Ch. 7: Ethical, Social & Political Issues Flashcards
The major ethical, social and political issues that have developed around e-commerce can be divided into 4 major dimensions:
- information rights
- property rights
- governance
- public safety & welfare
information rights
what rights to their own personal info do individuals have in a public marketplace or private homes or about business firms and other organizations
property rights
how can traditional intellectual property rights be enforced in an Internet world where perfect copies of protected word can be made and distributed in seconds
governance
should the Internet and e-commerce be made subject to public laws; what law-making bodies have jurisdiction
pubic safety and welfare
what efforts should be undertaken to ensure equitable access to the Internet and e-commerce channels
ethics
the study of principles that individuals and organizations can use to determine right and wrong courses of action
What are the 4 principles or all ethical schools of thought?
- responsibility
- accountability
- liability
- due process
responsibility
as free moral agents, individuals, organization and societies are responsible for the actions they take
accountability
individuals, organizations and societies should be held accountable to others for the consequences of their actions
liability
a feature of political systems in which a body of law is in place that permits individuals to recover the damages done to them by other actors, systems or organizations
due process
a process in which laws are known and understood and there is an ability to appeal to higher authority to ensure that the laws have been correctly applied
The 8 ethical principles
- Golden Rule
- universalism
- slippery slope
- collective utilitarian principle
- risk aversion
- no free lunch
- New York Times test (perfect information rule)
- social contract rule
Golden Rule
do unto others as you would have them do unto you
universalism
if an action is not right for all situations, then it is not right for any specific situation
slippery slope
if an action cannot e taken repeatedly, then it is not right to take at all (once you start down a slippery path, you may not be able to stop)
collective utilitarian principle
take the action that achieves the greater value for all society
risk aversion
take the action that produces the least harm, or the least potential cost
no free lunch
all in/tangible objects are owned by someone else unless there is a specific declaration otherwise (the owner will want credit)
New York Times test (perfect information rule)
assume that the results of your decision will be on the cover of the NYT the next day
social contract rule
would you like to live in a society where the principle you are supporting would become the organizing principle of the entire society
privacy
the moral right of individuals to be left alone, free from surveillance or interference from other individuals or organizations, including the state
information privacy
the claim that certain info shouldn’t be collected at all and that individuals should control the use of whatever info is collected about them
There are 2 kinds of threats to individual privacy posed by the Internet
- private sector: how much personal info is collected by commercial websites and how it will be used
- public sector: how much personal info organization the federal, state, and local govt. authorities collect and how they use it
(PII) personally identifiable info
any data that can be used to identify, locate or contact an individual
