The Ethics of Computing: A Survey of the Computing-Oriented Literature
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paper_title: Philosophy of computing and information technology

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Philosophy has been described as having taken a “computational turn,” referring to the ways in which computers and information technology throw new light upon traditional philosophical issues, provide new tools and concepts for philosophical reasoning, and pose theoretical and practical questions that cannot readily be approached within traditional philosophical frameworks. As such, computer technology is arguably the technology that has had the most profound impact on philosophy. Philosophers have studied computer technology and its philosophical implications extensively. Philosophers have discovered computers and information technology (IT) as research topics, and a wealth of research is taking place on philosophical issues in relation to these technologies. The research agenda is broad and diverse. Issues that are studied include the nature of computational systems, the ontological status of virtual worlds, the limitations of artificial intelligence, philosophical aspects of data modeling, the political regulation of cyberspace, the epistemology of Internet information, ethical aspects of information privacy and security, and many more. ::: ::: Philosophy has been described as having taken a ‘computational turn’, referring to the ways in which computers and information technology throw new light upon traditional philosophical issues, provide new tools and concepts for philosophical reasoning, and pose theoretical and practical questions that cannot readily be approached within traditional philosophical frameworks. As such, computer technology is arguably the technology that has had the most profound impact on philosophy. Philosophers have studied computer technology and its philosophical implications extensively, and this chapter gives an overview of the field. We start with definitions and historical overviews of the field and its various subfields. We then consider studies of the fundamental nature and basic principles of computing and computational systems, before moving on to philosophy of computer science, which investigates the nature, scope and methods of computer science. Under this heading, we will also address such topics as data modeling, ontology in computer science, programming languages, software engineering as an engineering discipline, management of information systems, the use of computers for simulation, and human-computer interaction. Subsequently, we will address the issue in computing that has received the most attention from philosophers, artificial intelligence (AI). The purpose of this section is to give an overview of the philosophical issues raised by the notion of creating intelligent machines. We consider philosophical critiques of different approaches within AI and pay special attention to philosophical studies of applications of AI. We then turn to a section on philosophical issues pertaining to new media and the Internet, including the convergence between media and digital computers. The theoretical and ethical issues raised by this relatively recent phenomenon are diverse. We will focus on philosophical theories of the ‘information society’, epistemological and ontological issues in relation to Internet information and virtuality, the philosophical study of social life online and cyberpolitics, and issues raised by the disappearing borders between body and artifact in cyborgs and virtual selves. The final section in this chapter is devoted to the many ethical questions raised by computers and information technology, as studied in computer ethics.
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paper_title: The Human Use of Human Beings

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By Norbert Wiener. (London: Eyre and Spottiswoode Ltd.) Pp. 242. Price 18s. This book is largely about the resemblances and differences between human beings and machines; and the dangers arising out of making machines too like human beings, or of treating human beings too like machines. The author ranges round the subject with a freedom reminiscent of a talk by James Stephens—successive index entries are Monkeys Paw (Jacobs), Monsters, Moral Values.
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paper_title: Morality, Ethics, and Reflection: A Categorization of Normative IS Research

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Moral views and perceptions, their ethical evaluation and justification, and practical concerns about how to incorporate them all play important roles in research and practice in the information systems discipline. This paper develops a model of normative issues ranging from moral intuition and explicit morality to ethical theory and meta-ethical reflection. After showing that this normative model is relevant to IS and that it allows an improved understanding of normative issues, the paper discusses these levels of normativity in the context of two of the most prominent normative topics in IS: Privacy and intellectual property. The paper then suggests that a more explicit understanding of the different aspects of normativity would benefit IS research. This would leverage the traditional empirical strengths of IS research and use them to develop research that is relevant beyond the boundaries of the discipline. Such broader relevance could be aimed at the reference disciplines. In particular, moral philosophy could benefit from understanding information technology and its role in organizations in more detail. It could, furthermore, inform policy makers who are increasingly called on to regulate new information technologies.
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paper_title: The pledge of the computing professional: recognizing and promoting ethics in the computing professions

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All of us in the computing community understand the importance of recognizing and promoting ethical behavior in our profession. Instruction in ethics is rapidly becoming a part of most computing-related curricula, whether as a stand-alone course or infused into existing courses. Both Computing Curricula 2005 and the current discussions on Computing Curricula 2013 recognize the significance of ethics, generally considering it a core topic across the various computing disciplines. Additionally, in their criteria for the accreditation of computing programs, ABET specifies that a student must attain by the time of graduation an understanding of ethical issues and responsibilities. What has been missing is a formal rite-of-passage ceremony to prompt student recognition and self-reflection on the transition from being a student to a computing professional. In 2009, seventeen faculty members and industry representatives from a wide range of institutions began to address this open problem by forming The Pledge of the Computing Professional [1], [2]. The Pledge exists to promote and recognize the ethical and moral behavior and responsibilities in graduates of computing-related degree programs as they transition to careers of service to society. The Pledge does not seek to define or enforce ethics --- this is the role of other organizations. Specifically, The Pledge is modeled after the Order of the Engineer [3] and provides a rite-of-passage ceremony at the time of graduation.
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paper_title: A uniform code of ethics: business and IT professional ethics

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Business and IT professionals have enough in common that they can share a universal code of ethics.
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paper_title: Enabling personal privacy for pervasive computing environments

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Protection of personal data in the Internet is already a challenge today. Users have to actively look up privacy policies of websites and decide whether they can live with the terms of use. Once discovered, they are forced to make a "'take or leave"' decision. In future living and working environments, where sensors and context-aware services are pervasive, this becomes an even greater challenge and annoyance. The environment is much more personalized and users cannot just "'leave"'. They require measures to prevent, avoid and detect misuse of sensitive data, as well as to be able to negotiate the purpose of use of data. We present a novel model of privacy protection, complementing the notion of enterprise privacy with the incorporation of personal privacy towards a holistic privacy management system. Our approach allows non-expert users not only to negotiate the desired level of privacy in a rather automated and simple way, but also to track and monitor the whole life-cycle of data.
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paper_title: In A Different Voice: Psychological Theory And Women's Development

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Introduction 1. Woman's Place in Man's Life Cycle 2. Images of Relationship 3. Concepts of Self and Morality 4. Crisis and Transition 5. Women's Rights and Women's Judgment 6. Visions of Maturity References Index of Study Participants General Index
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paper_title: Computer ethics in a different voice

