Social Networkin Ethical Issues
Content
Outline and discuss the ethical issues of social networks and any-time, anywhere availability
Technology is a double edged sword. It can be the source of many benefits and it can create new opportunities for breaking the law or taking benefits away from others. Ethics refers to the principles of right and wrong that individuals, acting as free moral agents, use to make choices to guide their behaviours. Information systems raise new ethical questions for both individuals and societies because they create oppurtunities for intense social change, and thus threaten existing systems of power money rights and obligations .Like other technologies, information system can also be used to achieve social progress but it can also be used to comm it crimes and threaten cherished social values. The development of information technology will produce benefits for many and costs for others. Ethical issues in information systems have been given new urgency by the rise of internet and electronic commerce. Internet and digital firm technologies make it easier to assemble, integrate and distribute information,, unleashing new concerns about the appropriate use of customer information, the protection of personel privacy and the protection of intellectual property. Other ethical issues raised by widespread use of information system include establishing accountability for the consequences of information systems, setting standards to safeguards system quality that protect the safety of individual and society and preserving values and institutions considered essential to the quality of life in an information society. When using IS it is essential to ask What is ethical and socially responsible course of action Five moral dimensions of the information age The major ethical social and moral issues raised by information systems have the following dimensions.
y
y y y y
Information rights and obligations: What information rights do individual and organizations possess with respect to themselves. What can they protect? What obligations do individuals and organizations have concerning this information. Property rights and obligations: Accountabilty and control System quality Quality of life: What values should be preserved in an information and knowledge based society. Which institutions should we protect from violation? Which cultural values and practices are supported by the new information technology?
(The first and the last dimension was more relevant to social network set up) Information Rights and Privacy in the internet age: Privacy is the claim of the individuals to be left alone, free from suvellaince of interference from other individuals and organizations, including the state. Claims to privacy are also involved at the workplace.
Pg 421 of Laudon shows the different governments that have different laws in place for privacy Fair Information practices is a set of principles governing the collection and use of information about individuals.FIP are based on the notion of mutuality of interest between the record holder and the individual. The individual has an interest in engaging in atransaction and the record keeper usually a business or government or business agency requires the information about the individual to support the transaction. (Details of the same on Pg 421) Quality of Life: Equity Access and boundaries Maintaining Boundaries: Family Work Leisure Pg 431 Computer Crime and abuse Pg 431
What is social networks ?
A social network is a social structure made of individuals (or organizations) called "nodes," which are tied (connected) by one or more specific types of interdependency, such as friendship, kinship, financial exchange, dislike, sexual relationships, or relationships of beliefs, knowledge orprestige.(wiki)
What are the ethical issues considering social networks
y
Legal and ethical issues when employers check applicants social networking sites
Gathering information unrelated to job performance can be illegal. Under federal and provincial human rights acts, an employer is prohibited from asking a candidate about their religion, sexual orientation, disability, criminal convictions, etc. Yet, given the explosion of social networking sites, an employer can easily find this information Furthermore, if an employer relies primarily on social networking sites rather than traditional human resource tools, they are exposed to another type of discrimination claim because such websites appeal to a homogeneous population (the majority of users are Caucasians between 20 and 40 years old), the method disproportionately disadvantages groups less likely to use these tools.
y
http://www.vancouversun.com/business/Facebook+snooping+return+haunt/24249 65/story.html http://blogs.zdnet.com/feeds/?p=1197 Data Mining
There have been some concerns expressed regarding the use of Facebook as a means of surveillance and data mining. Theories have been written about the possible misuse of Facebook current privacy policy.
