GEN 110: Computers and Society

Dr. R. M. Siegfried

A General Introduction to the Social, Ethical and Professional Issues in Computing

The digital computer is a key technology of the modern era and has been central and essential to key operations in modern industrial society, including manufacturing, transport and distribution, government, the military, health services, education and research. And their impact will most likely increased over the next century.

We have also discovered that we are vulnerable to their malfunction and misuse, creating problems such as computer crime, software theft, hacking, viruses, invasions of privacy, an over- reliance on intelligent machines and workplace stress, each of which has created one or more ethical dilemmas for the computer profession.

Most technological problems these days get blamed on computers including power supplies failing, phone systems going down, air traffic controls seizing up, traffic lights on the blink. Also computers get blamed for mistakes made by utilities, governmental agencies, credit-checking bureaus, the police, etc.

Computers have been the cause of several major blunders:

• not spotting a hole in the ozone layer for 7 years
• 22 US servicemen dying in Blackhawk helicopter crashes
• 4 people dying from Therac-25 radiotherapy systems
• letting a Scud missile penetrate Patriot missile defenses, killing 28 people
• Hubbell Telescope's "myopia"
• The Y2K crisis

Computers may figured indirectly in other catastrophes:

• 3 Mile Island reaction accident
• the Chernobyl nuclear disaster
• the Challenger explosion
• the Air New Zealand crash and
• the straying of Korean Air Lines flight 007, which was shot down over Sakhalin Island by Soviet air force
• the sinking of HMS Sheffield (during the Falklands War),
• the shooting down of Iranian Airbus by the USS Vincennes (during the Gulf war).

Computer software was the cause of two different phone system failures at AT&T (in January 1990 and September 1991) as well as several aerospace disasters.

Computers are vulnerable to a variety of physical breaches, including:

• Setagaya, Japan, telephone office fire in 1984 cutting off 3000 data and 89,000 telephone lines.
• Fiber optic cables eaten by beavers in Missouri, foxes in outback Australia, sharking and fishing trawlers in the Pacific Ocean and accidental cut by New Jersey repairman.
• A New Jersey repair crew cutting a fiber optic cable, severing AT&T long distance service in the Northeast.

New social problems caused by computerization

Computer crime

• New technology brings with it new opportunities for crime, but in many ways, computers and computer networks have left many open doors for criminal to enter.
• People are stealing or doctoring data, or threatening to destroy data to extort money from companies.
• ATMs (Automated teller machines), EFT (Electronic funds transfer), EDI (Electronic data interchange), cellular phones are all vulnerable.
• Desktop publishing has made forgery and counterfeiting easier than it used to be, as is
• phone fraud.

Software theft

• Software theft costs the software industry an estimated $12 billion a year.
• Users have an opinion on the ethics of copying software that does not match the publishers and it is not always certain where the law stands on this around the world.
• Companies are not sure whether copyrights or patents is the best way to protect intellectual property and several look and feel cases have left the issues unresolved.
• The large question is how to protect intellectual property right without stifling creativity overall.
• KaZaa and other file-swapping sites have caused music and movies to be copied illegally and widely disseminated. It is estimated that such illegal product costs the music industry more than 300 million dollars a year domestically (source: RIAA web site).

Hacking

• Attacks by hackers and computer viruses have cost computer operators a great deal of time and money.
• Hackers have:
  • broken into computer systems to change exam results (and sometimes grades),
  • disrupted 911 systems,
  • hacked into US military computers
  • sold stolen data to the KGB
  • and blackmailed London banks into hiring them as "security consultants."

Viruses

Viruses have erased file, damaged disks, and shut down computer systems.

The most infamous virus is the Internet worm started by Robert Morris in 1998, tying up 6000 computer systems nationwide. While some people think that hackers are guardians of civil liberties, most legal systems view them as trespassers and vandals.

Unreliable software

• Computer crashes caused by unreliable software cost an estimated $4 billion in the US alone.
• Such bugs in helicopter control systems, air traffic control systems, railroad signals and ambulance dispatch systems can cost lives as well.
• Major losses include:
  • In 1988 Bank of America had to abandon an $80 million system that failed to work.
  • In 1992 American Airlines lost over $100 million on a runaway project.
  • Wessex Regional Health Authority and Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts scrapped systems costing $60 million and $120 million respectively.
  • US Defense Department runaways are rumored to cost even more.

Netiquette

• "Netiquette" is network etiquette, the do's and don'ts of online communication. Netiquette covers both common courtesy online and the informal "rules of the road" of cyberspace.¹
• When you enter any new culture - and cyberspace has its own culture - you're liable to commit a few social blunders. you might offend people without meaning to. Or you might misunderstand what others say and take offense when it's not intended. To make matters worse, something about cyberspace makes it easy to forget that you're interactig with real people - not just ASCII characters on a screen, but live human characters.
• there have been instances where "flame wars" (major verbal battles) have been place over the Internet because someone wrote something at which someone else took great offense - and the writer neven intended it.