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Abstract This paper argues that the potential of writing on computer ethics to contribute to a deeper understanding of inequalities surrounding the use of information and communications technologies is threatened by forms of technological determinism and liberalism. Such views are prevalent in professional and more popular literature, and even in policy documents, albeit expressed tacitly. Adopting this standpoint substantially reduces explanatory power in relation to certain computer ethics topics, especially equality and participation, particularly in relation to gender. Research on gender and information and communications technologies has analyzed inequalities between men and women both inside and outside the workplace, drawing heavily from feminist theory. The paper argues that feminist ethics, coupled with aspects of feminist legal and political theory, may offer a fruitful, novel direction for analyzing computer ethics problems, and certainly those that contain substantial differences, and therefore inequalities, in men's and women's experiences on-line. Furthermore, feminist ethics can offer a more collectivist approach toward computer ethics problems. Emerging themes in existing research on gender and computer ethics are discussed before exploring some of the outcomes of applying feminist theory to a problem of privacy in the extreme form of Internet-based harassment known as “cyberstalking”, where traditional liberal and determinist views have proved problematic.
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paper_title: The role of metaethics and the future of computer ethics

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In the following essay, I will discuss D.Johnson's argument in her ETHICOMP99 KeynoteSpeech (Johnson 1999) regarding the possiblefuture disappearance of computer ethics as anautonomous discipline, and I will analyze somelikely objections to Johnson's view.In the future, there are two ways in whichcomputer ethics might disappear: (1) therejection of computer ethics as an aspect ofapplied ethics, or (2) the rejection ofcomputer ethics as an autonomous discipline.The first path, it seems to me, would lead tothe death of the entire field of appliedethics, while the second path would lead onlyto the death of computer ethics as a separatesubject. Computer technology is becoming very pervasive,and each scientific field includes somediscipline-specific computing. For the likelyforeseeable future, disciplines such asbioethics and engineering ethics will have todeal with ethical issues involving the role ofcomputers. I will argue that computer ethics inthis sense is unlikely to disappear, even ifcomputer ethics ceases to be considered as aseparate discipline.In order to understand which path will befollowed by computer ethics, I will compareJohnson's argument with ideas of earlierthinkers like N. Wiener (1950) and B. Russell(1932). Although Russell did not specificallyconsider computer technology, he had somegood intuitions about the development ofsocieties by means of technology.My conclusion will be two-fold: (1) thatapplied ethics will not die, but it may make nosense in the future to talk about computerethics as a separate field; and (2) thatcomputer ethics will not simply become``ordinary ethics'', contrary to Johnson's view.
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paper_title: The need for a new graduation rite of passage

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The use of computers is pervasive throughout our society. Given the ever-increasing reliance placed upon software, graduates from computing-related degree programs need to be more aware than ever of their responsibilities toward ensuring that society is well served through their creative works. To assist with this effort, a new organization is being proposed for the establishment of a rite-of-passage ceremony for students graduating in the computing sciences that is similar in nature and scope to the Ring Ceremony employed by the Order of the Engineer for students graduating from engineering programs. This new organization is solely intended to promote and recognize the ethical and moral behavior in graduates of computing-related degree programs as they transition to careers of service to society. Two institutions---Ohio Northern University and the University of South Florida---have already experimented with this concept. We seek to start a larger conversation on this concept by soliciting input from the community on what we believe is a significant need for a new organization---an organization that can benefit both our graduates and the computing profession.
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paper_title: Turning students into ethical professionals

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At the engineering school of the University of Virginia, a primary responsibility is turning students into ethical professionals, Three Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET) Engineering Criteria (EC 2000 outcomes are a primary focus of this effort. The three relevant ABET EC 2000 outcomes are: "f", which requires students to demonstrate an understanding of professional and ethical responsibility; "h", which requires an understanding the impact of engineering solutions in a global and societal context; and "j", which asks for knowledge contemporary issues. These outcomes are broad. In order to create more specific outcomes, it is important to talk about the types of knowledge and skills students need to acquire in order to become ethical practitioners. The work presented establishes a framework, dividing the knowledge that engineering students need into four categories, based loosely on M. Adler's Paiadeia principles (1982).
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paper_title: Professionalism in the Digital Age

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The increased use of social media by physicians, combined with the ease of finding information online, can blur personal and work identities, posing new considerations for physician professionalism in the information age. A professional approach is imperative in this digital age in order to maintain confidentiality, honesty, and trust in the medical profession. Although the ability of physicians to use online social networks, blogs, and media sites for personal and professional reasons should be preserved, a proactive approach is recommended that includes actively managing one's online presence and making informed choices about disclosure. The development of a "dual-citizenship" approach to online social media that separates public and private personae would allow physicians to both leverage networks for professional connections and maintain privacy in other aspects. Although social media posts by physicians enable direct communication with readers, all posts should be considered public and special consideration for patient privacy is necessary.
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paper_title: A question of ethics: Developing information system ethics

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This study develops a pedagogy for the teaching of ethical principles in information systems (IS) classes, and reports on an empirical study that supports the efficacy of the approach. The proposed pedagogy involves having management information systems professors lead questioning and discussion on a list of ethical issues as part of their existing IS courses. The rationale for this pedagogy involves (1) the maturational aspects of ethics, and (2) the importance of repetition, challenge, and practice in developing a personal set of ethics. A study of IS ethics using a pre-post test design found that classes receiving such treatment significantly improved their performance on an IS ethics questionnaire.
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paper_title: Modeling IT ethics: a study in situational ethics

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Misuse of computer information systems has caused significant losses to business and society, even though computing has benefited both businesses and professionals. To this end, several measures have been suggested that both prevent and deter losses. One deterrent measure is to identify individual and situational characteristics of people who act ethically/ unethically. This study identifies specific charIlzak Benbasat was the accepting senior editor for this paper. acteristics that are associated with and may influence the ethical behavior intention of information systems employees when faced with ethical dilemmas. The results of the study show that individual and situational characteristics do influence ethical behavior intention.
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paper_title: The Human Use of Human Beings

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By Norbert Wiener. (London: Eyre and Spottiswoode Ltd.) Pp. 242. Price 18s. This book is largely about the resemblances and differences between human beings and machines; and the dangers arising out of making machines too like human beings, or of treating human beings too like machines. The author ranges round the subject with a freedom reminiscent of a talk by James Stephens—successive index entries are Monkeys Paw (Jacobs), Monsters, Moral Values.
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paper_title: Perspectives of ambient intelligence in the home environment