[15] [14]
and privacy proponents have criticised the site's
According to the policy, "We may use information about you
that we collect from other sources, including but not limited to newspapers and Internet sources such as blogs, instant messaging services and other users of Facebook, to supplement your profile." However, some features²such as AIM away-
message harvesting and campus newspaper monitoring²have been dropped, even though the clause still remains in the policy as of November 26, 2008. The possibility of data mining by private individuals unaffiliated with Facebook remains open, as evidenced by the fact that two MIT students were able to download, using an automated script, over 70,000 Facebook profiles from four schools (MIT, NYU, the University of Oklahoma, and Harvard) as part of a research project on Facebook privacy published on December 14, 2005.
[16]
y y
y
The Internet: Friend or Foe to children (scanned page from laudon ) Working any time any where
Complaint from CIPPIC
The Canadian Internet Policy and Public Interest Clinic, per Director Phillipa Lawson, filed a 35-page complaint with the Office of the Privacy Commissioner against Facebook on May 31, 2008, based on 22 breaches of the Canadian Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (Pipeda). Facebook's Chris Kelly contradicted the claims, saying that: "We've reviewed the complaint and found it has serious factual errors ² most notably its neglect of the fact that almost all Facebook data is willingly shared by users."
[12]
University of Ottawa law students, Lisa
Feinberg, Harley Finkelstein and Jordan Plener, initiated the "minefield of privacy invasion" suit which was investigated by Canadian Privacy Commissioner, Jennifer Stoddart, who will submit the report and recommendations within a year. She will utilize negotiation to resolve privacy disputes, but can ask for court injunctions. y Lack of Anonymity You are putting out information about your name, location, age, gender, and many other types of information that you may not want to let others know. Most people would say be careful, but no one can be certain at any given time. As long as people can know who you exactly are, then some can find ways to do you in. y Scams and Harassment There is context. cases of theft to y a potential for failure of security in both personal and business While many sites apply certain measures to keep any of these harassment, cyber-stalking, online scams, and identity an absolute minimum, you still may never know.
[13]
y
Time Consuming : If this is not your kind of thing, that it would just be a waste of time for you. The key to social networking is that it is supposed to be fun, whether you are just doing it for kicks or clicking around for business purposes. That should be reasonable enough for anyone, but there are those people who don't see the point. For them, it can be a disadvantage. Identity theft : About 80,000 people in the UK were victims of
identity theft last year, at a cost to the economy of £1.5bn .
Neil Munroe, external affairs director for Equifax, said: "Fraudsters are taking advantage of the new craze for social networking. "The problem is that people don't realise the significance of the kind of information they are putting out on the web and who may be accessing it. "More and more consumers are signing up to these sites every day and chances are they'll put on their date of birth, location, e-mail, job and marital status."Fraudsters can use this information to steal an individual's identity and open accounts in their name." The group advised people to limit the personal information they make available about themselves online.It said people should avoid putting their full date of birth on one of the sites, as well as the names of children or pets as these are often used as passwords.Mr Munroe said: "We don't want to stop people using these sites, but we do advise them to limit the amount of information they make available to stop people stealing their identity." (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/6910826.stm )
y Cyber bullying: "Cyberbullying" is when a child, preteen or teen is tormented, threatened, harassed, humiliated, embarrassed or otherwise targeted by another child, preteen or teen using the Internet, interactive and digital technologies or mobile phones. It has to have a minor on both sides, or at least have been instigated by a minor against another minor. Once adults become involved, it is plain and simple cyber-harassment or cyberstalking. Adult cyber-harassment or cyberstalking is NEVER called cyberbullying. cyber bulling can be detrimental to a child's learning experience at school, as well as
to the child's life outside of school. The emerging high-tech trend in bullying was recently exemplified in the case of Lori Drew of St. Louis, Mo., who took part in a MySpace hoax that result ed in the suicide of 13-yearold girl Megan Meier. Drew allegedly used a fake MySpace account to impersonate a 16 -year-old boy to flirt with, befriend, and then break-up with Meier. Meier subsequently became so distraught she killed herself. The state Department of Education's bullying policy refers to harassment or bullying as "any gesture or written, verbal, graphic or physical act (including electronically transmitted acts ...) that is reasonably perceived as being motivated either by any a ctual or perceived characteristic, such as race, color, religion, ancestry, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity and expression; or a mental, physical, or sensory disability or impairment; or by any other distinguishing characterist ic."
