Chapter 4 - Ethical and Social Issues in Information Systems

What is Ethics?

Principles of right and wrong that individuals, acting as free moral agents, use to make choices to guide their behaviours

What does this image represent?

The relationship between Ethical, Social, and Political Issues in an Information Society

What are the five moral dimensions of the Information Age?

Information rights and obligations; Property rights and obligations; Accountability and control; System quality; Quality of life

Are Improvements in Information Technologies leading to a decreasing number of ethical problems?

No, it is actually increasing

What is Profiling?

Combining data from multiple sources to create dossiers of detailed information of individuals

What is Nonobvious relationship awareness (NORA)?

Combining data from multiple sources to find obscure hidden connections that might help identify criminals or terrorists

What does this image represent?

Nonobvious Relationship Awareness (NORA)

What are the basic concepts of ethics?

Responsibility; Accountability; Liability

What is Responsiblity?

Accepting the potential costs, duties, and obligations for decisions

What is accountability?

Mechanisms for identifying responsible parties

What is liability?

Permits individuals (and firms) to recover damages done to them

What is due process?

Laws are well-known and understood, with an ability to appeal to higher authorities

What does this image represent?

The Fundamental Tenets of Ethics

What is the five-step process for ethical analysis?

Identify and clearly describe the facts; define the conflict or dilemma and identify the higher-order values involved; identify the stakeholders; identify the options that you can reasonably take; identify the potential consequences of your options

What is Privacy?

Claim of individuals to be left alone, free from surveillance or interference from other individuals, organizations, or state; claim to be able to control information about yourself

What are fair information practices?

Set of principles governing the collection and use of information - basis of most Canadian, U.S. and European privacy laws

What older federal privacy legislation used to drive changes in Canadian privacy law?

PIPEDA (Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act)

What is Bill C-27?

A package of new federal legislation aimed at modernizing privacy, data protection, and AI governance in Canada

What are the three acts contained within Bill C-27?

Consumer Privacy Protection Act (CPPA); Personal Information and Data Protection Tribunal Act; Artificial Intelligence and Data Act

What is the purpose of the Consumer Privacy Protection Act (CPPA)?

To replace PIPEDA and strengthen rules around how organizations collect, use, and disclose personal information

What does the Personal Information and Data Protection Tribunal Act establish?

A tribunal that can hear appeals and impose penalties related to privacy violations under the CPPA

What is the goal of the Artificial Intelligence and Data Act?

To regulate high-impact AI systems and ensure responsible development and deployment of AI technologies

What is CASL (C-28)?

Canada’s Anti-Spam Legislation, which regulates commercial electronic messages and protects users from spam and digital threats

At what levels are privacy legislation changes driven in Canada?

Federally and Provincially

What are the ten basic principles of PIPEDA?

Accountability; Identifying Purpose; Consent; Limiting Collection; Limiting use, disclosure and retention; Accuracy; Safeguards; Openness; Individual Access; Challenging Compliance

What is Identifying Purpose under PIPEDA?

The Purposes for which personal information is collected shall be identified by the organization at or before the time the information is collected

What is consent under PIPEDA?

The knowledge and consent of the individual are required for collection, use, or disclosure of personal information, except when inappropriate

What is limiting collection under PIPEDA?

The collection of personal information shall be limited to that which is necessary for the purposes identified by the organization. Information shall be collected by fair and lawful means

What is limiting use, disclosure, and retention under PIPEDA?

Personal information shall no be used or disclosed for purposes other than those for which it was collected, except with the consent of the individual or as required by the law. Personal information shall be retained only as long as necessary for fulfillment of those purposes.

What is accuracy under PIPEDA?

Personal information shall be as accurate, complete, and up to date as is necessary for the purposes for which it is to be used.

What is safeguards under PIPEDA?

Personal information shall be protected by security safeguards appropriate to the sensitivity of the information

What is openness under PIPEDA?

The collection of personal information shall be limited to that which is necessary for the purposes identified by the organization. Information shall be collected by fair and lawful means

What is individual access under PIPEDA?

Upon request, an individual shall be informed of the existence, use, and disclosure of his or her personal information and shall be given access to that information. An individual shall be able to challenge the accuracy and completeness of the information and have it amended as appropriate.

What is challenging compliance under PIPEDA?

An individual shall be able to address a challenge concerning compliance with the above principles to the designated individual or individuals for the organization’s compliance.

What Provincial Information Rights are there?

Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act (FOIP); Personal Information Protection Act (PIPA); Public Interest Disclosure (Whistleblower Protection) Act

Shelli runs a small boutique in Calgary. She accepts credit cards and writes the number on her copy of the receipt in case there is a problem later. This practice involves which ethical issue related to IT?

Privacy

What is Intellectual Property?

Tangible and intangible products of the mind created by individuals or corporations

How can you protect intellectual property?

Copyright; Patents; Trademarks; Trade secrets

What are three principle sources of poor system performance?

Software bugs, errors; Hardware or facility failures; Poor input data quality (most common source of business system failure)