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Ambient Intelligence is a vision of the future information society stemming from the convergence of ubiquitous computing, ubiquitous communication and intelligent user-friendly interfaces. It offers an opportunity to realise an old dream, i.e. the smart or intelligent home. Will it fulfil the promises or is it just an illusion--offering apparently easy living while actually increasing the complexity of life? This article touches upon this question by discussing the technologies, applications and social implications of ambient intelligence in the home environment. It explores how Ambient Intelligence may change our way of life. It concludes that there are great opportunities for Ambient Intelligence to support social developments and modern lifestyles. However, in order to gain wide acceptance a delicate balance is needed: the technology should enhance the quality of life but not be seeking domination. It should be reliable and controllable but nevertheless adaptive to human habits and changing contexts.
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paper_title: Toward ethical information systems: the contribution of discourse ethics

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Ethics is important in the Information Systems field as illustrated by the direct effect of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act on the work of IS professionals. There is a substantial literature on ethical issues surrounding computing and information technology in the contemporary world, but much of this work is not published nor widely cited in the mainstream IS literature. The purpose of this paper is to offer one contribution to an increased emphasis on ethics in the IS field. The distinctive contribution is a focus on Habermas's discourse ethics. After outlining some traditional theories of ethics and morality, the literature on IS and ethics is reviewed, and then the paper details the development of discourse ethics. Discourse ethics is different from other approaches to ethics as it is grounded in actual debates between those affected by decisions and proposals. Recognizing that the theory could be considered rather abstract, the paper discusses the need to pragmatize discourse ethics for the IS field through, for example, the use of existing techniques such as soft systems methodology. In addition, the practical potential of the theory is illustrated through a discussion of its application to specific IS topic areas including Web 2.0, open source software, the digital divide, and the UK biometric identity card scheme. The final section summarizes ways in which the paper could be used in IS research, teaching, and practice.
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paper_title: Ubiquitous Computing: Any Ethical Implications?

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In this article, the authors investigate, from an interdisciplinary perspective, possible ethical implications of the presence of ubiquitous computing systems in human perception/action. The term ubiquitous computing is used to characterize information-processing capacity from computers that are available everywhere and all the time, integrated into everyday objects and activities. The contrast in approach to aspects of ubiquitous computing between traditional considerations of ethical issues and the Ecological Philosophy view concerning its possible consequences in the context of perception/action are the underlying themes of this paper. The focus is on an analysis of how the generalized dissemination of microprocessors in embedded systems, commanded by a ubiquitous computing system, can affect the behaviour of people considered as embodied embedded agents.
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paper_title: Safeguards in a world of ambient intelligence

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Copy the following link for free access to the first chapter of this title: http://www.springerlink.com/content/j23468h304310755/fulltext.pdf This book is a warning. It aims to warn policy-makers, industry, academia, civil society organisations, the media and the public about the threats and vulnerabilities facing our privacy, identity, trust, security and inclusion in the rapidly approaching world of ambient intelligence (AmI). In the near future, every manufactured product our clothes, money, appliances, the paint on our walls, the carpets on our floors, our cars, everything will be embedded with intelligence, networks of tiny sensors and actuators, which some have termed smart dust. The AmI world is not far off. We already have surveillance systems, biometrics, personal communicators, machine learning and more. AmI will provide personalised services and know more about us on a scale dwarfing anything hitherto available. In the AmI vision, ubiquitous computing, communications and interfaces converge and adapt to the user. AmI promises greater user-friendliness in an environment capable of recognising and responding to the presence of different individuals in a seamless, unobtrusive and often invisible way. While most stakeholders paint the promise of AmI in sunny colours, there is a dark side to AmI. This book aims to illustrate the threats and vulnerabilities by means of four dark scenarios. The authors set out a structured methodology for analysing the four scenarios, and then identify safeguards to counter the foreseen threats and vulnerabilities. They make recommendations to policy-makers and other stakeholders about what they can do to maximise the benefits from ambient intelligence and minimise the negative consequences.
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paper_title: Readings in Cyberethics

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This book of readings is a flexible resource for undergraduate and graduate courses in the evolving fields of computer and Internet ethics. Each selection has been carefully chosen for its timeliness and analytical depth and is written by a well-known expert in the field. The readings are organized to take students from a discussion on ethical frameworks and regulatory issues to a substantial treatment of the four fundamental, interrelated issues of cyberethics: speech, property, privacy, and security. A chapter on professionalism rounds out the selection. This book makes an excellent companion to CyberEthics: Morality and Law in Cyberspace, Third Edition by providing articles that present both sides of key issues in cyberethics.
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paper_title: Researching the ethical dimensions of mobile, ubiquitous and immersive technology enhanced learning (MUITEL): a thematic review and dialogue

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In this article, we examine the ethical dimensions of researching the mobile, ubiquitous and immersive technology enhanced learning (MUITEL), with a particular focus on learning in informal settings. We begin with an analysis of the interactions between mobile, ubiquitous and immersive technologies and the wider context of the digital economy. In this analysis, we identify social, economic and educational developments that blur boundaries: between the individual and the consumer, between the formal and the informal, between education and other forms of learning. This leads to a complex array of possibilities for learning designs, and an equally complex array of ethical dimensions and challenges. We then examine the recent literature on the ethical dimensions of TEL research, and identify key trends, ethical dilemmas and issues for researchers investigating MUITEL in informal educational settings. We then present a summary of research dialogue between the authors (as TEL researchers) to illuminate these MUITEL research challenges, indicating new trends in ethical procedure that may offer inspiration for other researchers. We conclude with an outline, derived from the foregoing analysis, of ways in which ethical guidelines and processes can be developed by researchers – through interacting with participants and other professionals. We conclude that ethical issues need to remain as open questions and be revisited as part of research practices. Because technologies and relationships develop, reassessments will always be required in the light of new understandings. We hope this analysis will motivate and support continued reflection and discussion about how to conduct ethically committed MUITEL research.
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paper_title: Turnover of Information Technology Professionals: A Narrative Review, Meta-Analytic Structural Equation Modeling, and Model Development

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This study combines a narrative review with meta-analytic techniques to yield important insights about the existing research on turnover of information technology professionals. Our narrative review of 33 studies shows that the 43 antecedents to turnover intentions of IT professionals could be mapped onto March and Simon's (1958) distal-proximal turnover framework. Our meta-analytic structural equation modeling shows that proximal constructs of job satisfaction (reflecting the lack of desire to move) and perceived job alternatives (reflecting ease of movement) partially mediate the relationships between the more distal individual attributes, job-related and perceived organizational factors, and IT turnover intentions. Building on the findings from our review, we propose a new theoretical model of IT turnover that presents propositions for future research to address existing gaps in the IT literature.
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paper_title: Combining IS Research Methods: Towards a Pluralist Methodology