http://www.spinalcolumnonline.com/Articles-i-2010-01-0672011.113117_Schools_addressing_cyber_traditional_bullying.ht ml
Cyberbullying and the law. Education law: Bullying is never acceptable. The school community has a duty to protect all its members and provide a safe, healthy environment. A range of Education Acts and government initiatives highlight these obligations. The Education and Inspections Act 2006 (EIA 2006)
outlines some legal powers which relate more directly to cyberbullying. Head teachers have the power µto such an extent as is reasonable¶ to regulate the conduct of pupils when they are off site. The EIA a lso provides a defence for school staff in confiscating items such as mobile phones from pupils. Civil and criminal law: Although bullying is not a specific criminal offence in UK law, there are laws that can apply in terms of harassing or threatening behaviour, for example, or indeed menacing and threatening communications. In fact, some cyberbullying activities could be criminal offences under a range of different laws, including the Protection from Harassment Act 1997, which has both criminal and civil provision, the Malicious Communications Act 1988, section 127 of the Communications Act 2003, and the Public Order Act 1986. y Cyber Stalking : Stalking is a term commonly used to refer to unwanted attention by individuals (and sometimes groups of people) to others. Stalking behaviors are related to harassment and intimidation. The word "stalking" is used, with some differing meanings, in psychology and psychiatry and also in some legal jurisdictions as a term for a criminal offence. It may also be used to refer to criminal offences or civil wrongs that include conduct which some people consider to be stalking, such as those described in law as "harassment" or similar terms(wiki).What is cyber stalking? What are the statistics of cyber stalking in uk? Cyber laws for cyber stalking? New Facebook Ad Techniques Raise Privacy Concerns
y
http://www.pcworld.com/article/139494/new_facebook_ad_techniques_raise_ privacy_concerns.html
Nomadic Work Culture ? http://www.infosectoday.com/IT%20Today/Nomadic%20Culture.htm Vitual private network
A secure network that uses the Internet as its main backbone network to connect the intranets of a company¶s different locations or to establish extranet links between a company and its customers, suppliers, or other business partners. Ethical issues of Any time anywhere availabity . Could be of
y y
Information People
Anytime anywhere availabity of People i.e the nomadic work culture that allows people to work from anywhere and anytime so as to connect with different people in this globalised new world.
Anytime Anwhere Availability of Information.
y Google Books is a prime example, Enderle said. It's an open debate whether the plan to scan millions of books and make them searchable online will prove the benefit to humanity that Google promises - or hand it a monopoly over certain digital works, as opponents allege. But the consensus is the company fomented an avoidable backlash by forging ahead with its controversial plan without consulting the parties with the most at stake. Authors and publishers responded with lawsuits alleging copyright infringement.
y
Google Street View, a Google Maps feature that lets users see images of streets and the surrounding areas, continues to generate controversy. Since its launch in May 2007, the feature has prompted questions about whether it constitutes an invasion of privacy, complaints about inappropriate images, and even a lawsuit. For example, a criminal could use Street View to case a neighborhood --checking Street View for cars that are parked in garages or driveways so they could know when someone isn't at home, scan t he yards and windows for any signs indicating that homes have security systems, check the proximity of neighboring houses using Street View and Google's satellite imagery, look for signs of pets that could pose problems for a thief, see if the homes have n ewspapers delivered (which might help the thief determine if the residents were on vacation) and, assuming the criminal found a good candidate, select a few potential access points (like open windows) for breaking into the home. If the Street View car happened to pass through your neighborhood on garbage day, the camera might even capture the box of that new HDTV you got. Scary, huh?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criticism_of_Google#cite_note-timesws-50 The link above has with references the different areas of anywhere any time availabity of information and its major concerns inn well drafted format. The same could be used in our essay.
