Chapter 4: Personal, Legal, Ethical, & Organizational Issues of Information Systems

Question 1

Acceptable use policy

Answer 1

A set of rules specifying the legal and ethical use of a system and the consequences of noncompliance

Question 2

Accountability

Answer 2

Issues involving both the user’s and the organizations’s responsibilities and liabilities

Question 3

Nonrepudiation

Answer 3

Method for binding all the parties to a contract

Question 4

Spam

Answer 4

• Unsolicited e-mails sent for advertising purposes

- Junk mail usually sent in bulk using automated mailing software

Question 5

Cookies

Answer 5

• Small text files with unique ID tags that are embedded in a web browser and saved on the user’s hard drive
• Helps web sites customize pages for users (recommend products)
• Can be disabled by installing a cookie manager

Question 6

Log Files

Answer 6

• Records a user’s actions on a web
• Generated by web server software
• Helps identify when people lie about their identities online

Question 7

Invasion of privacy =

Answer 7

• When user’s information is used without prior consent
• Information about every aspect of people’s lives are stored on a variety of databases
• Laws have flaws and loopholes

Question 8

Public Information

Answer 8

• Posted by organization or public agency

- Censored for public policy reasons (secret/private information) or if content is offensive

Question 9

Private Information

Answer 9

Posted by a person, usually uncensored because of freedom of expression, can be censored by an organization that you work for

Question 10

Internet Neutrality/Net Neutrality

Answer 10

States that Internet service providers (ISPs) and government agencies should treat all data on the Internet equally

Question 11

Intelectual Property

Answer 11

• Legal umbrella covering protections that involve copyrights, trademarks, trade secrets, and patents developed by people or businesses
• Includes Industrial property and copyright material

Question 12

Industrial Property (type of intellectual property)

Answer 12

• Includes inventions, trademarks, logos, and industrial designs
• Trademark: Protects product names and identifying marks such as logos
• Patent: Protects new processes such as inventions

Question 13

Copyrighted material (type of intellectual property)

Answer 13

• Includes literary (written) and artistic works as well as online materials such as Web pages, HTML code, and computer graphics

Question 14

Fair Use Doctrine

Answer 14

Exception to the copyright law that allows the use of copyrighted material for certain purposes

Question 15

Cybersquatting

Answer 15

• Registering, selling, or using a domain name to profit from someone else’s trademark
• Ex: Verizon.com, sell name of website to Verizon to make money

Question 16

Typosquatting/URL hijacking

Answer 16

• A variation of cybersquatting that relies on typographical errors made by Web users when typing a Web site address into a Web browser
• Ex: Goggle.com instead of google.com, companies will want to buy typo website names so they can direct users to their website

Question 17

Digital Divide

Answer 17

Divide created between the information rich and the information poor by information technology and the Internet

Question 18

Virtual organizations

Answer 18

• Networks of independent companies, suppliers, customers, and manufacturers connected via information technologies
• Share skills and costs, have access to each other’s markets

Question 19

Telecommunicating

Answer 19

Working from home

Question 20

Green Computing

Answer 20

• Promotes a sustainable environment and consumes the least amount of energy
• Involves the design, manufacture, use, and disposal of computers, servers, and computing devices with minimal impact on the environment
• Helps an organization save on energy costs while improving the quality of the environment

Question 21

You make two copies of a software package you just bought and sell one to a friend

Answer 21

Illegal (to copy software package) and unethical (to sell to a friend) = Quadrant 4

Question 22

You make two copies of a software package you just bought for personal use in case the original software fails and you need a back up

Answer 22

Illegal (to copy software package) and ethical (because it’s for personal use) = Quadrant 2

Question 23

A banker uses the information a client enters in loan applications to sell other financial products to this client

Answer 23

Legal (client provided information, consented to you knowing private information) and unethical (because you’re using information in a way not initially intended, to see more products) = Quadrant 3

Question 24

A credit card company sells its customer’s mailing address to its competitors

Answer 24

Legal (customer provided information) and unethical (because your selling private information to someone else) = Quadrant 3

Question 25

A supervisor fines a programer who has intentionally spread viruses to the organization’s network

Answer 25

Legal (to fire employee) and ethical (because employee committed espionage) = Quadrant 1