Ethics in It, ecommerce, privacy

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Project on Ethics In IT, e commerce, & privacy codes
INTRODUCTION TO ETHICS
Ethics, also known as moral philosophy, is a branch of philosophy that involves systematizing, defending, and recommending concepts of right and wrong behavior. It comes from the Greek word ethos, which means "character". Major areas of study in ethics may be divided into 3 operational areas:


Meta-ethics, about the theoretical meaning and reference of moral propositions and how their truth values (if any) may be determined;



Normative ethics, about the practical means of determining a moral course of action;



Applied ethics, about how moral outcomes can be achieved in specific situations;

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Project on Ethics In IT, e commerce, & privacy codes
CHAPTER – 1 DIFFERENT FORMS OF ETHICS 1. META - ETHICS
Meta-ethics is a field within ethics that seeks to understand the nature of normative ethics. The focus of meta-ethics is on how we understand, know about, and what we mean when we talk about what is right and what is wrong. Meta-ethics came to the fore with G.E. Moore's Principia Ethica from 1903. In it he first wrote about what he called the naturalistic fallacy. Moore was seen to reject naturalism in ethics, in his Open Question Argument. This made thinkers look again at second order questions about ethics. Earlier, the Scottish philosopher David Hume had put forward a similar view on the difference between facts and values. Studies of how we know in ethics divide into cognitivism and non-cognitivism; this is similar to the contrast between descriptivists and non-descriptivists. Non-cognitivism is the claim that when we judge something as right or wrong, this is neither true nor false. We may for example be only expressing our emotional feelings about these things. Cognitivism can then be seen as the claim that when we talk about right and wrong, we are talking about matters of fact. The ontology of ethics is about value-bearing things or properties, i.e. the kind of things or stuff referred to by ethical propositions. Non-descriptivists and non-cognitivists believe that ethics does not need a specific ontology, since ethical propositions do not refer. This is known as an anti-realist position. Realists on the other hand must explain what kind of entities, properties or states are relevant for ethics, how they have value, and why they guide and motivate our actions.

1.1NORMATIVE ETHICS

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Traditionally, normative ethics (also known as moral theory) was the study of what makes actions right and wrong. These theories offered an overarching moral principle one could appeal to in resolving difficult moral decisions.At the turn of the 20th century, moral theories became more complex and are no longer concerned solely with rightness and wrongness, but are interested in many different kinds of moral status. During the middle of the century, the study of normative ethics declined as meta-ethics grew in prominence. This focus on meta-ethics was in part caused by an intense linguistic focus in analytic philosophy and by the popularity of logical positivism.In 1971 John Rawls published A Theory of Justice, noteworthy in its pursuit of moral arguments and eschewing of meta-ethics. This publication set the trend for renewed interest in normative ethics.

1.2Epicureanism
Epicurean ethics is a hedonist form of virtue ethics. Epicurus "presented a sustained argument that pleasure, correctly understood, will coincide with virtue". He rejected the extremism of the Cyrenaics, believing some pleasures and indulgences to be detrimental to human beings. Epicureans observed that indiscriminate indulgence sometimes resulted in negative consequences. Some experiences were therefore rejected out of hand, and some unpleasant experiences endured in the present to ensure a better life in the future. To Epicurus the summum bonum, or greatest good, was prudence, exercised through moderation and caution. Excessive indulgence can be destructive to pleasure and can even lead to pain. For example, eating one food too often will cause a person to lose taste for it. Eating too much food at once will lead to discomfort and ill-health. Pain and fear were to be avoided. Living was essentially good, barring pain and illness. Death was not to be feared. Fear was considered the source of most unhappiness. Conquering the fear of death would naturally lead to a happier life. Epicurus reasoned if there was an afterlife and immortality, the fear of death was irrational. If there was no life after death, then the person would not be alive to suffer, fear or worry; he would be non-existent in death. It is

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irrational to fret over circumstances that do not exist, such as one's state in death in the absence of an afterlife. 1.3 Hedonism Hedonism posits that the principal ethic is maximizing pleasure and minimizing pain. There are several schools of Hedonist thought ranging from those advocating the indulgence of even momentary desires to those teaching a pursuit of spiritual bliss. In their consideration of consequences, they range from those advocating self-gratification regardless of the pain and expense to others, to those stating that the most ethical pursuit maximizes pleasure and happiness for the most people.

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CHAPTER – 2 2.1 Consequentialism
Consequentialism refers to moral theories that hold that the consequences of a particular action form the basis for any valid moral judgment about that action (or create a structure for judgment, see rule consequentialism). Thus, from a consequentialist standpoint, a morally right action is one that produces a good outcome, or consequence. This view is often expressed as the aphorism "The ends justify the means". The term "consequentialism" was coined by G.E.M. Anscombe in her essay "Modern Moral Philosophy" in 1958, to describe what she saw as the central error of certain moral theories, such as those propounded by Mill and Sidgwick. Since then, the term has become common in English-language ethical theory. The defining feature of consequentialist moral theories is the weight given to the consequences in evaluating the rightness and wrongness of actions. In consequentialist theories, the consequences of an action or rule generally outweigh other considerations. Apart from this basic outline, there is little else that can be unequivocally said about consequentialism as such. However, there are some questions that many consequentialist theories address:
  

What sort of consequences count as good consequences? Who is the primary beneficiary of moral action? How are the consequences judged and who judges them?

One way to divide various consequentialisms is by the types of consequences that are taken to matter most, that is, which consequences count as good states of affairs. According to hedonistic utilitarianism, a good action is one that results in an increase in pleasure, and the best action is one that results in the most pleasure for the greatest number. Closely related is eudaimonic consequentialism, according to which a full, flourishing life, which may or may not be the same as enjoying a great deal of pleasure, is the ultimate aim. Similarly, one might adopt an aesthetic consequentialism, in which the

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ultimate aim is to produce beauty. However, one might fix on non-psychological goods as the relevant effect. Thus, one might pursue an increase in material equality or political liberty instead of something like the more ephemeral "pleasure". Other theories adopt a package of several goods, all to be promoted equally. Whether a particular consequentialist theory focuses on a single good or many, conflicts and tensions between different good states of affairs are to be expected and must be adjudicated.