Technology is a double edged sword. It can be the source of many benefits and it can create new opportunities for breaking the law or taking benefits away from others. Ethics refers to the principles of right and wrong that individuals, acting as free moral agents, use to make choices to guide their behaviours. Information systems raise new ethical questions for both individuals and societies because they create oppurtunities for intense social change, and thus threaten existing systems of power money rights and obligations .Like other technologies, information system can also be used to achieve social progress but it can also be used to comm it crimes and threaten cherished social values. The development of information technology will produce benefits for many and costs for others. Ethical issues in information systems have been given new urgency by the rise of internet and electronic commerce. Internet and digital firm technologies make it easier to assemble, integrate and distribute information,, unleashing new concerns about the appropriate use of customer information, the protection of personel privacy and the protection of intellectual property. Other ethical issues raised by widespread use of information system include establishing accountability for the consequences of information systems, setting standards to safeguards system quality that protect the safety of individual and society and preserving values and institutions considered essential to the quality of life in an information society. When using IS it is essential to ask What is ethical and socially responsible course of action Five moral dimensions of the information age The major ethical social and moral issues raised by information systems have the following dimensions.
y
y y y y
Information rights and obligations: What information rights do individual and organizations possess with respect to themselves. What can they protect? What obligations do individuals and organizations have concerning this information. Property rights and obligations: Accountabilty and control System quality Quality of life: What values should be preserved in an information and knowledge based society. Which institutions should we protect from violation? Which cultural values and practices are supported by the new information technology?
(The first and the last dimension was more relevant to social network set up) Information Rights and Privacy in the internet age: Privacy is the claim of the individuals to be left alone, free from suvellaince of interference from other individuals and organizations, including the state. Claims to privacy are also involved at the workplace.
Pg 421 of Laudon shows the different governments that have different laws in place for privacy Fair Information practices is a set of principles governing the collection and use of information about individuals.FIP are based on the notion of mutuality of interest between the record holder and the individual. The individual has an interest in engaging in atransaction and the record keeper usually a business or government or business agency requires the information about the individual to support the transaction. (Details of the same on Pg 421) Quality of Life: Equity Access and boundaries Maintaining Boundaries: Family Work Leisure Pg 431 Computer Crime and abuse Pg 431
What is social networks ?
A social network is a social structure made of individuals (or organizations) called "nodes," which are tied (connected) by one or more specific types of interdependency, such as friendship, kinship, financial exchange, dislike, sexual relationships, or relationships of beliefs, knowledge orprestige.(wiki)
What are the ethical issues considering social networks
y
Legal and ethical issues when employers check applicants social networking sites
Gathering information unrelated to job performance can be illegal. Under federal and provincial human rights acts, an employer is prohibited from asking a candidate about their religion, sexual orientation, disability, criminal convictions, etc. Yet, given the explosion of social networking sites, an employer can easily find this information Furthermore, if an employer relies primarily on social networking sites rather than traditional human resource tools, they are exposed to another type of discrimination claim because such websites appeal to a homogeneous population (the majority of users are Caucasians between 20 and 40 years old), the method disproportionately disadvantages groups less likely to use these tools.
y
http://www.vancouversun.com/business/Facebook+snooping+return+haunt/24249 65/story.html http://blogs.zdnet.com/feeds/?p=1197 Data Mining
There have been some concerns expressed regarding the use of Facebook as a means of surveillance and data mining. Theories have been written about the possible misuse of Facebook current privacy policy.
[15] [14]
and privacy proponents have criticised the site's
According to the policy, "We may use information about you
that we collect from other sources, including but not limited to newspapers and Internet sources such as blogs, instant messaging services and other users of Facebook, to supplement your profile." However, some features²such as AIM away-
message harvesting and campus newspaper monitoring²have been dropped, even though the clause still remains in the policy as of November 26, 2008. The possibility of data mining by private individuals unaffiliated with Facebook remains open, as evidenced by the fact that two MIT students were able to download, using an automated script, over 70,000 Facebook profiles from four schools (MIT, NYU, the University of Oklahoma, and Harvard) as part of a research project on Facebook privacy published on December 14, 2005.
