As of September 2003, there were approximately 70 million Americans or about 62 percent of the American population had at least one home computer. Another statistic is that about 55% of people also have internet on there home computers. In everyday life it is important for a person to have good ethics; this is also true about computer usage. Due to the fact that more then half of the American population owns computers, computer ethics are a growing concern in a rapidly changing society. Computer ethics can be broken down in to many topics including piracy, hacking, viruses, spam, phishing, and responsibility of use of software, cyber porn, and invasion of privacy and the use of the computer in the work place. Also there are many issues both moral and professional that a person who uses a computer might face.
Piracy which by definition is reproduction, distribution and use of software without permission of the owner of copyright, poses some serious ethical problems. The free exchange of copyrighted materials is piracy as it undermines the ability of copyright holders (and their representatives) to control the sale and distribution of goods to which theyand only theyown the rights. Probably the best known and most widely practiced form of piracy is the distribution of copyright protected music files via popular file sharing programs such as Kazaa and Limewire. As bandwidth increases, the "sharing" of movies and television shows on the Internet is likely to increase as well. Although file sharing is quite common, that does not mean it is okay.
Another ethical problem with computers is hacking. Hacking is the computer equivalent of breaking and entering. A computer hacker uses his or her skills to gain unauthorized access t...
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...rious consequences could surface which could ultimately lead to a loss of ones job. There are certain times and places were looking at different websites is ok and other times were it is just not acceptable.
As previously mentioned, computer ethics in some peoples eyes greatly changed based on were the computer you are on is located. There is a completely different set of ethics for work computers. Not only do ethics come into play in workplace with computer use but so do morals. It is very important for a person to be able to know the fine line between what is ok for work and what is not acceptable. This can vary from harassment through things like email to just visiting the wrong kinds of site. In my research I have found that many companies are actually coming up with ethical commandments for the work place to further define the line between right and wrong.
The use of hacking to identify weaknesses in computer security has become an increasingly controversial issue in recent years. Awareness of this issue is important, because our ever increasing reliance on technology means that breaches in computer security have the potential to have wide-ranging and devastating consequences to society, worldwide. This essay will begin by clearly defining the term ‘hacking’ and will examine the type of people who hack and for what reasons. There will then follow a discussion of the moral argument on hacking before examining a few brief examples. The essay will then conclude by arguing against the use of hacking as a means of identifying weaknesses in computer security.
An employer also should restrict an employee’s access to the internet or access to certain web sites, or prohibit the use of personal work computers. As a result, there is no right to claim privacy against your employer for monitoring or restricting your use of the internet. Having an internal regulation could avoid the personal use of a computer in the workplace, the employers are the owners of the computers, and they are also the owners of the data transmitted to and from the computers, regardless of the source. Another reason that justifies the employer's ability to control the use of the computer in the workplace is the security of their internal systems. Computer systems can be vulnerable to viruses and other types of technological problems if employees are downloading information and Internet programs, or other potentially harmful materials. Security can also be a problem in that employees can violate the company's confidentiality rules. By monitoring the use of the personal Internet, employers can prevent employees from being the means of disseminating confidential information about the company to the
...n work in an environment is free of alcohol, illegal drugs, firearms, discriminating and/or offensive material or data, etc. Company provided technology such as email, voice mail, and computer systems remain company property as well as all data that is transmitted, received, or stored. Employees are expected to use these resources business related purposes only
In my opinion, employees should not be able to use the internet while at work. The computers and networks are business property and are solely used for business transactions. Thus, employers have a duty and a right to ensure proper usage of any, and all, equipment. If employers decide to, they may choose to monitor the usage of the internet to ensure the property is not abused. According to the Electronic Communications Privacy Act, 18 USC 2510, et. seq., (www.law.cornell.edu/uscode), federal law allows employers to monitor business calls, however, personal calls are an exception. Under the federal law and employer only has the right to monitor a call until they realize that it is a personal call then must cease monitoring. In the case of Watkins v. L.M. Berry & Co., 704 F.2d 577, 583 (11th Cir. 1983), the court dictated that, "...a manager must cease listening in on an employee call once the call turns personal". When businesses first started using the internet, they did not contemplate developing new technology policies and were very liberal as to the usage of the internet. Eventually allowing liberal usage led to abuse of equipment and work time. Today, people check personal emails and facebook messages (among other social networking sites), take care of online banking, shopping, surf the net leisurely, and chat online. Employers have noticed this distraction severely impacted productivity and performance. Studies show, "Currently, as many as 26 million workers in the United States are monitored in their jobs, and this number will increase as computers are used more and more within companies and as the cost of these monitoring systems goes down" (DeTienne, 1993, p. 33). "By the end of the decade, as many as 30 milli...