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2.2 Utilitarianism
Utilitarianism is a hedonistic ethical theory that argues the proper course of action is one that maximizes overall "happiness". Jeremy Bentham and John Stuart Mill are influential proponents of this school of thought. In A Fragment on Government Bentham says ‗it is the greatest happiness of the greatest number that is the measure of right and wrong‘ and describes this as a fundamental axiom. In An Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation he talks of ‗the principle of utility‘ but later prefers ―the greatest happiness principle". Hedonistic utilitarianism is the paradigmatic example of a consequentialist moral theory. This form of utilitarianism holds that what matters is the aggregate happiness; the happiness of everyone and not the happiness of any particular person. John Stuart Mill, in his exposition of hedonistic utilitarianism, proposed a hierarchy of pleasures, meaning that the pursuit of certain kinds of pleasure is more highly valued than the pursuit of other pleasures.

2.3 State consequentialism
State consequentialism, also known as Mohist consequentialism, is an ethical theory which evaluates the moral worth of an action based on how much it contributes to the social harmony of a state. The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy describes Mohist consequentialism, dating back to the 5th century BC, as "a remarkably sophisticated version based on a plurality of intrinsic goods taken as constitutive of human welfare." Unlike utilitarianism, which views pleasure as a moral good, "the basic goods in Mohist consequentialist thinking are... order, material wealth, and increase in population". During Mozi's era, war and famines were common, and population growth was seen as a moral necessity for a harmonious society. The "material wealth" of Mohist consequentialism refers to basic needs like shelter and clothing, and the "order" of Mohist consequentialism refers to Mozi's stance against warfare and violence, which he viewed as pointless and a threat to social stability. Stanford sinologist David Shepherd Nivison, in the The Cambridge History of Ancient China, writes that the moral goods of Mohism

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"are interrelated: more basic wealth, then more reproduction; more people, then more production and wealth... if people have plenty, they would be good, filial, kind, and so on unproblematically." In contrast to Bentham's views, state consequentialism is not utilitarian because it is not hedonistic. The importances of outcomes that are good for the state outweigh the importance of individual pleasure and pain. What is the purpose of houses? It is to protect us from the wind and cold of winter, the heat and rain of summer, and to keep out robbers and thieves. Once these ends have been secured, that is all. Whatever does not contribute to these ends should be eliminated.

2.4 Deontology
Deontological ethics or deontology is an approach to ethics that determines goodness or rightness from examining acts, or the rules and duties that the person doing the act strove to fulfill. This is in contrast to consequentialism, in which rightness is based on the consequences of an act, and not the act by itself. In deontology, an act may be considered right even if the act produces a bad consequence, if it follows the rule that ―one should do unto others as they would have done unto them‖, and even if the person who does the act lacks virtue and had a bad intention in doing the act[citation needed]. According to deontology, we have a duty to act in a way that does those things that are inherently good as acts ("truth-telling" for example), or follow an objectively obligatory rule (as in rule utilitarianism). For deontologists, the ends or consequences of our actions are not important in and of themselves, and our intentions are not important in and of themselves. Immanuel Kant's theory of ethics is considered deontological for several different reasons. First, Kant argues that to act in the morally right way, people must act from duty (deon). Second, Kant argued that it was not the consequences of actions that make them right or wrong but the motives of the person who carries out the action. Kant's argument that to act in the morally right way, one must act from duty, begins with an argument that the highest good must be both good in itself, and good without qualification. Something is 'good in itself' when it is intrinsically good, and 'good without qualification' when the addition of that thing never makes a situation ethically worse.

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Kant then argues that those things that are usually thought to be good, such as intelligence, perseverance and pleasure, fail to be either intrinsically good or good without qualification. Pleasure, for example, appears to not be good without qualification, because when people take pleasure in watching someone suffering; this seems to make the situation ethically worse. He concludes that there is only one thing that is truly good: Nothing in the world—indeed nothing even beyond the world—can possibly be conceived which could be called good without qualification except a good will.

2.5 Pragmatic ethics
Associated with the pragmatists, Charles Sanders Peirce, William James, and especially John Dewey, pragmatic ethics holds that moral correctness evolves similarly to scientific knowledge: socially over the course of many lifetimes. Thus, we should prioritize social reform over attempts to account for consequences, individual virtue or duty (although these may be worthwhile attempts, provided social reform is provided for).[26]

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2.6 Postmodern ethics
The 20th century saw a remarkable expansion and evolution of critical theory, following on earlier Marxist Theory efforts to locate individuals within larger structural frameworks of ideology and action. Antihumanists such as Louis Althusser and Michel Foucault and structuralists such as Roland Barthes challenged the possibilities of individual agency and the coherence of the notion of the 'individual' itself.[clarification
needed]

As critical theory developed in the later

20th century, post-structuralism sought to problematize human relationships to knowledge and 'objective' reality. Jacques Derrida argued that access to meaning and the 'real' was always deferred, and sought to demonstrate via recourse to the linguistic realm that "There is nothing outside the text"; at the same time, Jean Baudrillard theorised that signs and symbols or simulacra mask reality (and eventually the absence of reality itself), particularly in the consumer world. Post-structuralism and postmodernism argue that ethics must study the complex and relational conditions of actions. A simple alignment of ideas of right and particular acts is not possible. There will always be an ethical remainder that cannot be taken into account or often even recognized. Such theorists find narrative (or, following Nietzsche and Foucault, genealogy) to be a helpful tool for understanding ethics because narrative is always about particular lived experiences in all their complexity rather than the assignment of an idea or norm to separate and individuated actions. Zygmunt Bauman says Postmodernity is best described as Modernity without illusion. The illusion being the belief that humanity can be repaired by some ethic principle. Postmodernity can be seen in this light as accepting the messy nature of humanity as unchangeable. David Couzens Hoy states that Emmanuel Levinas's writings on the face of the Other and Derrida's meditations on the relevance of death to ethics are signs of the "ethical turn" in Continental philosophy that occurred in the 1980s and 1990s. Hoy describes post-critique