[16]
y y
y
The Internet: Friend or Foe to children (scanned page from laudon ) Working any time any where
Complaint from CIPPIC
The Canadian Internet Policy and Public Interest Clinic, per Director Phillipa Lawson, filed a 35-page complaint with the Office of the Privacy Commissioner against Facebook on May 31, 2008, based on 22 breaches of the Canadian Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (Pipeda). Facebook's Chris Kelly contradicted the claims, saying that: "We've reviewed the complaint and found it has serious factual errors ² most notably its neglect of the fact that almost all Facebook data is willingly shared by users."
[12]
University of Ottawa law students, Lisa
Feinberg, Harley Finkelstein and Jordan Plener, initiated the "minefield of privacy invasion" suit which was investigated by Canadian Privacy Commissioner, Jennifer Stoddart, who will submit the report and recommendations within a year. She will utilize negotiation to resolve privacy disputes, but can ask for court injunctions. y Lack of Anonymity You are putting out information about your name, location, age, gender, and many other types of information that you may not want to let others know. Most people would say be careful, but no one can be certain at any given time. As long as people can know who you exactly are, then some can find ways to do you in. y Scams and Harassment There is context. cases of theft to y a potential for failure of security in both personal and business While many sites apply certain measures to keep any of these harassment, cyber-stalking, online scams, and identity an absolute minimum, you still may never know.
[13]
y
Time Consuming : If this is not your kind of thing, that it would just be a waste of time for you. The key to social networking is that it is supposed to be fun, whether you are just doing it for kicks or clicking around for business purposes. That should be reasonable enough for anyone, but there are those people who don't see the point. For them, it can be a disadvantage. Identity theft : About 80,000 people in the UK were victims of
identity theft last year, at a cost to the economy of £1.5bn .
Neil Munroe, external affairs director for Equifax, said: "Fraudsters are taking advantage of the new craze for social networking. "The problem is that people don't realise the significance of the kind of information they are putting out on the web and who may be accessing it. "More and more consumers are signing up to these sites every day and chances are they'll put on their date of birth, location, e-mail, job and marital status."Fraudsters can use this information to steal an individual's identity and open accounts in their name." The group advised people to limit the personal information they make available about themselves online.It said people should avoid putting their full date of birth on one of the sites, as well as the names of children or pets as these are often used as passwords.Mr Munroe said: "We don't want to stop people using these sites, but we do advise them to limit the amount of information they make available to stop people stealing their identity." (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/6910826.stm )
y Cyber bullying: "Cyberbullying" is when a child, preteen or teen is tormented, threatened, harassed, humiliated, embarrassed or otherwise targeted by another child, preteen or teen using the Internet, interactive and digital technologies or mobile phones. It has to have a minor on both sides, or at least have been instigated by a minor against another minor. Once adults become involved, it is plain and simple cyber-harassment or cyberstalking. Adult cyber-harassment or cyberstalking is NEVER called cyberbullying. cyber bulling can be detrimental to a child's learning experience at school, as well as
to the child's life outside of school. The emerging high-tech trend in bullying was recently exemplified in the case of Lori Drew of St. Louis, Mo., who took part in a MySpace hoax that result ed in the suicide of 13-yearold girl Megan Meier. Drew allegedly used a fake MySpace account to impersonate a 16 -year-old boy to flirt with, befriend, and then break-up with Meier. Meier subsequently became so distraught she killed herself. The state Department of Education's bullying policy refers to harassment or bullying as "any gesture or written, verbal, graphic or physical act (including electronically transmitted acts ...) that is reasonably perceived as being motivated either by any a ctual or perceived characteristic, such as race, color, religion, ancestry, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity and expression; or a mental, physical, or sensory disability or impairment; or by any other distinguishing characterist ic."