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This paper puts forward arguments in favor of a pluralist approach to IS research. Rather than advocating a single paradigm, be it interpretive or positivist, or even a plurality of paradigms within the discipline as a whole, it suggests that research results will be richer and more reliable if different research methods, preferably from different (existing) paradigms, are routinely combined together. The paper is organized into three sections after the Introduction. In Â§2, the main arguments for the desirability of multimethod research are put forward, while Â§3 discusses its feasibility in theory and practice. Â§4 outlines two frameworks that are helpful in designing mixed-method research studies. These are illustrated with a critical evaluation of three examples of empirical research.
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paper_title: Integrating ethics in design through the value-sensitive design approach

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The Accreditation Board of Engineering and Technology (ABET) has declared that to achieve accredited status, 'engineering programs must demonstrate that their graduates have an understanding of professional and ethical responsibility.' Many engineering professors struggle to integrate this required ethics instruction in technical classes and projects because of the lack of a formalized ethics-in-design approach. However, one methodology developed in human-computer interaction research, the Value-Sensitive Design approach, can serve as an engineering education tool which bridges the gap between design and ethics for many engineering disciplines. The three major components of Value-Sensitive Design, conceptual, technical, and empirical, exemplified through a case study which focuses on the development of a command and control supervisory interface for a military cruise missile.
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paper_title: Real character-friends: Aristotelian friendship, living together, and technology

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Aristotle’s account of friendship has largely withstood the test of time. Yet there are overlooked elements of his account that, when challenged by apparent threats of current and emerging communication technologies, reveal his account to be remarkably prescient. I evaluate the danger that technological advances in communication pose to the future of friendship by examining and defending Aristotle’s claim that perfect or character-friends must live together. I concede that technologically-mediated communication can aid existing character-friendships, but I argue that character-friendships cannot be created and sustained entirely through technological meditation. I examine text-based technologies, such as Facebook and email, and engage a non-text based technology that poses the greatest threat to my thesis—Skype. I then address philosophical literature on friendship and technology that has emerged in the last decade in Ethics and Information Technology to elucidate and defend my account by contrast. I engage Cocking and Matthews (2000), who argue that friendship cannot be created and sustained entirely through text-based contact, Briggle (2008), who argues that friendship can be created and sustained entirely through text-based contact, and Munn (2012), who argues that friendship cannot be created and entirely sustained through text-based contact but can be created and sustained entirely in immersive virtual worlds. My account discusses a certain kind of friendship, character-friendship, and a certain kind of technology, Skype, that these accounts do not. Examination of these essays helps to demonstrate that character friendship cannot be sustained entirely by technologically-aided communication and that character-friends must live together.
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paper_title: The Cambridge Handbook Of Information And Computer Ethics

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the cambridge handbook of information and computer ethics is available in our book collection an online access to it is set as public so you can get it instantly. Our books collection hosts in multiple locations, allowing you to get the most less latency time to download any of our books like this one. Merely said, the the cambridge handbook of information and computer ethics is universally compatible with any devices to read.
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paper_title: Designing Robots for Care: Care Centered Value-Sensitive Design

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The prospective robots in healthcare intended to be included within the conclave of the nurse-patient relationship--what I refer to as care robots--require rigorous ethical reflection to ensure their design and introduction do not impede the promotion of values and the dignity of patients at such a vulnerable and sensitive time in their lives. The ethical evaluation of care robots requires insight into the values at stake in the healthcare tradition. What's more, given the stage of their development and lack of standards provided by the International Organization for Standardization to guide their development, ethics ought to be included into the design process of such robots. The manner in which this may be accomplished, as presented here, uses the blueprint of the Value-sensitive design approach as a means for creating a framework tailored to care contexts. Using care values as the foundational values to be integrated into a technology and using the elements in care, from the care ethics perspective, as the normative criteria, the resulting approach may be referred to as care centered value-sensitive design. The framework proposed here allows for the ethical evaluation of care robots both retrospectively and prospectively. By evaluating care robots in this way, we may ultimately ask what kind of care we, as a society, want to provide in the future.
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paper_title: Professionalism in the Digital Age

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The increased use of social media by physicians, combined with the ease of finding information online, can blur personal and work identities, posing new considerations for physician professionalism in the information age. A professional approach is imperative in this digital age in order to maintain confidentiality, honesty, and trust in the medical profession. Although the ability of physicians to use online social networks, blogs, and media sites for personal and professional reasons should be preserved, a proactive approach is recommended that includes actively managing one's online presence and making informed choices about disclosure. The development of a "dual-citizenship" approach to online social media that separates public and private personae would allow physicians to both leverage networks for professional connections and maintain privacy in other aspects. Although social media posts by physicians enable direct communication with readers, all posts should be considered public and special consideration for patient privacy is necessary.
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paper_title: Security and Privacy Issues in Wireless Sensor Networks for Healthcare Applications

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The use of wireless sensor networks (WSN) in healthcare applications is growing in a fast pace. Numerous applications such as heart rate monitor, blood pressure monitor and endoscopic capsule are already in use. To address the growing use of sensor technology in this area, a new field known as wireless body area networks (WBAN or simply BAN) has emerged. As most devices and their applications are wireless in nature, security and privacy concerns are among major areas of concern. Due to direct involvement of humans also increases the sensitivity. Whether the data gathered from patients or individuals are obtained with the consent of the person or without it due to the need by the system, misuse or privacy concerns may restrict people from taking advantage of the full benefits from the system. People may not see these devices safe for daily use. There may also possibility of serious social unrest due to the fear that such devices may be used for monitoring and tracking individuals by government agencies or other private organizations. In this paper we discuss these issues and analyze in detail the problems and their possible measures.
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paper_title: Enabling personal privacy for pervasive computing environments

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Protection of personal data in the Internet is already a challenge today. Users have to actively look up privacy policies of websites and decide whether they can live with the terms of use. Once discovered, they are forced to make a "'take or leave"' decision. In future living and working environments, where sensors and context-aware services are pervasive, this becomes an even greater challenge and annoyance. The environment is much more personalized and users cannot just "'leave"'. They require measures to prevent, avoid and detect misuse of sensitive data, as well as to be able to negotiate the purpose of use of data. We present a novel model of privacy protection, complementing the notion of enterprise privacy with the incorporation of personal privacy towards a holistic privacy management system. Our approach allows non-expert users not only to negotiate the desired level of privacy in a rather automated and simple way, but also to track and monitor the whole life-cycle of data.
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paper_title: Data mining: Consumer privacy, ethical policy, and systems development practices