¹http://albion.com/netiquette

Privacy

• Safeguarding privacy in a modern society where so much information about us is public is extremely difficult if not impossible. There have been data disasters involving mistaken identities, data mix-ups, and doctored data which adversely affect people's lives, including driving and credit records.
• Aggravating the problem are the issues of calling number identification (CNID or Caller ID) monitoring of e-mail, and data marketing.

AI and Expert Systems

There is a hornets' net of issues associated by giving the computer the ability to make medical, legal, judicial, political and administrative decisions. Given what we know about unreliable software, is it wise to trust it? And what is product liability on this kind of matter.

Computers in the Workplace

This has led to 2 primary issues: repetitive stress syndrome (Carpal Tunnel disorder) and job monitoring, as well as other health-related issues.

Ethical Dilemmas for Computer Users

• Some of these dilemmas are new (such as copying software), while others are new version of older problems dealing with right and wrong, honesty, loyalty, responsibility, confidentiality, trust, accountability, and fairness. Users face some of these problems while computer professionals face all of them.
• Some of these involve crimes, many that people frequently regard as "victimless" crimes. Are they truly victimless?
• Which is more important: access to affordable software or intellectual property rights? How do we protect developers so that they have the necessary incentive to be creative?
• Is hacking always wrong? Creating viruses?
• Who is responsible when a computer system fails to perform as it is supposed to? What kind of warranty should there be and from whom?
• What information on a database should be private? When are they doing us a service by providing that information?
• To what extent can we trust intelligent systems? Should we fund military systems?
• How should health hazards in the workplace be handled? Should we allow employers to monitor employee activities?

ACM (Association for Computing Machinery), IEEE-CS (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers - Computer Society, BCS (British Computer Society) and IFIP (International Federal for Information Processing) have developed professional codes to cover this. Their single biggest problem is limited sanction applied to the profession.

Those in Computer Science Education have an obligation to teach ethical conduct both as a separate course as well as an integral part of computer science education.

The Ten Commandments For Computer Ethics

from the Computer Ethics Institute

1. Thou shalt not use a computer to harm other people.
2. Thou shalt not interfere with other people's computer work.
3. Thou shalt not snoop around in other people's files.
4. Thou shalt not use a computer to steal.
5. Thou shalt not use a computer to bear false witness.
6. Thou shalt not use or copy software for which you have not paid.
7. Thou shalt not use other people's computer resources without authorization.
8. Thou shalt not appropriate other people's intellectual output.
9. Thou shalt think about the social consequences of the program you write.
10. Thou shalt use a computer in ways that show consideration and respect.

Software Engineering Code of Ethics and Professional Practice

"The time is right to get serious about this. As software becomes increasingly dominant in the IT industry, and, indeed, in everything else, there is an obvious need for a professional-level recognition. Far too much is placed on particular credentials for specific products or applications without regard to the bigger picture. The result is poorly engineered software projects."

This is Short Version of Version 5.2 as recommended by the IEEE-CS/ACM Joint Task Force on Software Engineering Ethics and Professional Practices and Jointly approved by the ACM and the IEEE-CS as the standard for teaching and practicing software engineering.

PREAMBLE

The short version of the code summarizes aspirations at a high level of the abstraction; the clauses that are included in the full version give examples and details of how these aspirations change the way we act as software engineering professionals. Without the aspirations, the details can become legalistic and tedious; without the details, the aspirations can become high sounding but empty; together, the aspirations and the details form a cohesive code.

Software engineers shall commit themselves to making the analysis, specification, design, development, testing and maintenance of software a beneficial and respected profession. In accordance with their commitment to the health, safety and welfare of the public, software engineers shall adhere to the following Eight Principles:

1. PUBLIC - Software engineers shall act consistently with the public interest.
2. CLIENT AND EMPLOYER - Software engineers shall act in a manner that is in the best interests of their client and employer consistent with the public interest.
3. PRODUCT - Software engineers shall ensure that their products and related modifications meet the highest professional standards possible.
4. JUDGMENT - Software engineers shall maintain integrity and independence in their professional judgment.
5. MANAGEMENT - Software engineering managers and leaders shall subscribe to and promote an ethical approach to the management of software development and maintenance.
6. PROFESSION - Software engineers shall advance the integrity and reputation of the profession consistent with the public interest.
7. COLLEAGUES - Software engineers shall be fair to and supportive of their colleagues.
8. SELF - Software engineers shall participate in lifelong learning regarding the practice of their profession and shall promote an ethical approach to the practice of the profession.

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