http://www.spinalcolumnonline.com/Articles-i-2010-01-0672011.113117_Schools_addressing_cyber_traditional_bullying.ht ml
Cyberbullying and the law. Education law: Bullying is never acceptable. The school community has a duty to protect all its members and provide a safe, healthy environment. A range of Education Acts and government initiatives highlight these obligations. The Education and Inspections Act 2006 (EIA 2006)
outlines some legal powers which relate more directly to cyberbullying. Head teachers have the power µto such an extent as is reasonable¶ to regulate the conduct of pupils when they are off site. The EIA a lso provides a defence for school staff in confiscating items such as mobile phones from pupils. Civil and criminal law: Although bullying is not a specific criminal offence in UK law, there are laws that can apply in terms of harassing or threatening behaviour, for example, or indeed menacing and threatening communications. In fact, some cyberbullying activities could be criminal offences under a range of different laws, including the Protection from Harassment Act 1997, which has both criminal and civil provision, the Malicious Communications Act 1988, section 127 of the Communications Act 2003, and the Public Order Act 1986. y Cyber Stalking : Stalking is a term commonly used to refer to unwanted attention by individuals (and sometimes groups of people) to others. Stalking behaviors are related to harassment and intimidation. The word "stalking" is used, with some differing meanings, in psychology and psychiatry and also in some legal jurisdictions as a term for a criminal offence. It may also be used to refer to criminal offences or civil wrongs that include conduct which some people consider to be stalking, such as those described in law as "harassment" or similar terms(wiki).What is cyber stalking? What are the statistics of cyber stalking in uk? Cyber laws for cyber stalking? New Facebook Ad Techniques Raise Privacy Concerns
y
http://www.pcworld.com/article/139494/new_facebook_ad_techniques_raise_ privacy_concerns.html
Nomadic Work Culture ? http://www.infosectoday.com/IT%20Today/Nomadic%20Culture.htm Vitual private network
A secure network that uses the Internet as its main backbone network to connect the intranets of a company¶s different locations or to establish extranet links between a company and its customers, suppliers, or other business partners. Ethical issues of Any time anywhere availabity . Could be of
y y
Information People
Anytime anywhere availabity of People i.e the nomadic work culture that allows people to work from anywhere and anytime so as to connect with different people in this globalised new world.
Anytime Anwhere Availability of Information.
y Google Books is a prime example, Enderle said. It's an open debate whether the plan to scan millions of books and make them searchable online will prove the benefit to humanity that Google promises - or hand it a monopoly over certain digital works, as opponents allege. But the consensus is the company fomented an avoidable backlash by forging ahead with its controversial plan without consulting the parties with the most at stake. Authors and publishers responded with lawsuits alleging copyright infringement.
y
Google Street View, a Google Maps feature that lets users see images of streets and the surrounding areas, continues to generate controversy. Since its launch in May 2007, the feature has prompted questions about whether it constitutes an invasion of privacy, complaints about inappropriate images, and even a lawsuit. For example, a criminal could use Street View to case a neighborhood --checking Street View for cars that are parked in garages or driveways so they could know when someone isn't at home, scan t he yards and windows for any signs indicating that homes have security systems, check the proximity of neighboring houses using Street View and Google's satellite imagery, look for signs of pets that could pose problems for a thief, see if the homes have n ewspapers delivered (which might help the thief determine if the residents were on vacation) and, assuming the criminal found a good candidate, select a few potential access points (like open windows) for breaking into the home. If the Street View car happened to pass through your neighborhood on garbage day, the camera might even capture the box of that new HDTV you got. Scary, huh?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criticism_of_Google#cite_note-timesws-50 The link above has with references the different areas of anywhere any time availabity of information and its major concerns inn well drafted format. The same could be used in our essay.
