Information Technology and Ethics - Sharif



Information Technology and Ethics

Lecturer: Kai Kimppa

Consulting hours: On demand (use email at any hour, mobile 10-18)

Notices

|November 2 |Dates for seminars added, also, course schedule corrected. |

|September 5 |Note that the book “Introductory Ethics” is available also from the lecturer. If possible, however, get it|

| |from the course library. |

|September 10 |New link below to Blackwell’s Philosophy Compass – on Ethics. Check it out! |

|October 2 |Slides available. Also some of the links discussed during the class. |

|October 2 |Note: Demonstrations to be done on the last slide of the lecture! |

|October 3 |New link below on free will and its relevance to ethics. |

Aims of the course

Information technology revolutionized the way in which we conduct many aspects of our lives. The tremendous technological advancement in the area of computers and related devices created unforeseen social situations that necessitate new ethical consideration. Important issues like privacy, free speech, and ownership of the immaterial have new meanings in the information age. Possibilities provided by ICT (Information and Communications Technology) also offer new questions on what is ethical behaviour and what is not. Old crimes come in new forms and new possibilities to do crimes are created by ICT.

This course will provide the participant with understanding on what are ethical questions raised by ICT and what are not, and cover central issues which information technology professionals in their future work should be aware of. Information technology is used profitably to support work, in education, at homes and in politics. However, this general use of ICT involves risks as well. For an information technology professional it is essential to be aware of both the opportunities and the risks. Further, professional ethics is part of their professional competence.

Preliminary knowledge

The course is directed to IT-students at advanced and post-graduate level. It might also benefit students from other disciplines if oriented in information technology. Bachelor Seminar or Master’s Seminar must be done latest during this fall.

The language of the course will be Finnish unless there are participants not fluent in Finnish, in which case the language of the course will be English.

Contents of the course

The course will start with an opening lecture during which the most prominent ethical theories and their most obvious short-falls will be introduced. After the lecture, the participants will write a summary (referaatti) of approximately 8 (6-12 or so) pages (Times New Roman, 12 pt/Arial, 11 pt, line spacing 1) on selected chapters, 1-5, 7-9, 11 (see first lecture’s slides for further information) of the book: Feldman, Fred, Introductory Ethics, which is available from the course library and for over night-loans from the lecturer and the web page Nafsika Athanassoulis Virtue Ethics at . The summary will be graded and is worth 1/4th of the course grade. Required parts of the book available for over-night loans from the lecturer.

The middle part of the course will consist of lectures, group discussions and cases for demonstration purposes and discussion. Completion of 50% of the demonstration cases is mandatory for passing the course. Demonstrations returned in written form will be graded as essays in an exam. This part of the course will be graded according to demonstrations done and is worth 1/4th of the course grade.

Some topics that will be handled during the course include:

- Access to information/Digital Divide

- AI, Cyborgs, Robotics

- Bioinformatics and Bio-IT Ethics

- (IT-)Business Ethics (are there any?) and Work Ethics

- Codes of Conduct/Codes of Ethics

- Data Mining

- Decision Making Algorithms for Ethical Questions

- Design

- Digital Signatures/Identification

- Disability

- eHealth, eEducation, eGovernment, eDemocracy, e?

- Ethics online

- Freedom of Speech in the Internet and elsewhere in Digitally Distributable Media

- Game Ethics

- Gender Issues/Discrimination/Cyber Stalking

- Globalisation/Localisation

- Intellectual Property Rights/Rights to the Immaterial/Piratism/Public Domain/Fair Use

- Information Technology and War

- Location Based Services

- Nanotechnology

- Privacy and Data Protection

- Responsibility and Accountability Issues

- Security/Viruses/Trojans/Worms/Hostile Attacks

- Digital Surveys

To conclude the course, the participants will write an article format term paper (study some articles from the journals and/or conference proceedings you use for the term paper) of a topic of their interest with-in the area of IT ethics of approximately 10 pages (Times New Roman, 12 pt, line spacing 1.) based on course material and (at least) one (but hopefully several) additional academic (or other, but then pre-approved by the lecturer) reference(s) of their choosing. The term paper will be graded and is worth one half of the course grade.