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The growing application of data mining to boost corporate profits is raising many ethical concerns especially with regards to privacy. The volume and type of personal information that is accessible to corporations these days is far greater than in the past. This causes many consumers to be greatly concerned about potential violations of their privacy by current data collection and data mining techniques and practices. The purpose of this study is to identify the ethical issues associated with data mining and the potential risks to a corporation that is believed to be operating in an unethical manner. The paper reviewed the relevant ethical policies and proposed ten data mining systems development practices that can be incorporated into a software development lifecycle to prevent these risks from materializing.
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paper_title: Face recognition technology: security versus privacy

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Video surveillance and face recognition systems have become the subject of increased interest and controversy after the September 11 terrorist attacks on the United States. In favor of face recognition technology, there is the lure of a powerful tool to aid national security. On the negative side, there are fears of an Orwellian invasion of privacy. Given the ongoing nature of the controversy, and the fact that face recognition systems represent leading edge and rapidly changing technology, face recognition technology is currently a major issue in the area of social impact of technology. We analyze the interplay of technical and social issues involved in the widespread application of video surveillance for person identification.
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paper_title: On the Morality of Artificial Agents

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Artificial agents (AAs), particularly but not only those in Cyberspace, extend the class of entities that can be involved in moral situations. For they can be conceived of as moral patients (as entities that can be acted upon for good or evil) and also as moral agents (as entities that can perform actions, again for good or evil). In this paper, we clarify the concept of agent and go on to separate the concerns of morality and responsibility of agents (most interestingly for us, of AAs). We conclude that there is substantial and important scope, particularly in Computer Ethics, for the concept of moral agent not necessarily exhibiting free will, mental states or responsibility. This complements the more traditional approach, common at least since Montaigne and Descartes, which considers whether or not (artificial) agents have mental states, feelings, emotions and so on. By focussing directly on ‘mind-less morality’ we are able to avoid that question and also many of the concerns of Artificial Intelligence. A vital component in our approach is the ‘Method of Abstraction’ for analysing the level of abstraction (LoA) at which an agent is considered to act. The LoA is determined by the way in which one chooses to describe, analyse and discuss a system and its context. The ‘Method of Abstraction’ is explained in terms of an ‘interface’ or set of features or observables at a given ‘LoA’. Agenthood, and in particular moral agenthood, depends on a LoA. Our guidelines for agenthood are: interactivity (response to stimulus by change of state), autonomy (ability to change state without stimulus) and adaptability (ability to change the ‘transition rules’ by which state is changed) at a given LoA. Morality may be thought of as a ‘threshold’ defined on the observables in the interface determining the LoA under consideration. An agent is morally good if its actions all respect that threshold; and it is morally evil if some action violates it. That view is particularly informative when the agent constitutes a software or digital system, and the observables are numerical. Finally we review the consequences for Computer Ethics of our approach. In conclusion, this approach facilitates the discussion of the morality of agents not only in Cyberspace but also in the biosphere, where animals can be considered moral agents without their having to display free will, emotions or mental states, and in social contexts, where systems like organizations can play the role of moral agents. The primary ‘cost’ of this facility is the extension of the class of agents and moral agents to embrace AAs.
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paper_title: “But the data is already public”: on the ethics of research in Facebook

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In 2008, a group of researchers publicly released profile data collected from the Facebook accounts of an entire cohort of college students from a US university. While good-faith attempts were made to hide the identity of the institution and protect the privacy of the data subjects, the source of the data was quickly identified, placing the privacy of the students at risk. Using this incident as a case study, this paper articulates a set of ethical concerns that must be addressed before embarking on future research in social networking sites, including the nature of consent, properly identifying and respecting expectations of privacy on social network sites, strategies for data anonymization prior to public release, and the relative expertise of institutional review boards when confronted with research projects based on data gleaned from social media.
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paper_title: An enquiry into the ethical efficacy of the use of radio frequency identification technology

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This paper provides an in-depth analysis of the privacy rights dilemma surrounding radio frequency identification (RFID) technology. As one example of ubiquitous information system, RFID has multitudinous applications in various industries and businesses across society. The use of this technology will have to lead to a policy setting dilemma in that a balance between individuals' privacy concerns and the benefits that they derive from it must be drawn. After describing the basic RFID technology some of its most prevalent uses, a definition of privacy is derived in the context of information systems. To illustrate current attempts at controlling the undesirable side effects of RFID, Lessig's cyberspace framework is presented. It is found that each of Lessig's components is inadequate at preventing individual privacy violations in RFID. The main focus within this framework is on the norms of society. The social norm mechanism that addresses privacy issues in cyberspace is the Fair Information Practices Principles (FIPP). After an analysis of these principles, it is posited that the FIPP only deal with procedural justice issues related to data collection and omit distributive and interactional justice reasoning related to the actual beneficial and detrimental outcomes to the individuals whose data is being obtained. Thus, RFID is presented in the context of the tension between the many benefits that are provided by the technology in social exchanges, and the risk it carries of the loss of privacy. The new, expanded framework recognizes both sides of the issue with the ultimate goal of providing a greater understanding of how privacy issues can be addressed with RFID technology.
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paper_title: A software platform to analyse the ethical issues of electronic patient privacy policy: the S3P example

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Paper-based privacy policies fail to resolve the new changes posed by electronic healthcare. Protecting patient privacy through electronic systems has become a serious concern and is the subject of several recent studies. The shift towards an electronic privacy policy introduces new ethical challenges that cannot be solved merely by technical measures. Structured Patient Privacy Policy (S3P) is a software tool assuming an automated electronic privacy policy in an electronic healthcare setting. It is designed to simulate different access levels and rights of various professionals involved in healthcare in order to assess the emerging ethical problems. The authors discuss ethical issues concerning electronic patient privacy policies that have become apparent during the development and application of S3P.
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paper_title: Freedom and Privacy in Ambient Intelligence

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This paper analyzes ethical aspects of the new paradigm of Ambient Intelligence, which is a combination of Ubiquitous Computing and Intelligent User Interfaces (IUI's). After an introduction to the approach, two key ethical dimensions will be analyzed: freedom and privacy. It is argued that Ambient Intelligence, though often designed to enhance freedom and control, has the potential to limit freedom and autonomy as well. Ambient Intelligence also harbors great privacy risks, and these are explored as well.
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paper_title: The pledge of the computing professional: recognizing and promoting ethics in the computing professions