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ethics as the "obligations that present themselves as necessarily to be fulfilled but are neither forced on one or are enforceable" (2004, p. 103). Hoy's post-critique model uses the term ethical resistance. Examples of this would be an individual's resistance to consumerism in a retreat to a simpler but perhaps harder lifestyle, or an individual's resistance to a terminal illness. Hoy describes Levinas's account as "not the attempt to use power against itself, or to mobilize sectors of the population to exert their political power; the ethical resistance is instead the resistance of the powerless"(2004, p. 8). Hoy concludes that “The ethical resistance of the powerless others to our capacity to exert power over them is therefore what imposes unenforceable obligations on us. The obligations are unenforceable precisely because of the other's lack of power. Those actions are at once obligatory and at the same time unenforceable is what put them in the category of the ethical. Obligations that were enforced would, by the virtue of the force behind them, not be freely undertaken and would not be in the realm of the ethical. (2004, p.184)” In present day terms the powerless may include the unborn, the terminally sick, the aged, the insane and non-human animals. It is in these areas that ethical action in Hoy's sense will apply. Until legislation or the state apparatus enforces a moral order that addresses the causes of resistance these issues will remain in the ethical realm. For example, should animal experimentation become illegal in a society, it will no longer be an ethical issue on Hoy's definition. Likewise one hundred and fifty years ago, not having a black slave in America would have been an ethical choice. This later issue has been absorbed into the fabric of an enforceable social order and is therefore no longer an ethical issue in Hoy's sense.

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CHAPTER – 3 3.1 Applied ethics
Applied ethics is a discipline of philosophy that attempts to apply ethical theory to reallife situations. The discipline has many specialized fields, such as Engineering Ethics, bioethics, geoethics, public service ethics and business ethics. Particular fields of application

3.2 Bioethics
Bioethics is the study of controversial ethics brought about by advances in biology and medicine. Bioethicists are concerned with the ethical questions that arise in the relationships among life sciences, biotechnology, medicine, politics, law, and philosophy. It also includes the study of the more commonplace questions of values ("the ethics of the ordinary") which arise in primary care and other branches of medicine.

3.3 Geoethics
Geoethics is an interdisciplinary field between Geosciences and Ethics which involves Earth and Planetary Sciences as well as applied ethics. It deals with the way of human thinking and acting in relation to the significance of the Earth as a system and as a model. Geoeducational, scientific, technological, methodological and social-cultural aspects are included (e.g. sustainability, development, geodiversity and geoheritage, prudent consumption of mineral resources, appropriate measures for predictability and mitigation of natural hazards, geoscience communication, museology, etc.). In addition, the necessity of considering appropriate protocols, scientific integrity issues and a code of good practice - regarding the study of the abiotic world - is covered by this discipline. Studies on planetary geology (sensulato) and astrobiology also require a geoethical approach.

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34 Business Ethics
Business ethics (also corporate ethics) is a form of applied ethics or professional ethics that examines ethical principles and moral or ethical problems that arise in a business environment. It applies to all aspects of business conduct and is relevant to the conduct of individuals and entire organizations. Business ethics has both normative and descriptive dimensions. As a corporate practice and a career specialization, the field is primarily normative. Academics attempting to understand business behavior employ descriptive methods. The range and quantity of business ethical issues reflects the interaction of profit-maximizing behavior with noneconomic concerns. Interest in business ethics accelerated dramatically during the 1980s and 1990s, both within major corporations and within academia. For example, today most major corporations promote their commitment to non-economic values under headings such as ethics codes and social responsibility charters. Adam Smith said, "People of the same trade seldom meet together, even for merriment and diversion, but the conversation ends in a conspiracy against the public, or in some contrivance to raise prices."Governments use laws and regulations to point business behavior in what they perceive to be beneficial directions. Ethics implicitly regulates areas and details of behavior that lie beyond governmental control. The emergence of large corporations with limited relationships and sensitivity to the communities in which they operate accelerated the development of formal ethics regimes.

3.5 Relational ethics
Relational ethics are related to an ethics of care. They are used in qualitative research, especially ethnography and authoethnography. Researchers who employ relational ethics value and respect the connection between themselves and the people they study, and "between researchers and the communities in which they live and work" (Ellis, 2007, p. 4). Relational ethics also help researchers understand difficult issues such as conducting research on intimate others that have died and developing friendships with

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their participants. Relational ethics in close personal relationships form a central concept of contextual therapy.

3.6 Military ethics
Military ethics are intended to guide members of the armed forces to act in a manner consistent with the requirements of combat and military organization. While Just war theory is generally seen to set the background terms of moral debate, individual countries have more specific methods of upholding these ethical principles. Military ethics involves multiple subareas, including the following among others: 1. what, if any, should be the laws of war 2. justification for the initiation of military force 3. decisions about who may be targeted in warfare 4. decisions on choice of weaponry, and what collateral effects such weaponry may have 5. standards for handling military prisoners 6. methods of dealing with violations of the laws of war

3.7 Public service ethics
Public service ethics is a set of principles that guide public officials in their service to their constituents, including their decision-making on behalf of their constituents. Fundamental to the concept of public service ethics is the notion that decisions and actions are based on what best serves the public's interests, as opposed to the official's personal interests (including financial interests) or self-serving political interests.

