Ethical Issues in ICT

“Educating the mind without educating the heart is no education at all.”  Aristotle

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The advancement of technology in the Information Age has given rise to legal and ethical concerns in the society. Whilst technology has benefited the society its usage and abuse may also bring negative impacts. Some ethical issues needs to be address when leveraging ICT.

Data Mining

According to Investopedia, "Data Mining is a process used by companies to turn raw data into useful information. By using software to look for patterns in large batches of data, businesses can learn more about their customers and develop more effective marketing strategies as well as increase sales and decrease costs. Data mining depends on effective data collection and warehousing as well as computer processing."

Customers has knowingly and unknowingly disseminate data such as personal profiles, credit cards information and online purchase, during their daily activities. These data may be used for companies' database and some may share with other companies for marketing purposes. Though this may be legal, it may not be ethical as this may breach the individual's privacy.

With the dramatic development and growth of ICT, data are enabled to be stored manipulated and utilized efficiently and effectively, however through data mining technology the negative consequences would be  unregulated, ineffective and misdirected use of information mined.

Social Networking

Communications has been so easy for individuals all over the world with the existence of social networking platform such as Facebook, twitter, MySpace and many more. Through these social medias, individuals may share and post their status, personal information that may be used by other parties for their benefits. Most social networking sites claimed that the clients' data and information are be secured and protected. It may protect individual rights to speak, write and gather freely so far as it does not cause harm or incite violence (Verga, 2007), however, the postings may not be private and protected. For example, if an employee has posted bad comments on the employer. The employee has the right to speak in the open forum but he may not be protected from the action of the employer. Facebook states that it will do everything possible to protect the information posted on its sites but “cannot and will not guarantee that user content will not be viewed by unauthorized persons” (Facebook, 2008).

Spamming

The term "spam" is Internet slang that refers to unsolicited commercial email (UCE) or unsolicited bulk email (UBE). These unsolicited emails, or junk emails,  are used by businesses to advertise their products and services and has caused great annoyance to its recipients.

Due to its nature, Spam has raised perennial issue computer activity that is privacy issue. Spamming has often made people feel violated and their security being compromised. In addition to that, the recipients may want to know how the business got the email address and to what extend the information related to their email has been shared or violated. It has also become an ethical issues where advertising ethics are concerned. Spammer will become unethical when they have no right to spam the content of the emails because a customer may be deceived and misled by information that is factually untrue by the unauthorized spam.

Intellectual property

Intellectual property is property that is created from an individual's or corporate creativity. They are copyrighted patented and has trade secrets. In other words their usage are protected by laws. The most alarming issue related to the intellectual property is plagiarism. Plagiarism is using the work of others as their own. It is taking illegal ownership of the property without the consent of the rightful owner. For information to be legally and ethically shared, the work of others must be consented and cited. With easy access to the information from the internet, plagiarism has been an critical issue, both legal and ethical. 

CONCLUSION

To curb the ethical issues of ICT, the followings (non-exhaustive) may be observed:

ICT Usage Policy

A policy regarding the acceptable usage of ICT must be developed and in place to form as a best practice guideline. This should include the definition and outline for privacy and confidentiality of data and information; the proper use of ICT; adherence to relevant laws and observe the spirit of such laws; and last but not least to include the professional ICT and ethic codes.

Education and Awareness Program

Organizations, businesses and learning institutions, to name a few, should conduct periodical Education and Awareness Program on Intellectual Property Rights and Copyrights Issues to avoid plagiarism and legal issues.

Usage of other Information resources

Users may use other information resources besides the Internet.

ICT and Ethics

"It is a mistake to suppose that any technological innovation has a one-sided effect. Every technology is both a burden and a blessing; not either-or, but this-and-that." Neil Postman

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With globalization and advancement in the technological innovation and convergence, there exist inevitable ethical, legal and societal issues of freedom of expression, access to information, the right to privacy, intellectual property rights, and cultural diversity.

ICT, being an instrument to access, store and transmit information is a need in the society. With its rapid development globally, it has made possible a transition in information storage, processing, and dissemination; with speed, efficiency, and accuracy in human activities.