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All of us in the computing community understand the importance of recognizing and promoting ethical behavior in our profession. Instruction in ethics is rapidly becoming a part of most computing-related curricula, whether as a stand-alone course or infused into existing courses. Both Computing Curricula 2005 and the current discussions on Computing Curricula 2013 recognize the significance of ethics, generally considering it a core topic across the various computing disciplines. Additionally, in their criteria for the accreditation of computing programs, ABET specifies that a student must attain by the time of graduation an understanding of ethical issues and responsibilities. What has been missing is a formal rite-of-passage ceremony to prompt student recognition and self-reflection on the transition from being a student to a computing professional. In 2009, seventeen faculty members and industry representatives from a wide range of institutions began to address this open problem by forming The Pledge of the Computing Professional [1], [2]. The Pledge exists to promote and recognize the ethical and moral behavior and responsibilities in graduates of computing-related degree programs as they transition to careers of service to society. The Pledge does not seek to define or enforce ethics --- this is the role of other organizations. Specifically, The Pledge is modeled after the Order of the Engineer [3] and provides a rite-of-passage ceremony at the time of graduation.
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paper_title: Implementing moral decision making faculties in computers and robots

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The challenge of designing computer systems and robots with the ability to make moral judgments is stepping out of science fiction and moving into the laboratory. Engineers and scholars, anticipating practical necessities, are writing articles, participating in conference workshops, and initiating a few experiments directed at substantiating rudimentary moral reasoning in hardware and software. The subject has been designated by several names, including machine ethics, machine morality, artificial morality, or computational morality. Most references to the challenge elucidate one facet or another of what is a very rich topic. This paper will offer a brief overview of the many dimensions of this new field of inquiry.
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paper_title: Ethical challenges of telemedicine and telehealth.

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As healthcare institutions expand and vertically integrate, healthcare delivery is less constrained by geography, nationality, or even by institutional boundaries. As part of this trend, some aspects of the healthcare process are shifted from medical centers back into the home and communities. Telehealth applications intended for health promotion, social services, and other activities—for the healthy as well as for the ill—provide services outside clinical settings in homes, schools, libraries, and other governmental and community sites. Such developments include health information web sites, on-line support groups, automated telephone counseling, interactive health promotion programs, and electronic mail exchanges. Concomitant with these developments is the growth of consumer health informatics, in which individuals seeking medical care or information are able to find various health information resources that take advantage of new information technologies.
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paper_title: Brain-Computer Interaction and Medical Access to the Brain: Individual, Social and Ethical Implications

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This paper discusses current clinical applications and possible future uses of brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) as a means for communication, motor control and entertainment. After giving a brief account of the various approaches to direct brain-computer interaction, the paper will address individual, social and ethical implications of BCI technology to extract signals from the brain. These include reflections on medical and psychosocial benefits and risks, user control, informed consent, autonomy and privacy as well as ethical and social issues implicated in putative future developments with focus on human self-understanding and the idea of man. BCI use which involves direct interrelation and mutual interdependence between human brains and technical devices raises anthropological questions concerning self-perception and the technicalization of the
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paper_title: Breaching the Contract? Privacy and the UK Census

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Along with informed consent, anonymization is an accepted method of protecting the interests of research participants, while allowing data collected for official statistical purposes to be reused by other agencies within and outside government. The Decennial Census, carried out in a number of countries, including the United Kingdom, is a major event in the production of research data and provides an important resource for a variety of organizations. This article combines ethical evaluation, a review of relevant law and guidance, and analysis of 30 qualitative interviews carried out during the period of the 2001 UK Census, in order to explore the adequacy of the current framework for the protection of informational privacy in relation to census data. Taking account of Nissenbaum's concept of “contextual integrity,” Vedder's concept of “categorical privacy,” and Sen's call to heed of the importance of “actual behavior,” it will be argued that the current “contractarian” view of the relationship between an individual participant and the organization carrying out the Census does not engage sufficiently with actual uses of data. As a result, people have expectations of privacy that are not matched by practice and that the current normative—including the governance—framework cannot capture.
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paper_title: Ethics of Human Enhancement: 25 Questions & Answers

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This paper presents the principal findings from a three-year research project funded by the US National Science Foundation (NSF) on ethics of human enhancement technologies. To help untangle this ongoing debate, we have organized the discussion as a list of questions and answers, starting with background issues and moving to specific concerns, including: freedom & autonomy, health & safety, fairness & equity, societal disruption, and human dignity. Each question-andanswer pair is largely self-contained, allowing the reader to skip to those issues of interest without affecting continuity.
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paper_title: Pervasive healthcare: the elderly perspective

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The pervasive vision of future technologies raises important questions on how people, especially the elderly, will be able to use, trust and maintain privacy. To begin to address such issues, we conducted focus group sessions with elderly participants aged from 65 to 89 years. The groups were shown three Videotaped Activity Scenarios [5] depicting pervasive or ubiquitous computing applications in three contexts: health, commerce and e-voting. The resultant data was coded in terms of stakeholder, user and system issues. The data is discussed here from the user perspective -- specifically in terms of concerns about trust and privacy.
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paper_title: The Nuremberg Code: its history and implications.

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The Nuremberg Code is a foundational document in the ethics of medical research and human experimentation; the principle its authors espoused in 1946 have provided the framework for modern codes that address the same issues, and have received little challenge and only slight modification in decades since. By analyzing the Code's tragic genesis and its normative implications, it is possible to understand some of the essence of modern experimental ethics, as well as certain outstanding controversies that still plague medical science.
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paper_title: Scientific models and ethical issues in hybrid bionic systems research

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Research on hybrid bionic systems (HBSs) is still in its infancy but promising results have already been achieved in laboratories. Experiments on humans and animals show that artificial devices can be controlled by neural signals. These results suggest that HBS technologies can be employed to restore sensorimotor functionalities in disabled and elderly people. At the same time, HBS research raises ethical concerns related to possible exogenous and endogenous limitations to human autonomy and freedom. The analysis of these concerns requires reflecting on the availability of scientific models accounting for key aspects of sensorimotor coordination and plastic adaptation mechanisms in the brain.
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paper_title: On the Morality of Artificial Agents