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CHAPTER – 4 4.1 Evolutionary ethics
Evolutionary ethics concerns approaches to ethics (morality) based on the role of evolution in shaping human psychology and behavior. Such approaches may be based in scientific fields such as evolutionary psychology or sociobiology, with a focus on understanding and explaining observed ethical preferences and choices.

4.2 Descriptive ethics
Descriptive ethics is a value-free approach to ethics, which defines it as a social science (specifically sociology) rather than a humanity. It examines ethics not from a top-down a priori perspective but rather observations of actual choices made by moral agents in practice. Some philosophers rely on descriptive ethics and choices made and unchallenged by a society or culture to derive categories, which typically vary by context. This can lead to situational ethics and situated ethics. These philosophers often view aesthetics, etiquette, and arbitration as more fundamental, percolating "bottom up" to imply the existence of, rather than explicitly prescribe, theories of value or of conduct. The study of descriptive ethics may include examinations of the following:


Ethical codes applied by various groups. Some consider aesthetics itself the basis of ethics– and a personal moral core developed through art and storytelling as very influential in one's later ethical choices.



Informal theories of etiquette that tend to be less rigorous and more situational. Some consider etiquette a simple negative ethics, i.e., where can one evade an uncomfortable truth without doing wrong? One notable advocate of this view is Judith Martin ("Miss Manners"). According to this view, ethics is more a summary of common sense social decisions.



Practices in arbitration and law, e.g., the claim that ethics itself is a matter of balancing "right versus right," i.e., putting priorities on two things that are both right, but that must be traded off carefully in each situation.

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CHAPTER – 5
5.1 The Ethics in Information Technology
The Ethics of Information Technology and Business is an examination of a wide range of ethical questions that arise from the use of information technology in business and the business of information technology itself. Among the many issues discussed, privacy has a central place. Two chapters are devoted to the topic (chapter two: Marketing, Privacy, and the Protection of Personal Information; and chapter three: Employees and Communication Privacy). Privacy comes up repeatedly in other chapters of the book as well, such as chapter five, Ethical Issues in Information Technology and E-Business, where Web tracking and data mining are discussed, and chapter six, Ethical Issues on the Internet, in which the issues of anonymity and security are raised. Another central issue is that of intellectual property, in particular, digital assets such as software programs. Chapter four: New, Intellectual, and Other Property focuses exclusively on this issue, though again, as in the case of privacy, it comes up in other chapters as well. The last chapter is a broader reflection on the impact of information technology on society (chapter seven: Information Technology and Society: Business, the Digital Divide, and the Changing Nature of Work. While privacy and intellectual property are central issues that are worked out in detail in the earlier chapters of the book and applied to different cases in later chapters, there are a number of other topics as well, too numerous to list. They include taxation of ecommerce, assigning domain names, the changing nature of work, liability for system failures, and censorship, just to name a few. Four themes pervade the book and provide the closest thing to an overarching structure to its many arguments. They are the Myth of Amoral Computing And Information Technology (MACIT), the Lure of the Technological Imperative (TI), the Danger of the Hidden Substructure, and the Acceptance of Technological Inertia.

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MACIT is described in various ways throughout the book. In the preface it is described as a tendency to ignore the ethical dimensions of computing. However, for the most part it is treated as a propensity to mistakenly believe or reason that one cannot assign moral responsibility to agents‘ for failures of various sorts where computer technologies play a causal role. The reasoning implicit in this mistake is that computers are amoral entities and as such cannot be responsible for the harm they cause. Human agents may be involved in the causal nexus of the harm, but since they are not the direct or central cause, they are not responsible or if so to a minimal degree. TI is described in various places in various ways. Putting a few of the descriptions together, we might say it is a tendency to develop an information technology because it is possible to do so and meets some objective, irregardless of its ethical consequences (pages 175, 194, 260 et al.). Since the book is an extended argument against TI and MACIT, TI must also be manifested as a form of belief as well. On a descriptive interpretation it says that for any given technology, it will be developed if there is a reason to do so, regardless of its ethical consequences. The prescriptive interpretation is that for any technology, it should be developed if it is possible to do so. The other themes, i.e., the hidden substructure and technological inertia complement the first two themes and receive much less attention. When they are mentioned it is usually in support of the other two themes. The hidden substructure topic helps explain MACIT, because much of the causal nexus is unknown to most people. Technological inertia is the flip side to TI, that is, accepting the status quo once it has been established. Also, De George is not always careful to distinguish the themes. MACIT and TI seem to blend together from time to time (page 7). This may be because belief that a technology is inevitable might lead to belief that its developers are not morally responsible for its development. In the first chapter, Ethics and the Information Revolution, De George describes his approach to the ethical questions he will discuss. He locates the issues within a common and universal framework of ethical norms. Murder, stealing and other such acts are generally inconsistent with societal norms across societies despite their cultural

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differences. Within a society, norms exist for many practices that bear certain similarities to new and emerging practices made possible by information technologies. This suggests a two-step method. First, when evaluating a new practice such as monitoring e-mail, one can use analogical reasoning from similar practices and norms; for example, opening and reading private correspondence. If the dissimilarities are significant or if societies differ in the compared practices, one can move to the second step, which is to appeal to ―pertinent considerations of a variety of kinds‖ (page 26). De George does not attempt to characterize these considerations, but it is fair to say from the way he argues that they can be described as consequentialist or deontic and that they must cohere with the general framework of fundamental ethical norms. De George then draws a distinction between an empirical approach and an analytical or conceptual approach. The empirical approach is reactive, waiting for harms to be done before a response is formulated. The conceptual approach is proactive. It consists of identifying the logical presuppositions of a practice, institution or system, identifying its structure and the possible ethical weak points of that structure, and considering ways in which values might be built into those structures that would eliminate or mitigate its weak points. This conceptual approach is the one he endorses. De George does not say how these two methods are meant to fit together, although I think it can be inferred that the place of the kind of conceptual analysis he describes lies in the second step, which moves beyond analogy and takes into account a wide range of ―pertinent considerations.‖ If this is the case, then De George‘s method can be summarized as a two-step process that first attempts to apply existing norms to new practices via analogical arguments and then, if that fails, attempts an analysis of the practice or system along the lines described above. One of the most interesting parts of the book is in chapter one, where De George applies his method of analysis to the general system of IT taken as the basis for the information society. Here he argues that core values of an information-centric society are truthfulness, accuracy, information sharing, and trust. While important in other types of society (agricultural, industrial), these values take on greater role in an information economy, in

