Ethical Issues in Information Technology

Greater emphasis is now placed on ethics in information technology (IT) which covers a broad range of issues such as privacy, honesty, trustworthiness, software reliability, data storage, the environment, security breaches, hacking, viruses, and acknowledging the intellectual property of others. Further, legal aspects tend to overlap ethics perceptions. For example, issues such as copying computer programs, music CDs, images, or videos are more than just ethical problems; they also pose legal problems. The ethical dimensions also extend to issues such as computer crime and fraud, information theft, and unauthorized information dissemination. These ethical issues are becoming more complex as continuing advances in IT present many new ethical situations and fresh dilemmas. Developments such as the Internet, electronic commerce, and wireless/mobile communications present a new set of ethical issues and challenge current of codes of ethics, copyright laws, and their authors. In addition, computer users’ ethical standards may also vary from one situation to another (Wikipedia, 2005). What is ethical is subjective, and more so in the areas of IT. Perceptions of ethics in IT vary to a degree from individual to individual. Further, there seems to be significant differences in the perception of ethics among males and females. According to Adam (2000), male and female judgment is most often influenced by their personal values and whether an action is considered legal. Woodcock (2002) conducted a study on ethical perceptions among 405 male and female students from universities, technical colleges, and schools in North-Eastern Australia and found significant differences in some ethical situations between males and females. This article presents common issues and dilemmas that confront IT professionals, students, and the general community. In particular, it presents gender differences in perceptions of ethics and legalities in IT and highlights the different ethical perceptions of male and female students. These insights are particularly significant as the ethical beliefs and perceptions that students have may influence their ethical behaviors during their working careers.

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Factoring digital health for improved outcomes in management of Non Communicable Diseases

Journal of Social Health and Diabetes ◽

10.4103/2321-0656.187998 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 04 (02) ◽

pp. 102-107

Author(s):

Neera Gupta ◽

Tushar Dixit ◽

Vikram K.

Keyword(s):

Health Care ◽

Information Technology ◽

Health Information Technology ◽

Health Information ◽

Ethical Issues ◽

Digital Health ◽

Treatment Compliance ◽

Security And Privacy ◽

Noncommunicable Diseases ◽

The Government

AbstractMake in India is a flagship campaign from the Government of India which is aimed at various sectors. Indian health-care system can take advantages by introducing digital technologies to health care. The possible uses of health information technology as a method to engage with people involving communicable and noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) are wide-ranging. Health information technology can support interventions for prevention, diagnosis, managing surveillance, disease monitoring, and treatment compliance of many conditions. Digital health can offer various technologies such as wearables that are tracked by various mobile or smartphone applications to facilitates patient engagement, self-monitoring, and implementing behavior changes in NCDs such as diabetes. By incorporating the interactive audiovisual items, the digital health tools can create greater interest and engage people from different geographies, age, gender, and culture. Currently, the common digital heath tech issues include hesitancy from doctors to adopt any new product or technology, difficulty in reaching and accessing the needy patients, cultural diversity in population, and inadequate infrastructure. The ethical issues of consent, data security, and privacy of patients need to be addressed as they are highly sensitive in nature.

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Ethics of Digital Government

Encyclopedia of Digital Government ◽

10.4018/978-1-59140-789-8.ch113 ◽

2011 ◽

pp. 745-748

Author(s):

N. Kapucu

Keyword(s):

Information Technology ◽

Private Information ◽

Ethical Issues ◽

Leading Edge ◽

Public Access ◽

Security And Privacy ◽

Digital Government ◽

And Migration ◽

New Policies ◽

Privacy And Confidentiality

The Internet is at once a new communications medium and a new locus for social organization on a global basis. A digital government will allow public access to government information and services, and group participation in discussions at any time and from anywhere on the globe. Digital government is regarded as the most recent development in the evolving application of electronic information technology to the performance of government. The development and migration of the technologies, as well as applications of information technology in support of government operations are other important aspects. New policies have been passed by legislative bodies to ensure the proper management and implementations of these technologies and the systems they serve, their protection from physical harm, and the security and privacy of their information. The growth of digital government has increased governments’ ability to collect, store, analyze, and disclose private personal and organizational information (Fountain, 2001). In the rapidly evolving environments of digital technology, it is impossible to anticipate the leading-edge ethical issues. However, there are solid ethical imperatives to use these principles ethical behavior for resolution of the issues (Anderson, 2004). This article will focus on privacy and confidentiality of individual private information in digital environment.

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Ethical Issues in Information Technology

Information Security and Ethics ◽

10.4018/978-1-59904-937-3.ch036 ◽

2008 ◽

pp. 473-480

Author(s):

Robert A. Schultz

Keyword(s):

Information Technology ◽

Professional Ethics ◽

Ethical Issues ◽

Privacy And Security ◽

Economic Issues ◽

Value Of It ◽

Technology Focus

Most discussions of ethics and information technology focus on issues of professional ethics and issues of privacy and security.1 Certainly these are important issues, But so are issues such as the offshoring of Information Technology (IT) jobs or the value of IT as a whole. But are they ethical issues, business issues, or economic issues?

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Strategic and Ethical Issues in Outsourcing Information Technologies

Ethical Issues of Information Systems ◽

10.4018/978-1-931777-15-5.ch017 ◽

2011 ◽

pp. 232-248 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Randall C. Reid ◽

Mario Pascalev

Keyword(s):

Information Technology ◽

Information Technologies ◽

Ethical Issues ◽

Cost Benefit ◽

Codes Of Ethics ◽

Professional Organizations ◽

Ethical Standards ◽

Ethical Guidelines ◽

External Vendors ◽

Outsourcing Contracts

Outsourcing of information technology (IT) is the transfer of a company’s information technology functions to external vendors. Ordinarily, such transfer is considered only with regard to its strategic and economic impact on the organization. However, as the recent practice demonstrated, cost-benefit considerations and other strategic considerations are not sufficient to analyze an outsourcing case. Important ethical concerns relating to fiduciary responsibilities, insiders’ bidding for outsourcing contracts, and the like, are also pertinent to the analysis of outsourcing. This chapter will identify major ethical problems and will propose guidelines for ethical conduct in the process of outsourcing IT. Such guidelines could have broad practical implications for the practice of outsourcing. The chapter will analyze literature on outsourcing models and professional ethical standards. It will have the following structure. First, the benefits and models of outsourcing information technology will be discussed. Second, ethical literature in general and professional organizations’ codes of ethics in particular will be considered. Third, a recent case of IT outsourcing will be presented and analyzed. The ethical standards established in the thesis will be applied to the case. Finally, generalized ethical guidelines will be suggested for outsourcing models.

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