Ethical standards that evolved over the history of Western civilization deal with interpersonal relationships. What is right or wrong? What one should do and not do when dealing with other people. Ethical behavior in a business environment has not been as clearly defined. When businesses were small and the property of a few individuals, traditional ethical standards were applied to meet different situations. However, as businesses became larger, the interpersonal ethical relations did not provide any clear behavioral guidelines. Likewise, the principles of ethical relationships were even less pertinent to the corporate environments.
As you can see, there are a lot of issues related to computer privacy in the workplace. I will continue researching the topic and present a full report with recommendations to your by the end of the month.
With new technological changes, managers are attempting to contend with the ethics of regulating the use of technology. They should realize the new ethical issues, as well as laws that sway how those issues are handled. These are localities of growing anxiety in the workplace, especially with the appearance of the Internet.
The issue with tackling the ethical hacker scenario is that the event is almost entirely action based. There is no end to give meaning to the action and there is no finalized result or indication that it impacted happiness, which many ethical theories depend on. Namely consequentialism, utilitarianism and ethical egotism require an end result in one form or another. There is also no purpose in committing the hackings which makes applying moral theories that deal with motivation and intent, ethical egotism and aspects of virtue ethics, increasingly more difficult to do effectively. Therefore moral theories that apply almost exclusively to the action itself will be utilized in this argument.
While seeing your employee on CNN’s website reading the news, or on Amazon’s website doing online shopping can be frustrating, it is when the employee is using their time toward “not safe for work” (or NSFW) online activities, when surveillance can be quite useful. An example of workplace surveillance from over twenty years ago shows that inappropriate use of the internet while at work has been around for a long time. In this case, computer logs of both the employees of IBM and Apple Inc. showed that they had visited Penthouse Magazine’s website over 13,000 in a single month (Cox and Goette and Young, 2005). Legal action did not occur, but this shows that inappropriate misuse of time in the office has been around since computers have been placed in a work environment over two decades
Olumoye, M. (2013). Ethics and Social Impact of Information Systems in Our Society: Analysis and Recommendations. International Journal of Science and Research, 11(2), 154-158
In the early years of computers and computerized technology, computer engineers had to believe that their contribution to the development of computer technology would produce positive impacts on the people that would use it. During the infancy of computer technology, ethical issues concerning computer technology were almost nonexistent because computers back then were not as multifaceted as they are today. However, ethical issues relating to computer technology and cyber technology is undeniable in today’s society. Computer technology plays a crucial role in all aspects of our daily lives. Different forms of computer technology provide unique functionalities that allow people to perform daily activities effectively and efficiently. In modern society, we use computer and cyber technology to communicate with friends and family via social networking sites, participate in business transactions, and get current news. Different tasks require unique technological feature in computer technology to function properly. Although, unique technological features increase people’s proficiency in accomplishing various tasks, unique technological features in computer and cyber technology increase security vulnerabilities. In many cases, the security vulnerabilities in computer technology are exploited by cybercriminals to invade people’s privacy, and steal people’s identity. We know that computers have no moral compass; they cannot make moral decisions for themselves. Essentially, people make moral decisions that affect others positively or negatively depending on how they use computer technology. Some of the biggest ethical issues facing people in the computing environment include privacy concerns on the web and identity theft. Privacy concerns...
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One particular crime that could be committed by employees who use the internet at work is hacking. Hacking is one of the most well-known types of computer crimes, in this context, the term refers to the unauthorized access of another’s computer system (HG.org Staff, 2015). This means that if the employee in not allowed to use the internet, for personal use, than there is a possibility that they could get charged for such crime. Because the policy will state they do not have the authority to access the organizations computer system for personal use. In addition, they must know that all use of computers systems while at work will be monitor, including e-mails. Piracy and cyber terrorism are other crimes that one can face when using a computer
The key issues of problems surrounding the application of ICT are: privacy, ownership, the responsibility, professionalism, social implications and values. It is beyond doubt that there are benefits of new technologies such as industry development, going to the moon, e- learning systems and improved diagnosis in various fields. Technology is advancing inevitable and with new advancement it creates a vacuum in the new legislation which is not always easy to deal with. The British Computer Society (BCS) and other professional computer organisations such as the Association of Computing Machinery (ACM) recognise the need for today’s graduates to be aware of the issues surrounding the use of computers in all aspects of society. The BCS is committed to raising the awareness of future computing professionals and requires that the social, legal...
Harvey, Brian."Computer Hacking and Ethics." Ed. Paul Goodman, P.G. Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences. U of California, Berkeley, n.d. Web. 25 Jan. 2014.