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contrast to punctuality, for example, which is critical in an assembly-line industrial economy. Appeal to these values plays a role in a number of arguments throughout the book. De George‘s discussion of privacy in chapter two also illustrates his method. He distinguishes between four kinds of privacy: Space privacy, body/mental privacy, personal information privacy, communication privacy, personal privacy and cyberspace privacy. Space privacy has to do with control of one‘s space against intrusion or observation by others. Body/mental privacy concerns one‘s ability to control access to ones thoughts and body. Personal information privacy concerns control over information about oneself. Personal privacy has to do with one‘s ability to reveal or not to reveal certain aspects of oneself to certain people. Finally, cyber privacy is similar to some of the others such as space privacy and body privacy and might be thought of as the virtual equivalent of these. After making these distinctions, De George addresses the problem of tracking people in public. Surveillance technologies are often employed in public places to reduce crime or traffic congestion. An argument can be made that there is nothing wrong with such surveillance. One can observe someone in public and can take a picture, and one can even video someone. If one were to use computer technology to coordinate video images in order to track people‘s movements, this would just be an extension of permitted activities. De George identifies the fallacy in such reasoning by describing the argument as claiming that public + public = public. The argument fails, De George claims, because private and public are not necessarily opposed concepts. One expects a certain amount of anonymity in public, and it is precisely this anonymity that is undermined by aggressive tracking. While De George does not explicitly use the distinctions above, it is clear that they play an explanatory role. The public-public argument assumes that all privacy rights are waived when one enters a public area. Hence it presupposes the frictionless extension of greater and greater observation. It seems plausible because we may be thinking of space privacy, which is certainly waived when we enter most public places. However, body/mental privacy,

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personal information privacy, communication privacy and personal privacy are not necessarily given up by leaving one‘s private spaces. Also, De George‘s treatment of privacy shows that it is a degree concept. He does not use this description, but his argumentation in a number of places implies it. If privacy can be held in different degrees, it can be valued in different degrees, and hence can be violated in different degrees. The public-public argument fails because it uses the same justificatory coin to buy more and more of one‘s privacy without offering further reasons proportionate to the loss the individual suffers. De George‘s treatment of intellectual property provides another example of his methodology. He challenges the appropriateness of copyright to software programs by showing that the analogy between computer programs, on the one hand, and literary and artistic works, on the other, is not strong enough to support the full extension of copyright protection (mainly its duration) to programs. Computers are more like lists of instructions than literary expressions. Defenders of copyright protection argue the value of the particular expression within a program, but, De George argues, people do not buy programs for their literary value. They normally buy object code, not source code, and hence cannot read the programs. Moreover, I think anyone familiar with programming would agree that one could change the names of all objects in their source code without diminishing the program‘s value as an intellectual work or product. De George also argues against patent protection on the grounds that software innovations are so rapid that that the twenty-year duration of patent protection should be unnecessary. Also, deciding what aspect of the program can be patented is a problem. Is it the look and feel of the interface, the architecture of the program, or the specific instructions of any and every subroutine? De George calls for a form of protection especially crafted for software instead of stretching protections designed for different sorts of intellectual property. He does not tell us what shape such protection should take, but his analysis shows that the grounds for such protection should be reasonable compensation for those who work to develop and market software products and fairness to them for investing time, money and effort in such development. What we need to do, therefore, is look at the

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special circumstances of software development to determine what is needed to afford such protection. Like producers of books, developers are threatened by the unauthorized copying of their software, especially since it is so easy to do. But De George is right in thinking that protection against such copying should not span decades. Software changes quickly and versions older than a few years are usually obsolete. Reverse engineering is also a threat, especially in the form of decompiling code and adopting it into a competing product for sale. However, it should be sufficient to ban particular forms of reverse engineering without using the strong protection afforded by patents, which prevents anyone but the first recognized inventor of the innovation from using it without a license. If someone writes a similar program with similar functions to an existing program, but does not steal code from a competitor, it seems unreasonable to deprive him or her of the benefit of his or her work. De George is correct in thinking that this would stifle competition. Also, it is hard to see how society would be benefited. Software developers do not face the same kinds of cost barriers that producers of pharmaceuticals or manufacturers of computer hardware do, so they do not need the incentive of barring competition to recoup massive investments. They just need to have reasonable assurance that no one can compete with them by stealing their code instead of developing their own. De George puts a lot of weight on MACIT and TI as characterizations of kinds of errors in thinking that can be corrected through argumentation. However, it is not clear that each is a single kind of error or that it occurs on a single level. In fact, it is not clear that they always describe errors in thinking. For example, in the case of TI, it is not always clear where an error is committed when considering the beliefs of agents. In the practical context, TI is less like a kind of error than a decision-theoretic dilemma in which individually rational choices lead to an ―irrational‖ outcome. Individual developers of a technology are often in the position of seeing an opportunity to create something with clear benefits that also carries with it a hard to define risk of being considered unethical at a later time. There may be no clear norms in place against the technology, the implementation they envision may be unproblematic in itself, and coordination with other groups or individuals for the sake of clarifying the issues may not be feasible. The only

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answer is for society to establish clear norms in advance. Hence, if there is an error here, it may be in found in the reflective belief that this cannot be done, not in the contextdependent, individual decision making. Here the connection between De George‘s argument against TI and his methodology is evident. If TI, as a general claim about technological development, is false, then moral norms can be established in advance of the emergence and deployment of information technologies. For moral norms to be identified, the sort of conceptual analysis De George describes will have to succeed in identifying problems and providing answers. It is probably a bit optimistic to think that this can be done without relying on the reactive, empirical approach of assessing the extent of moral damage done. Nonetheless, De George provides a good example of how to do such conceptual work in the service of identifying and clarifying such issues.