However, this has happened not without the of emergence of ethical issues in leveraging ICT. ICT and the right ethics must co-exist to integrate ICT and human values where ICT's role should advance and protect human values and not damaging them.

ICT ethics can be looked at two related areas: Information Ethics and Computer Ethics.

INFORMATION ETHICS

The information ethics is a field that concerns the moral issues arising from the development and application of information technologies. The issues are many and varied however they may be summarised as issues related to the followings:

•             Privacy 

Privacy is about the right of individual or society has to retain and not disclose their personal information. The extraction and sharing of information must be with their respective consent and  should be protected against unauthorized access.

•             Accuracy

Information must be accurate. Accurate information is error-free, complete, and relevant to the decisions that are to be based on it. Pervasive use of information has made it susceptible to misinformation. This may result in wrong decision making.

•             Property

Information is intangible. Whilst the right to property confines in the legal domain, the right to information lies more in ethical domain. Information ownership is an ownership to the intellectual property that results from individual's or corporation's creativity.   This ownership is protected by copyrights, patent and trade secret law.

•             Access

Rights on the access to information is individual's rights to obtain and use information collected or generated by others.

COMPUTER ETHICS

While using ICT, the following ethical standards, however the list is not exhaustive, must be observed:

• Comply with law and regulations and also code of practice on usage of intellectual property. This includes identifying and acknowledging the owner of the digital sources. References on the sites should be cited accordingly.

• Secure and protect all private information posted online. 

• Respect others while working online.  Be responsible when sharing digital materials.

• Be wary and understand the risks involve when doing online transactions.

• Observe all health and safety guidelines while using ICT tools.

What is Ethics?

"Ethics is knowing the difference between what you have a right to do and what is right to do."  Potter Stewart

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ethics  plural of eth·ics (Noun)
Noun

    Moral principles that govern a person's or group's behavior.
    The moral correctness of specified conduct.

Synonyms
   morality - morals - ethic - moral
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According to Tomas Paul and Linda Elder of the Foundation for Critical Thinking, "most people confuse ethics with behaving in accordance with social conventions, religious beliefs, and the law", and don't treat ethics as a stand-alone concept. Paul and Elder define ethics as "a set of concepts and principles that guide us in determining what behavior helps or harms sentient creatures". The Cambridge Dictionary of Philosophy states that the word ethics is "commonly used interchangeably with 'morality' ... and sometimes it is used more narrowly to mean the moral principles of a particular tradition, group, or individual." 

Ethics concerns itself with what is good or right in human interaction. It is considered to be ethical in behaviour if one does not merely consider what is good for oneself, but also considers what is good for others. Here, the interaction between one self and others in the society must be of quality interaction.One must also not neglect one own interest as a sense of own well-being is prerequisite for balanced and ongoing interaction with the other people. The interest of others however, must also be taken into consideration to avoid one's selfishness. Ethics ensure the interests of both oneself and others.

Ethics is the knowledge that differentiates between what is right and wrong, explain the actions that one should take and not take, or set the objectives of one's action and guiding them the route that should be taken.

According to the Islamic teachings, Muslims have to guard their behaviours, deeds, words, thoughts and intentions. Adhering to a specific moral code and ethical behaviour is compulsory because this is part of Islamic faith (iman). Islam asks its believers to observe certain norms and moral codes in their family affairs; in dealings with relatives, neighbours, and friends; in their business transaction; in their social affairs, nay in all spheres of private and public life (Sabahuddin Azmi, 2007).

 

What is ICT?

"We're changing the world with technology." Bill Gates

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ICT is an acronym for Information and Communication Technology. It refers to technologies that store, receive, manipulate and transmit information using computers and telecommunications. ICT has more recently been used to describe the convergence of several technologies and the use of common transmission lines carrying very diverse data and communication types and formats.

ICT has evolved ever so fast in the last few decades. With the development of ICT, information can be accessed, processed and transmit real-time across the border-less digital globe. People can communicate with each other anywhere and anytime despite the dispersed geographical locations.

ICT has a tremendous effect and impact on society as a whole. It is undeniably has become an important part of our everyday life. So it is imperative that we must ensure that ICT brings benefit and not harm to us and the society.