The term paper should explain the intent of the article(s), take a moral stance on the issue (this can be the included stance of the article, if any), be relevant to Information Technology Ethics and can, but need not, include own thoughts. The paper must include one (1) page English abstract of the content to be handled in the paper. At the links section below is a link to both Turku and Jyväskylä University Information Systems guide (unfortunately both in Finnish, for guide’s in English, contact the lecturer via e-mail) on how to write a paper, for the relevant parts, one of them is to be followed. Of course any notation as long as it is clear and understandable can be used.

Course material

Lecture slides are per lecture after the first one, which was all four hours. Note that the lecture slides almost always appear after the lectures due to some final modifications which are of course told during the lecture.

[pic]

Tämän teoksen ja alla olevien luentokalvojen käyttöoikeutta koskee Creative Commons lisenssi.

This work and the following slides are licensed under a Creative Commons License.

Even though the sign above says “some rights reserved” these pages and the content within them is licensed under “no rights reserved, only two duties required” – the duties being to attribute the author, not because the author feels the need, but so that the audiences of this work would be informed and to license any works based on this work with the same license.

1st lectures slides: ppt, pdf

2nd lectures slides: ppt, pdf

3rd lectures slides: ppt, pdf

4th lectures slides: ppt, pdf

5th lectures slides: ppt, pdf

6th lectures slides: ppt, pdf

7th lectures slides: ppt, pdf

8th lectures slides: ppt, pdf

9th lectures slides: ppt, pdf

10th lectures slides: ppt, pdf

11th lectures slides: ppt, pdf

12th lectures slides: ppt, pdf

Course Information

Lectures will start Friday, September 7th, 12:15-16:00, in B2035. This will be the opening lecture mentioned above.

After this the lectures will continue again Friday, September 28th and will continue until I run out of topics to handle (or more likely when I see that you need the rest of the time to write your term papers).

After the lectures the participants are expected to write the term paper. It will be reviewed during two days in late fall.

The lectures will be held in B2035, ICT Building 2nd floor. Further information will be available later.

|Week |Date |Topic(s) |

|W36 |Sep 7 |Opening lecture, introduction to common ethical theories and their short-falls. Home |

| | |assignment given. Practical issues handled. |

|W39 |Sep 28 |Returning of home assignments. 4 issues from the list handled. |

|W40 |Oct 5 |Demonstration cases and 3 issues from the list handled. |

|W41 |Oct 12 |Demonstration cases and 2 issues from the list handled. |

|W42 |No lecture | |

|W43 |No lecture | |

|W44 |Nov 2 |Demonstration cases and 2 issues from the list handled. |

|W45 |Nov 9 |Demonstration cases and 3 issues from the list handled. |

|W46 |Nov 16 |Demonstration cases and 3 issues from the list handled. |

|W47 |Nov 23 |Demonstration cases and 3 issues from the list handled. |

|W48 |Nov 30 |Demonstration cases and a bit of this and a bit of that. Topics for the term paper |

| | |selected. |

|W48 |Nov 28 |Return a topic and an outline through email to the lecturer |

|W50 |Dec 12 |The term paper has to be returned for the opponent and the lecturer for them to have time |

| | |to read them. |

|W51 |Dec 19 (English) |Presentation of and discussion based on the term papers. 15+15 minutes for |

| |Dec 20 (Finnish) |presentation+discussion per paper. One day will be in English while another will be in |

| | |Finnish. I shall be doing the delegation of the day to the language once I receive the |

| | |papers. |

| | |The days will start at xx:yy and continue until appr. 10 papers have been presented and |

| | |opposed (as I expect to have appr. 20 papers all together). Should there be less English |

| | |papers than 10, then of course some of the Finnish ones will be presented on the “English |

| | |day”, but in Finnish. Participation to the presentations of Finnish papers is not required |

| | |of those not fluent in Finnish. |

Literature

Feldman, Fred. Introductory Ethics, available in course library, lecturer’s copy available for over-night loans.

Johnson, Deborah G. Computer Ethics (3rd. edition), Prentice-Hall, 2001. One copy available in course library, lecturer’s copy available for over-night loans.

Spinello, Richard. Ethical Aspects of Information Technology Prentice-Hall, 1995. One copy available in course library, lecturer’s copy available for over-night loans.