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5.2 PRIVACY & ETHICS Our Community's Privacy & Ethics Statement
Our Community is committed to protecting your privacy. Establishing a trusting relationship with our users is central to our work practices. Please read the following policy so you will better understand how we use the personal and organisational information you provide to us. This policy may change periodically so please check back on a regular basis. This statement makes clear our information gathering and dissemination practices for all of our online activities and is based on the Australian Privacy Commissioner's National Principles for the Fair Handling of Personal Information. If you have comments or questions regarding this privacy statement, please contact:

1. Collection
Our Community collects and stores the following information about visitors to its website:
  

the IP address and browser type of the user; the date and time you access our site; and the Internet address of the website from which you linked directly to our site.

This information does not in itself identify individuals and is used only to measure the number of visitors to the different sections of the site to help us make it more useful to you. You are free to browse our site without entering any personal information and therefore remain anonymous during your visit.

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User Feedback/Order Form
Our Community collects information from visitors who provide feedback on one or more of the services we offer on the site. This feedback is used to administer and refine the service. We may also use the information and ideas you send us to improve or promote the site, but we will not publish your name in association with any information you provide without contacting you and gaining your permission. Our Community collects information from you when you order a product but the information is only used to process your order quickly and accurately. Your contact information will only be used to send you the product that you purchase and your billing information will only be used to bill you for that product.

Cookies
Our site uses cookies to keep track of items in your shopping cart and to provide our visitors with a tailored user experience. With the help of cookies, we can present you with customized content. We also use cookies to remember passwords for you so you don't have to re-enter them each time you visit the site. You have the option of setting your browser to reject cookies. However, if certain cookies that track your purchases are rejected then we won't be able to keep items in your shopping cart. For further information on cookies, users can visit The World Wide Web Consortium

2. Use and Disclosure
We don't sell or loan or give away information collected from any of our activities. No data collected from the site will be disclosed to a third party except where the details are required to transfer information for volunteering and donations, where lease or rental finance arrangements are required, and where it is legally required, such as in the investigation of a criminal offence, and in compliance with a search warrant or subpoena.

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3. Data Quality
We strive to keep all information up to date by making regular scheduled updates. If you have identified that the information that we hold about you is incorrect, please contact us immediately so we can amend it.

4. Data Security
We are concerned to provide a secure environment for your privacy. We take all reasonable steps to ensure the security of the personal data we hold from such risks as loss or unauthorised access, destruction, use, modification or disclosure of data. Our Community wants to ensure that all of our customers can interact with us with complete confidence online.


We have created a secure transaction environment for commerce on the internet. Our e-commerce system uses Transport Layer Security (TLS) and Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) technology to ensure your experience is safe, sound and secure at all times.



TLS/SSL locks all information passed from you to www.ourcommunity.com.au in an encrypted envelope. This makes it almost impossible to be intercepted by an unauthorized party, as long as your browser and local network support the use of encrypted data transmissions.



TLS/SSL is the system that is used by all reputable e-commerce sites. The industry standard for encryption technology, TLS/SSL is compatible with all major browsers including Internet Explorer, Firefox, Chrome, Safari, Opera and more.

You will know when transmitted data is safe by the appearance of lock icon in your browser when you enter a secure page, and a green bar with our name "Our Community Pty Ltd" near the top of your browser window. As well as the lock and green bar, secure web pages can also be identified by their URL: they begin with 'https://', while standard pages begin with 'http://'.

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In the event of unauthorized use of your credit card, you must notify your credit card provider in accordance with its reporting rules and procedures. All account and profile information located on the Our Community website is passwordprotected to provide additional security. We recommend that you do not reveal or share your password with anyone. Our Community will never ask for your password through unsolicited phone or email contact. Remember to always log out of the www.ourcommunity.com.au site once you have completed your transaction. This will ensure that your account information cannot be accessed by others if you share a computer or are using a computer in a public place like a library. We are not involved in the selling, trading or alternative unauthorized use of personal information. We promise that we will not pass on any of your personal details to any other another organizations. From time to time, we may provide statistical information about traffic patterns and navigation techniques to reputable third parties. This will simply comprise data collected about you and other users to form aggregate results. It will not include any direct personal information that identifies you as a member of www.ourcommunity.com.au.

5. Off-site Links
Our Community is not responsible for the privacy practices or content of any site that is linked to this one. Your activity on those sites is covered by the privacy policies on those sites.

6. Our Community: ethical, efficient and effective
We do our utmost to make sure Our Community is an organization which is highly valued by staff, the community, our members and all of our stakeholders, but being human, occasionally we make a mistake. On the rare occasion where we do slip up, we assure you that we will attend to the issue as soon as it is drawn to our attention, remedy the problem and advise you of the outcome.

