HIPAA

This chapter explores privacy and security issues in health care. It describes the difference between privacy and security in the context of health care, identifies sources of concern for individuals who use information technologies for health-related purposes, and presents technology-based solutions for privacy and security in health care networks. The purpose of the chapter is to provide an investigation of the sources of concern for regulations and technologies in the health care industry. The discussion is based on the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) and its eight guiding principles. The chapter explores the implications of legal and regulatory environments driving HIPAA regulations, the need for privacy and security in health care networks, and information technologies used in the health care industry. Related ethical issues, current technologies for providing secure solutions that comply with the regulations, and products emerging in the market are also examined.

Information Imbalance in Medical Decision Making

This chapter explores the ethical implications of a reduction in information asymmetry between health care providers and their patients. In many human interactions, asymmetry of information and experience typically raises ethical dilemmas for the party with the greater degree of information. This chapter illustrates that it is the reduction in information asymmetry that is raising ethical dilemmas in dealing with medical issues. Understanding this phenomenon may assist in identifying and managing future ethical quandaries that may occur as Internet resources provide broad access to information previously distributed only to a subset of the population.

Software Piracy

Software piracy costs the information technology industry billions of dollars in lost sales each year. This chapter presents an overview of the software piracy issue, including a review of the ethical principles involved and a summary of the latest research. In order to better illustrate some of the material presented, the results of a small research study in the country of Jordan are presented. The findings indicate that piracy among computer-using professionals is high, and that cost is a significant factor in the decision to pirate. Finally, some potential preventative mechanisms are discussed, in the context of the material presented previously in the chapter.

Counterterrorism and Privacy

This chapter addresses how new surveillance technologies and programs aimed at fighting terrorism affect privacy. Some of the new programs and technologies considered include the USA PATRIOT Act (Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism), biometrics, national ID cards, video surveillance, and the Total Information Awareness program. This chapter first evaluates the pre-9/11 status quo in terms of what techniques were used, and then examines how the new technologies and programs that have recently been implemented affect privacy constitutionally, legally, and normatively. This chapter argues that many of the recent changes do not, in fact, undermine privacy at a constitutional or legal level, but do run counter to what Americans want and expect in terms of privacy.

Ethical Management of Consumer Information

Society has focused on privacy solutions to problems related to consumer information, yet the problem has not gone away. Why is this? One answer is that privacy, a regulatory correction, does not fix the underlying “information externality” problem. This chapter integrates economic, ethical, and legal theories related to the issue of information management in an attempt to clarify the debate surrounding the issue of consumer information. It first explains why the debate exists by describing the basic characteristics of information. It then integrates an economic discussion of externalities with the ethical issues inherent in the problem of consumer information to suggest alternative ways to correct externalities. This chapter suggests that one way to correct the information externality is to use a Coasian approach. We apply that approach to the case study of DoubleClick, an Internet advertiser criticized for its potential yet never implemented ability to act unethically with consumer information.

Does 'Public Access' Imply 'Ubiquitous' or 'Immediate'? Issues Surrounding Public Documents Online

In the information age, various entities (e.g., citizens or business concerns) are now able to access and gather large amounts of publicly available information online, which has obvious benefits. However, there are perhaps unfavorable consequences to this information gathering, and little attention has been paid to these. This chapter highlights the various issues that are created by having unfettered access to documents online, as well as the ability of citizens and investigators to compile databases of personal information on individuals. We cite existing laws to support the position of having limits on the freedom of access, and we propose several strategies for consideration in balancing the rights of the public to access public information while yet protecting and celebrating individual privacy. While the majority of this paper deals with American laws and history, international examples are also noted. In the post-9/11 world, a great deal of reasonable concern has been raised by governmental information gathering. We suggest that equal attention should be paid to ubiquitous access to public records, even by individuals and non-government agencies, and potential concerns for individual privacy that this access might raise.

Intellectual Property Rights, Resources Allocation and Ethical Usefulness

Intellectual property rights (IP) are established through the Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) Agreement (part of the Uruguay Round Agreements creating the WTO) as global and uniform. This absolute IP may provide such opportunities for rent-seeking that misallocations may occur, resulting in a perception of IP as ethically unuseful.

Intellectual Property Rights - or Rights to the Immaterial - in Digitally Distributable Media Gone All Wrong

In the light of three major ethical theories, Lockean liberalism, consequentialism, and Kantian deontology, it seems that the intellectual property rights in digitally distributable media — be it software or other — have not been derived correctly. The three theories and their implications are reviewed and handled individually and conclusions based on each will be presented. Many aspects of these theories do not match with the current copyright and patent laws affecting digitally distributable media in western societies. A different, less restricting approach is offered.

Balancing Individual Privacy Rights and Intelligence Needs

This chapter explores how individuals using different justice perspectives to evaluate the appropriateness of the USA PATRIOT Act will logically arrive at different views on the fairness of the legislation. Some pundits believe the USA PATRIOT Act creates an increased risk for the privacy rights of US citizens. Excerpts from both Department of Justice and ACLU documents concerning the USA PATRIOT Act are presented. An analysis of these excerpts suggests that the Department of Justice applies a procedural justice perspective to demonstrate the fairness of the Act in terms of the way the law will be applied. The ACLU applies an outcome-based justice perspective that focuses on the potential for the Act to disproportionately penalize specific demographic groups. Different justice perspectives lead to different fairness judgments.

Moral Psychology and Information Ethics

This chapter discusses the ways in which moral psychology can inform information ethics. A “Four Component Model” of moral behavior is described involving the synergistic influences of key factors including sensitivity, judgment, motivation, and action. Two technology-mediated domains, electronic communications and digital property, are then explored to illustrate how technology can impact each of the four components believed to underlie moral behavior. It is argued that technology can create a kind of “psychological distance” between those who use technology for communication or those who acquire and use digital property (e.g., software or music) and those who may be affected by such uses (e.g., e-mail recipients or digital property owners). This “distance” potentially impacts all four components of moral behavior in such a way that the usual social or moral constraints operative under normal (non-technology-mediated) circumstances (e.g., face-to-face communication) may be reduced, thereby facilitating the occurrence of unethical activities like piracy, hacking, or flaming. Recognition of the potential deleterious impact of technology on each of the four components leads to a better understanding of how specific educational interventions can be devised to strengthen moral sensitivity, judgment, motivation, and action within the context of our increasingly digital world.