Weckert, John and Douglas Adeney Computers and Information Ethics, Greenwood Press, 1997. One copy available from the lecturer for over-night loans.

Articles to be delivered during the course.

News-flashes from Ethics front:

The Brittish identity cards have reached a new high after 9/11 (and the Brittish attacks last year); the government in Brittain is now driving for cards which have iris- and finger-print information for every citizen ‘to fight terrorism’ by avoiding ‘identity theft’. Lower house voted for that everyone applying for a passport will need to get an identity card which has this information 2 years from now. The upper house can still stop the motion from passing, however. Note the development here. First, the government (in 2002) wanted the digital identification cards for everyone, but at least those who use social services. Now, after the terrorist attacks, the government in Brittain want them for all again (and now digital identification is not enough, but also bio-identification…), but at least to those who apply for a passport. Both seem very much like ‘the first necessary step’ (to quote an EU directive which also digs into our privacy) for getting it to all, after most people have grown numb to having them anyway and have not vitnessed any clear misuses (which of course does not mean that there wouldn’t be such). The problem with this of course is two-fold. First, everyone is assumed quilty until proven innocent (it is very hard to see that this information, especially the finger prints would not be used in normal crime investigations as well). Second, it is especially worrying that even if the current government would not use this information for tracking people (which they likely will for some, through the secret agencies), that coming governments necessarily would not. Note, that once the information is collected, it is very difficult to make it go away, but governments - and their practices - do change. If this goes through in Brittain, it is hard to see that it wouldn’t go through in Finland as well at some later date. Especially due to us being used to having to have an identification card anyway.

The data retention directive is seen by the drafting committee in EU as ‘the first necessary step’ in collecting information on the EU-citizens and whom they discuss things with over the telephone, over e-mail and which web sites they visit. Currently, it does not follow VOIP services nor chats. It is very hard to see that the terrorists, whom it is claimed to be for, would not move to these media to avoid detection (if I can come up with the idea, they surely can). Also, it can be used to ‘solve serious crimes’. What these ‘serious crimes’ then are, is left open (on purpose?). Would that mean, for example in Finland, any crimes for which a warrant can be given? These have typically been considered ‘serious’ enough crimes to let our privacy be disrupted (coming into our homes). Now, the problem is, that for example copyright violations are ‘serious crimes’ like this after the late bill, i.e. if one downloads music illegally, can their traffic information in e-mails, phones and web then be accessed? Also, ‘the first necessary step’ is very worrying. What might be the ‘next necessary steps’ then? Undoubtedly VOIPs, chats and USENET groups contact information. But maybe also content? Could the ISPs and tele operators next be required to also save the content to which they have access, say, e-mails, chat logs, SMS-message content?

The private sphere is shrinking due to these kinds of changes. We are being followed electronically more and more all the time. Already our mobile phones can be tracked (one third of the time, but still) and so forth. We should be worried that we do not live in a 1984 society in a while.

Biometric passport encryption has been cracked, what people can encrypt, they can decrypt - even without the appropriate keys. What use are these encryptions, and how does one prove that one is the real passport owner if it is this easy? Further news from (in Finnish):



A new discussion forum for disabled faculty members at:



where you can find some of the issues discussed during the lecture about disabled people and taking them into consideration when designing systems. Also a lot of other issues, of course.

The pictures depicting prophet Mohammed have been published at a Finnish web page. The freedom of information in the Web seems to work, although the publisher seems to be an ultra-nationalistic organisation (“Suomen Sisu”). The Finnish police has started an investigation whether the publication breaks the law which forbids insulting religion (for the lack of a better translation; uskonrauhalaki).

Where do you give your social security number? 15.2.2006 an ‘open up the databases’ day was held. Concerned citizens are worried what information is gathered about them and where, and what is done with that information. For example, bank card, credit card (from both of these, purchasing information can be gathered), bus card (yes, they know from where to where you travel), mobile phone data (they can locate you, they can tell who you have talked with), video camera’s in public and private places (some connected to the net; there is a certain search string which enables one to find open security camera’s and look through them using a web browser), membership cards (they know our habits through what we purchase), info in Web (who reads privacy statements? Who remembers to tick the box refusing the use of ones information for marketing purposes?), etc. Information about us is collected in worrying amounts. “I always feel like somebody’s watching me, I have no privacy’ like Rockwell puts it in their song…

Links

Online Journals

Blackwell’s Philosophy Compass – on Ethics. Should you be interested in the contemporary discussion of Deontology, Virtue Ethics, Utilitarianism or many other ethical theories, a good starting point. Note that the home page offers a wide array of different kinds of philosophical topics not limited to ethics.