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Internet Privacy
Internet Privacy is one of the key issues that has emerged since the evolution of the World Wide Web. Millions of internet users often expose personal information on the internet in order to sign up or register for thousands of different possible things. This act has exposed themselves on the internet in ways some may not realize. In other cases, individuals do not expose themselves, but rather the government or large corporations, companies, small businesses on the internet leave personal information of their clients, citizens, or just general people exposed on the internet. One prime example is the use of Google Streetview and its evolution of online photography mapping of urban areas including residences. Although this advanced global mapping is a wondrous technique to aid people in finding locations, it also exposes everyone on the internet to moderately restricted views of suburbs, military bases, accidents, and just inappropriate content in general. This has raised major concerns all across the world. Another example of privacy issues with concern to Google is tracking searches. There is a feature within searching that allows Google to keep track of searches so that advertisements will match your search criteria, which in turn means using people as products. If you are not paying for a service on liars instead of being the consumer, you may very well be the product. There is an ongoing discussion about what privacy means and if it is still needed. With the increase in social networking sites, more and more people are allowing their private information to be shared publicly. On the surface, this may be seen as someone listing private information about them on a social networking site, but below the surface, it is the site that could be sharing the information (not the individual). This is the idea of an OptIn versus Opt-Out situation. There are many privacy statements that state whether there is an Opt-In or an Opt-Out policy. Typically an Opt-In privacy policy means that the individual has to tell the company issuing the privacy policy if they want their information shared or not. Opt-Out means that their information will be shared unless the individual tells the company not to share it.

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COMPUTER ETHICS computer ethics refers to the ways in which ethical traditions and norms are tested, applied, stretched, negotiated, and broken in the realm of computer technology. As computers brought about dramatically enhanced power of communication and data manipulation, new ethical questions and controversies were forced to the forefront of contemporary ethics debates. While ethics is concerned with codes of behavior, the arena of computer technology has created many uncertainties that make the establishment of such clear codes an often daunting task. The more dramatic abuses of computer technology, such as major Internet hackings of company Web sites and online theft of credit card numbers, achieve a high profile. While there are few uncertainties about such cases, these are only the most visible examples of far more prevalent phenomena. Most cases are more subtle, frequent, and tied to the everyday workings of ordinary, law-abiding citizens. There are few clear rules to govern ethical computer behavior, and novel situations arise with great frequency, which can prove dangerous when these fields and practices are mixed with business and sensitive information. The sheer scope of computer usage, spanning nearly every part of daily life and work, from medical records and communications to payment schedules and national defense systems, makes the untangling of ethical considerations all the more important, as unchecked ethical violations in one area can have severe repercussions throughout a wider system. On the personal level, individuals may run into ethical difficulties in considering what other activities they are facilitating by performing their particular functions via computer. Unfortunately, the speed of computer innovation has usually far outpaced the development of ethical norms to guide the application of new technologies. The sheer volume of data available to individuals and organizations heightens the concern over computer ethics. No firm, for instance, can forego the opportunity to take advantage of the wealth of data and data manipulation afforded by modern information technology and telecommunications. The competitive nature of the economy provides an

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incentive to beat competitors to certain advantageous practices so as to capitalize on those advantages. The trick, then, is for organizations to devise ethical principles that allow for the greatest level of innovation and competitive strategy while remaining within the bounds of acceptable societal ethics, thereby maintaining the stability of the system from which they hope to benefit. Likewise, businesses need to coordinate codes of ethics to avoid having their own information systems compromised and putting themselves at a disadvantage Regarding the Internet itself, the ethical conundrum centers on several basic questions. Will this medium have negative effects on society? What preventive measures can and should be taken to protect against these negative effects? In what ways will these preventive measures give rise to even more ethical considerations? Ultimately, how does society balance potential benefits with potentially damaging effects? E-commerce, in particular, creates a host of new ethical considerations, particularly in the area of marketing. The level of personal information and detail that can be accumulated about an individual—thanks to the conversion of integrated databases, polling and purchasing data, and other computer-based data—poses rather serious questions about an individual's rights to personal information in the digital spectrum. The easy collection and exchange of personal consumption patterns and interests over the Internet, while highly desirable to many firms, makes civil libertarians queasy. More broadly, those concerned with computer ethics ask to what extent information perceived as a public good ought to be transformed into a marketable commodity. Of course, computer activity that is legal isn't necessarily ethical. For example, the invasion of employee privacy via the monitoring of computer-based communications and other computer activity, while generally held to be legal, nonetheless poses serious ethical dilemmas. In addition, computers and related technology greatly depersonalize information and communication and allow for enhanced anonymity, which in turn can lead to diminished barriers to unethical behavior.

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Information technology and computer professionals began seriously considering the longterm effects of computer ethics in the late 1980s and early 1990s. They recognized the need to organize professionally through such bodies as the Association for Computing Machinery and the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers to devise professional codes of conduct. However, the increasing proliferation of powerful computers in the hands of nonprofessionals widens the scope of potential problems. Public interest groups such as the Computer Ethics Institute have made attempts to draw out basic guidelines for ethical computer behavior applicable throughout society. In that spirit, the institute formulated the "Ten Commandments of Computer Ethics," a list of basic dos and don'ts for computer use. Several professional associations have attempted to devise computer ethics codes. The code devised by the Association for Computing Machinery, for instance, included specific instructions that it is "the responsibility of professionals to maintain the privacy and integrity of data describing individuals," and that clear definitions for the retention and storage of such information and the enforcement thereof must be implemented for the protection of individual privacy.

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5.3 Ethics in e-Commerce
Not to get all philosophical on you, but ethics are our concepts of right and wrong. Ethics are the glue that holds our society together. They‘re the foundation of our laws, regulations, rules, traditions, manners, conventions and customs. Without ethics, and people‘s willingness to live by those ethics, there‘s chaos and anarchy. Welcome to the world of on-line commerce, where rules are vague, enforcement is virtually non-existent and ―the skies are not cloudy all day.‖ In the three-dimensional world we call home, we have all kinds of signposts to point us in the ―right‖ direction, but not so in Cyberburg. Scams, schemes, crackers and hackers abound — and guess what? You, the ethical, honest e-tailer are victimized by the stigma of on-line lawlessness. And, every time another scam is reported in the news, be it a massive ID theft, or some guy who runs up $250,000 in credit card fraud, on-line commerce suffers.