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Artificial agents (AAs), particularly but not only those in Cyberspace, extend the class of entities that can be involved in moral situations. For they can be conceived of as moral patients (as entities that can be acted upon for good or evil) and also as moral agents (as entities that can perform actions, again for good or evil). In this paper, we clarify the concept of agent and go on to separate the concerns of morality and responsibility of agents (most interestingly for us, of AAs). We conclude that there is substantial and important scope, particularly in Computer Ethics, for the concept of moral agent not necessarily exhibiting free will, mental states or responsibility. This complements the more traditional approach, common at least since Montaigne and Descartes, which considers whether or not (artificial) agents have mental states, feelings, emotions and so on. By focussing directly on ‘mind-less morality’ we are able to avoid that question and also many of the concerns of Artificial Intelligence. A vital component in our approach is the ‘Method of Abstraction’ for analysing the level of abstraction (LoA) at which an agent is considered to act. The LoA is determined by the way in which one chooses to describe, analyse and discuss a system and its context. The ‘Method of Abstraction’ is explained in terms of an ‘interface’ or set of features or observables at a given ‘LoA’. Agenthood, and in particular moral agenthood, depends on a LoA. Our guidelines for agenthood are: interactivity (response to stimulus by change of state), autonomy (ability to change state without stimulus) and adaptability (ability to change the ‘transition rules’ by which state is changed) at a given LoA. Morality may be thought of as a ‘threshold’ defined on the observables in the interface determining the LoA under consideration. An agent is morally good if its actions all respect that threshold; and it is morally evil if some action violates it. That view is particularly informative when the agent constitutes a software or digital system, and the observables are numerical. Finally we review the consequences for Computer Ethics of our approach. In conclusion, this approach facilitates the discussion of the morality of agents not only in Cyberspace but also in the biosphere, where animals can be considered moral agents without their having to display free will, emotions or mental states, and in social contexts, where systems like organizations can play the role of moral agents. The primary ‘cost’ of this facility is the extension of the class of agents and moral agents to embrace AAs.
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paper_title: Beyond Robot Ethics: On a Legislative Consortium for Social Robotics

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As robots are increasingly integrated into human society, associated problems will resemble or merge with those in other fields — we can refer to this phenomenon as the 'robot sociability problem'. In this paper, the author first analyzes the dynamic relationship between robot ethics, robotics and robot law, and then proposes a 'practical robots' approach for solving the robot sociability problem. As this approach is based on legal regulations, the author posits that a functional platform such as a 'legislative consortium for social robotics' is crucial at the initial stage for social robotics development. In conclusion, the author discusses how a legislative consortium for social robotics will be a useful approach for solving the robot sociability problem, especially emerging structural legislative problems that are related to autonomous robots.
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paper_title: The Ethics of Big Data: Current and Foreseeable Issues in Biomedical Contexts

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The capacity to collect and analyse data is growing exponentially. Referred to as ‘Big Data’, this scientific, social and technological trend has helped create destabilising amounts of information, which can challenge accepted social and ethical norms. Big Data remains a fuzzy idea, emerging across social, scientific, and business contexts sometimes seemingly related only by the gigantic size of the datasets being considered. As is often the case with the cutting edge of scientific and technological progress, understanding of the ethical implications of Big Data lags behind. In order to bridge such a gap, this article systematically and comprehensively analyses academic literature concerning the ethical implications of Big Data, providing a watershed for future ethical investigations and regulations. Particular attention is paid to biomedical Big Data due to the inherent sensitivity of medical information. By means of a meta-analysis of the literature, a thematic narrative is provided to guide ethicists, data scientists, regulators and other stakeholders through what is already known or hypothesised about the ethical risks of this emerging and innovative phenomenon. Five key areas of concern are identified: (1) informed consent, (2) privacy (including anonymisation and data protection), (3) ownership, (4) epistemology and objectivity, and (5) ‘Big Data Divides’ created between those who have or lack the necessary resources to analyse increasingly large datasets. Critical gaps in the treatment of these themes are identified with suggestions for future research. Six additional areas of concern are then suggested which, although related have not yet attracted extensive debate in the existing literature. It is argued that they will require much closer scrutiny in the immediate future: (6) the dangers of ignoring group-level ethical harms; (7) the importance of epistemology in assessing the ethics of Big Data; (8) the changing nature of fiduciary relationships that become increasingly data saturated; (9) the need to distinguish between ‘academic’ and ‘commercial’ Big Data practices in terms of potential harm to data subjects; (10) future problems with ownership of intellectual property generated from analysis of aggregated datasets; and (11) the difficulty of providing meaningful access rights to individual data subjects that lack necessary resources. Considered together, these eleven themes provide a thorough critical framework to guide ethical assessment and governance of emerging Big Data practices.
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paper_title: Big data, open science and the brain: lessons learned from genomics

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The BRAIN Initiative aims to break new ground in the scale and speed of data collection in neuroscience, requiring tools to handle data in the magnitude of yottabytes (1024). The scale, investment and organization of it are being compared to the Human Genome Project (HGP), which has exemplified ‘big science’ for biology. In line with the trend towards Big Data in genomic research, the promise of the BRAIN Initiative, as well as the European Human Brain Project, rests on the possibility to amass vast quantities of data to model the complex interactions between the brain and behaviour and inform the diagnosis and prevention of neurological disorders and psychiatric disease. Advocates of this ‘data driven’ paradigm in neuroscience argue that harnessing the large quantities of data generated across laboratories worldwide has numerous methodological, ethical and economic advantages, but it requires the neuroscience community to adopt a culture of data sharing and open access to benefit from them. In this article, we examine the rationale for data sharing among advocates and briefly exemplify these in terms of new ‘open neuroscience’ projects. Then, drawing on the frequently invoked model of data sharing in genomics, we go on to demonstrate the complexities of data sharing, shedding light on the sociological and ethical challenges within the realms of institutions, researchers and participants, namely dilemmas around public/private interests in data, (lack of) motivation to share in the academic community, and potential loss of participant anonymity. Our paper serves to highlight some foreseeable tensions around data sharing relevant to the emergent ‘open neuroscience’ movement.
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paper_title: The limits of privacy in automated profiling and data mining

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Abstract Automated profiling of groups and individuals is a common practice in our information society. The increasing possibilities of data mining significantly enhance the abilities to carry out such profiling. Depending on its application, profiling and data mining may cause particular risks such as discrimination, de-individualisation and information asymmetries. In this article we provide an overview of the risks associated with data mining and the strategies that have been proposed over the years to mitigate these risks. From there we shall examine whether current safeguards that are mainly based on privacy and data protection law (such as data minimisation and data exclusion) are sufficient. Based on these findings we shall suggest alternative policy options and regulatory instruments for dealing with the risks of data mining, integrating ideas from the field of computer science and that of law and ethics.
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paper_title: Eyes wide open: the personal genome project, citizen science and veracity in informed consent

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I am a close observer of the Personal Genome Project (PGP) and one of the original ten participants. The PGP was originally conceived as a way to test novel DNA sequencing technologies on human samples and to begin to build a database of human genomes and traits. However, its founder, Harvard geneticist George Church, was concerned about the fact that DNA is the ultimate digital identifier – individuals and many of their traits can be identified. Therefore, he believed that promising participants privacy and confidentiality would be impractical and disingenuous. Moreover, deidentification of samples would impoverish both genotypic and phenotypic data. As a result, the PGP has arguably become best known for its unprecedented approach to informed consent. All participants must pass an exam testing their knowledge of genomic science and privacy issues and agree to forgo the privacy and confidentiality of their genomic data and personal health records. Church aims to scale up to 100,000 participants. This spe...
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paper_title: Artificial agency, consciousness, and the criteria for moral agency: what properties must an artificial agent have to be a moral agent?

