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Ethical Dilemmas in IT
Ethical Dilemmas in Information Technology
Information technology is a relatively recent phenomenon in our everyday political, social, and private lives. As such, centuries-old understandings of ethics and morality cannot easily be reconciled with the ever growing development of information technology. There are numerous cases, when information technology poses ethical dilemmas. In general, such cases occur when the good of the organization (government, companies) conflicts with the good of the individual. For example, the questions of privacy and intellectual property are the two issues where information technology poses serious ethical dilemmas.
In most democratic countries of the world, the right to privacy is protected by law. It is an aspect of human dignity as well as civil liberty but a dilemma occurs because large volumes of private data today are stored in computer databases by governments, organizations, business companies, and human rights advocacy groups. There is a fundamental...
As Myers & Miller (1996) explain, "The information that is kept about people in an information system is property, and as such this property may be very valuable to the owner and user of the system. However, the good of the organization that uses this information may be in conflict with the good of the individual" (p. 155).
Intellectual property is another issue where information technology poses an ethical dilemma. The laws of most developed countries protect individual or company copyright and maintain strict regulations, sometimes imposing severe punishments for copyright violations. But the information technology today makes it much easier to copy copyrighted material and exchange them with others. The dilemma exists because the copyright holder may abuse monopoly powers, whereas illegal copying and distributing of software programs causes the owners of…
This is an extraordinary ethical dilemma, historically speaking and thus reflected through the novel, because, from a utilitarian point-of-view, the action of allying with the Soviets during the Second World War is just: choosing the lesser of the evils to defeat the greatest evil manifesting itself at that time, the evil one is fighting. On the other hand, given the later implications, the evil force that the Soviet Union came
Kirst-Ashman & Hull (2008: 280) mention an example involving a social worker who is transferred to another department with a higher salary. He is however involved with a client who had just completed a long journey of establishing trust with him. If he leaves her at this time, she will a have great difficulty to reestablish trust, and she will also feel betrayed by him. It is important to
The need for continually creating and updating the security techniques and technologies involved in an enterprise system is the ethical responsibility of the IT professional. In order to successfully protect the information and intellectual property assets of a firm, an IT professional also needs to make a personal commitment to stay as current as possible on existing and future technologies (Pemberton, 1998). This commitment needs to be supported by the
Technology Integration Poses New Ethical Dilemmas for Healthcare Imagine studying the effects of globalization on healthcare. What would one find from his or her research? Is there a possibility that policies need changed? How does this affect one's licensure? One will study in depth this trend and find ways to solve the issues that arise before it is too late. Within the United States, "globalization of healthcare encompasses both exporting patients (medical
Ethical Dilemma: AIDS and Needles Case Ethical dilemmas, also considered as moral dilemmas, are circumstances that require a decision to be made between two choices, a moral and an immoral act. According to ethical dilemmas' assumption, the chooser will follow the societal norms i.e. the procedures of law or religious teachings, while making his choice that is ethically impossible (Your Dictionary 1996-2016). Employees have to choose between the company's success, as
IT Ethics Professionalism denotes a higher degree of knowledge and behavior that promotes a well being amongst similar people performing similar jobs. Adopting and fostering a spirit of professionalism portends a greater materialization of success and fulfillment. The purpose of this essay is to explore the idea of professionalism within the Information Technology profession itself. To assist in this effort, the use of professional codes of conduct will be explored and