Professional Ethics, Codes of Conduct, and Moral Responsibility

Flashcards covering key vocabulary from the lecture on professional ethics, codes of conduct, and moral responsibilities in IT and computing.

Professional Ethics

A field of applied ethics concerned with moral issues that impact computer/IT professionals.

Whistle-Blowing

The voluntary release of nonpublic information, as a moral protest, by a member or former member of an organization about illegal and/or immoral conduct.

Safety-Critical Software

Computer systems that can have a direct life-threatening impact.

Land Acknowledgement

Recognition of the presence of Indigenous peoples on the territory where an institution is located.

Responsibility

The state of having a duty to deal with something or of having control over someone.

Liability

A legal concept referring to being responsible for something, especially in a legal sense.

Accountability

The requirement to explain or justify actions or decisions to others.

Employee Loyalty

An obligation of loyalty that exists between employees and employers, often debated in terms of whistle-blowing.

Codes of Conduct

Rules outlining the responsibilities of or proper practices for an individual, party, or organization.

Professional Codes of Ethics

Formal documents that outline ethical guidelines for professionals in a particular field.

Conflict of Interest

A situation in which a person or organization is involved in multiple interests, financial or otherwise, that could corrupt their motivation or decision-making.

Outsourcing

Transferring jobs or responsibilities to a third party, often to reduce costs, which raises ethical questions regarding employee loyalty.

Ethical Codes Criticism

Arguments that ethical codes can oversimplify complex ethical considerations, confuse micro and macro ethics, and may act as legalistic tools rather than ethical guidance.

Micro-ethics vs. Macro-ethics

Micro-ethics refers to individual or small-group ethical issues; macro-ethics deals with larger societal or systemic ethical issues.

Environmental Ethics

A branch of philosophy that studies the moral relationship between humans and their environment.

Digital Rights Management (DRM)

Technologies that control the use of digital content and devices after the initial sale.