's will, such as a court's unjustified demand that someone produce a broad array of personal records or an unnecessary requirement that someone take a blood test. Because computers rapidly store and search vast amounts of information, privacy has been an ongoing concern of computer ethics. He added additional ideas in the 1990s, including the important notion of core human values: According to Moor, some human values — such as life, health, happiness, security, resources, opportunities, and knowledge — are so important to the continued survival of any community that essentially all communities do value them.
Respecting a person's privacy is to acknowledge such a person's right to freedom and to recognize that individual as an autonomous human being. Computers can make the invisible visible. Individuals can—while sitting anywhere in the world, with very little effort—launch viruses and disrupt communication. I will proceed not by giving a list of problems but rather by analyzing the conditions and forces which generate ethical issues about computer technology. The social responsibilities of computer experts are connected to more general notions of duty and responsibility and computer ethicists have drawn on a variety of traditional philosophical concepts and theories to understand them. The definition contains four important elements. The issue of rights and responsibilities of individuals on the Internet is complex because the Internet that supports the Web is worldwide.
Previously, whereas information would be available from the web, user data and programs would still be stored locally, preventing program vendors from having access to the data and usage statistics. In this essay I will discuss what makes computers different from other technology and how this difference makes a difference in ethical considerations. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare from the Secretary's Advisory Committee on Automated Personal Data Systems; and in 1977, Personal Privacy in an Information Society: The Report of the Privacy Protection Study Commission. Computers can be used to count votes and to make projections about the outcome. As mentioned earlier, there's no known method for completely protecting a computer or computer network from computer viruses, worms, and Trojan horses, but people can take several precautions to significantly reduce their chances of being infected. A doctor in one location can manipulate machines that are electronically connected to machines in a second location where the surgical procedure actually occurs. Surf the web anonymously with a program such as freedom web secure or through an anonymous web site such as anonymizer.
The codes are statements to the public as to what to expect; they articulate standards for the field and make clear that members are professionals. Online, 15 6 : 61-66. In a panopticon, prison cells are arranged in a circle with the inside wall of each cell made of glass so that a guard, sitting in a guard tower situated in the center of the circle, can see everything that happens in every cell. The mistake is to reify the mathematical notation as the essence of a computer and then use this conception to make judgments about the appropriate use of computers. For instance, should pornography that utilizes virtual children be regulated differently than pornography displaying actual children? Perhaps the best illustration of this is information acquired in chat rooms on the Internet. While one can argue that codes of conduct are not a very effective mechanism for regulating behavior, they are an important component in constituting a responsible profession. Hackers argued for open systems with fewer controls on access to information.