Rule Number One: There Are No

Rules

The FTC, the FCC and even the FBI all have programs to monitor on-line commerce. The programs are as effective as an umbrella in a cat 5 hurricane. Even government officials admit that they can‘t keep up with the number of complaints they receive from consumers. Obviously, this undermines consumer confidence in e-commerce. Sure, the number of on-line buyers is growing and fast. In 1999, fewer than 10% of computer users made an on-line purchase. The most recent figures indicate close to 50% of computer users now do some shopping on line, so indeed, the digital marketplace has grown in the past few years. But you have to wonder where we‘d be if the black hats weren‘t free to rip off an unsuspecting grandmother or hijack your keyboard (key loggers) when you log on to an unsecured site. Further, can we expect the growth of on-line sales to increase in light of the numerous ID frauds that have been in the news over the past 24 months: Choice Point, Lexus Nexus, AOL, General Motors and the U.S. Army are just some of the big names that have suffered hacker attacks — everything from social engineering attacks to Trojans to brute

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force dictionary attacks. The bad guys keep coming up with ways to undermine our online community of retailers. You can‘t stop them, but that doesn‘t mean you‘re helpless. If you, and every other honest, ethical individual with a cyber shop, conduct business ethically, consumer confidence will naturally increase. What we need are e-ethics for e-commerce.

e-Ethics

for

e-Commerce

There‘s nothing like buying something from the local merchants in town. You know them, you trust them, they know you and you swap cards during the holidays. These are relationships built on trust. Not so in the on-line world of commerce. You‘re a home page. Your buyers are numbers and e-mail addresses. You don‘t know them; they don‘t know you. However, you can and should still conduct business like a local merchant.
 

Customers will come back, generating repeat sales. Satisfied buyers will tell their friends. (How do you think Amazon became so big?) You‘ll demonstrate your commitment to being a good, on-line citizen. You‘ll be able to look at yourself in the mirror each morning.

 

So, let‘s look at the areas where e-tailers have ethical responsibilities to their customers, to their businesses and to the growing society of on-line businesses and the buying public.

Post Your Business

Policies

Do you accept returns? Under what conditions? Do you give cash returns or store credit? Are shipments insured? Where are you physically located? Do you offer customer support and service? 24/7? Your business policies should be carefully laid out for all to see. There should be a large link off your home page to a page or two of your company‘s policies. If you guarantee

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customer satisfaction, tell each customer. If there are conditions on returns, lay them out clearly. Skip the 6-point text on the back page (the fine print). Be straight with your customers right from the start.

Honor Your

Policies

The most overused words on the Internet are ―ABSOLUTELY FREE‖. Now, unless you‘re a complete rube, you know nothing is ever absolutely free. There‘s always a hook, a catch. So, unless it really is absolutely free, don‘t hype what isn‘t right. If you offer a full, money-back guarantee, then give the customer her money back! There are e-tailers who say one thing in their site text, but practice a different set of rules when it comes to delivering on promises made. You (and the rest of the world) are better off if you do what you say you‘re going to do. It‘s the right thing to do. It‘s the ethical thing to do. Come On With the ‘Come-Ons’ Already Laptops: Only $9.99!!! While they last!!! You see this kind of ‗come-on‘ all the time. So, you click to see what a $9.99 laptop gets you and discover the site sells abacuses. Or, they only had one 10-year old laptop for $9.99, which didn‘t last long (while they last). It‘s the old bait-and-switch, with a cheap laptop the bait. Once on the site, you‘re rerouted to a page of much higher priced laptops. You‘ve been suckered — again. No one likes to be suckered. It‘s a waste of time and an insult to the individual‘s intelligence.

Protect Your Buyer’s

Privacy

You can buy a million e-mail addresses (verified, so they say) for as little as a penny an address. And, where did the purveyors of these mailing lists acquire their information? From people (on-line entrepreneurs) who sold them their own company mailing lists.

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Legal? Yes. Fair? Well, that‘s an ethical question. Do you think it‘s fair to sell your customer list to a marketing data company for sale to anyone willing to pay $100? Your strict privacy policy is a selling point. It‘s also the ethical thing to do, so proclaim your position right there in your terms of service. ―We will not give or sell your name or other personal information to another party.‖ Then, do what you promise.

What About

Security?

Another area in which ‗do the right thing‘ comes into play. You gather a lot of personal information on your customers or clients — names, addresses, credit card numbers — the whole shebang. And, as the keeper of this invaluable information, you have a moral responsibility to protect it from hackers and the kids who use your business computer to do their homework. Is you site secure? Is your computer protected with multi-layers of protection against hackers? A fire wall? Anti-malware software? Encryption for on-line orders? If not, you‘re putting your customers at risk. And believe this: they‘ll be none too happy when they discover that some cracker has their personal information thanks to your lax security. Ethics is about responsibility — accepting responsibility and doing the right thing. If you‘re going to be a reputable, on-line dealer — one with ethical business practices — you have a responsibility to protect the personal information in your system. Here‘s the bottom line on your bottom line: we have to get rid of the ―snake oil‖ aspect of on-line commerce. We have to start operating like the old store on Main Street. Build trust through clearly-stated business policies, straight-up information (no bait-andswitch), treat customers fairly (there‘s always one) and protect the personal information entrusted to you.

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When we all earn the confidence of more and more on-line buyers, we make the whole ecommerce ‗society‘ a stronger, more vibrant place in which to conduct business — for everyone.

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Conclusion
Now that you understand the idea of business ethics, it is important to practice good ethical behavior. Leading by example; teaching by example; being a role model; these are all things that will come if you practice ethical behavior and chose to make the right decisions.

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BIBOGRAPHY  www.ethics.in  www.it-ethics.com  www.economics-ecommerce.org  www.ethics.in/privacy-codes.html  www.ethicalratio.org  www.indiaethics.in

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