Ethics and Information Technology journal. Available through university computers. Lot of IT-ethics issues.



ACM SIGCAS Computers & Society journal also available through university computers.



International Review on Information Ethics



First Monday Journal. Available from anywhere. Lot of IT-ethics issues.



Etica & Politica IT Ethics special issue:



Ethicomp Journal (based on the conferences). Available from anywhere. Requires registration. Lot of IT-ethics issues.



Author Guides

For all the guide’s below, follow on relevant parts. Referencing especially, but also using your discretion on topic selection and actual writing. In any case, follow the articles you use as examples on writing.

Link to Turun Yliopisto’s guide on writing term papers (unfortunately in Finnish). DO NOT follow the ‘a chapter must start from a new page’ rule.



Link to Jyväskylä University’s guide on writing term papers (unfortunately also in Finnish).



Link to Turun Kauppakorkeakoulu’s guide on writing papers (in English)



Link to some terminology often used by philosophers (unfortunately only in Finnish).



Other Links

Links related to the material delivered during the course:

– To get an understanding on why free will is relevant to the question of ethics – and what the current understanding of the possibility of free will in the field of philosophy is – visit the book review (or, if really interested get the book!) behind the link.

- Chip implants linked to tumors on other than human animals. What about human animals? E.g. Kevin Warwick ()?

- Reuters informs us that Commissioner Frattini of the EU considers words such as “Bomb” or “Genoside” dangerous and that they should not be searched. See also following links on what else would go with the bath water (the child?):





- TOR operator raided by police in Germany; freedom of speech and access to information at risk.

- web page accused of slander and hatred against a religion. Freedom of expression is also about things you do not like, else it would not be needed.

- An international conference on Information Warfare and Security held in Finland. Topics available at some point.

- Automatic robotic fighters weren’t that far in the future after all. See also (or do a web search with “robotic fighter planes”).

- A debate on the new Copyright Law in Finland and how it is seen to affect the music creators, unfortunately only in Finnish.

- "Threatening the Open Society: Comparing Anti-terror Policies and Strategies in the U.S. and Europe".

- an example on what the Swedish child pornography stop page looks like.

- a link to a blog in which a DNA employer criticises the child porn blocking as limiting freedom of speech. He got fired for it and the blog has been removed from the original site.

- information on the new copyright law by the proponents.

- parody of the information on the previous link.

- critical information on the new copyright law.

- an example of different information available in the net compared to the main stream media offered; this on 9/11 attacks.

- the cartoons which inflamed the muslim world. See for yourself and consider whether they are offencive, whether there is a reason for some of them and that there are different morals in different cultures.

- another comic on the issue, appeared in a culture magazine Kaltio (used to be: , but is not available) and led to the termination of the job of the editor in chief and to taking the web pages down.

political compass which tests left-right and authority-liberal thinking.

political compass which tests left-right and pragmatic-idealist thinking. See also the commentary on how the axes have been chosen at “Axes” link

AI movie trailers.

Home robots.

Nokia Way & Values.

Nokia Code of Conduct.

- select Etiikka at the top of the page.

- use Search with words “code of conduct” and “Match all words”.

Criteria and Procedures for Developing Codes of Ethics or of Conduct: To Promote Discussion Inside the IFIP National Societies.

Various heuristic methods for computer ethics – includes also the RESOLVEDD and Paramedic method used during the lectures.

- flame warriors and from Netiquette Nazi a link to a netiquette.

- one of the oldest Finnish netiquettes.

- Weborexia, or pro-ana, site.

- old (the oldest in the book?) service in a new environment.

or - a link to Free Software Foundations web pages.

- a link to The Cathedral and The Bazaar book by Erik Raymond.

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