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In this essay, I describe and explain the standard accounts of agency, natural agency, artificial agency, and moral agency, as well as articulate what are widely taken to be the criteria for moral agency, supporting the contention that this is the standard account with citations from such widely used and respected professional resources as the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy, and the Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy. I then flesh out the implications of some of these well-settled theories with respect to the prerequisites that an ICT must satisfy in order to count as a moral agent accountable for its behavior. I argue that each of the various elements of the necessary conditions for moral agency presupposes consciousness, i.e., the capacity for inner subjective experience like that of pain or, as Nagel puts it, the possession of an internal something-of-which-it is-is-to-be-like. I ultimately conclude that the issue of whether artificial moral agency is possible depends on the issue of whether it is possible for ICTs to be conscious.
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paper_title: Ethics and Artificial life: From Modeling to Moral Agents

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Artificial Life (ALife) has two goals. One attempts to describe fundamental qualities of living systems through agent based computer models. And the second studies whether or not we can artificially create living things in computational mediums that can be realized either, virtually in software, or through biotechnology. The study of ALife has recently branched into two further subdivisions, one is "dry" ALife, which is the study of living systems "in silico" through the use of computer simulations, and the other is "wet" ALife that uses biological material to realize what has only been simulated on computers, effectively wet ALife uses biological material as a kind of computer. This is challenging to the field of computer ethics as it points towards a future in which computer and bioethics might have shared concerns. The emerging studies into wet ALife are likely to provide strong empirical evidence for ALife's most challenging hypothesis: that life is a certain set of computable functions that can be duplicated in any medium. I believe this will propel ALife into the midst of the mother of all cultural battles that has been gathering around the emergence of biotechnology. Philosophers need to pay close attention to this debate and can serve a vital role in clarifying and resolving the dispute. But even if ALife is merely a computer modeling technique that sheds light on living systems, it still has a number of significant ethical implications such as its use in the modeling of moral and ethical systems, as well as in the creation of artificial moral agents.
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paper_title: Advisory services in the virtual world: an empowerment perspective

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The virtual world is growing in popularity and incorporates many state-of-the-art technologies. In particular, many new applications are currently being explored by public and private organisations in these virtual environments. This study examines the interesting phenomenon of providing virtual advisors to assist users in accomplishing their tasks in the virtual world. The advisory areas under discussion include commerce, health (physical and mental), academia, ethics and travel. Then a systematic framework is developed to reveal the best practices in the provision of virtual advisors, eliciting thought-provoking discussions of the current status and future trends in the use of virtual advisors in the virtual world.
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paper_title: The Ethics of Outsourcing Online Survey Research

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The increasing level of Internet penetration over the last decade has made web surveying a viable option for data collection in academic research. Software tools and services have been developed to facilitate the development and deployment of web surveys. Many academics and research students are outsourcing the design and/or hosting of their web surveys to external service providers, yet ethical issues associated with this use have received limited attention in academic literature. In this article, the authors focus on specific ethical concerns associated with the outsourcing of web surveys with particular reference to external commercial web survey service providers. These include threats to confidentiality and anonymity, the potential for loss of control over decisions about research data, and the reduced credibility of research. Suggested guidelines for academic institutions and researchers in relation to outsourcing aspects of web-based survey research are provided.
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paper_title: Artificial Morality: Top-down, Bottom-up, and Hybrid Approaches

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A principal goal of the discipline of artificial morality is to design artificial agents to act as if they are moral agents. Intermediate goals of artificial morality are directed at building into AI systems sensitivity to the values, ethics, and legality of activities. The development of an effective foundation for the field of artificial morality involves exploring the technological and philosophical issues involved in making computers into explicit moral reasoners. The goal of this paper is to discuss strategies for implementing artificial morality and the differing criteria for success that are appropriate to different strategies.
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paper_title: Convivial software: an end-user perspective on free and open source software

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The free and open source software (Foss) movement deserves to be placed in an historico-ethical perspective that emphasizes the end user. Such an emphasis is able to enhance and support the Foss movement by arguing the ways it is heir to a tradition of professional ethical idealism and potentially related to important issues in the history of science, technology, and society relations. The focus on software from an end-user's perspective also leads to the concept of program conviviality. From a non-technical perspective, however, software is simply a new example of technology, and the effort to assure that technology is developed in a socially responsible manner has a significant history. The argument thus begins with observations about the history of technology. This leads to critical reflections on the development of professional engineering ethics, and to a discussion of the alternative technology movement. Finally, it concludes by indicating some criteria to consider when imagining the design of convivial software.
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paper_title: Professionalism in the Digital Age

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The increased use of social media by physicians, combined with the ease of finding information online, can blur personal and work identities, posing new considerations for physician professionalism in the information age. A professional approach is imperative in this digital age in order to maintain confidentiality, honesty, and trust in the medical profession. Although the ability of physicians to use online social networks, blogs, and media sites for personal and professional reasons should be preserved, a proactive approach is recommended that includes actively managing one's online presence and making informed choices about disclosure. The development of a "dual-citizenship" approach to online social media that separates public and private personae would allow physicians to both leverage networks for professional connections and maintain privacy in other aspects. Although social media posts by physicians enable direct communication with readers, all posts should be considered public and special consideration for patient privacy is necessary.
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paper_title: How Informed Is Online Informed Consent

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We examined participants' reading and recall of informed consent documents presented via paper or computer. Within each presentation medium, we presented the document as a continuous or paginated document to simulate common computer and paper presentation formats. Participants took slightly longer to read paginated and computer informed consent documents and recalled slightly more information from the paginated documents. We concluded that obtaining informed consent online is not substantially different than obtaining it via paper presentation. We also provide suggestions for improving informed consent-in both face-to-face and online experiments.
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paper_title: Data-driven research: open data opportunities for growing knowledge, and ethical issues that arise

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The Open Data Initiative in the UK offers incredible opportunities for researchers who seek to gain insight from the wealth of public and institutional data that is increasingly available from government sources – like NHS prescription and GP referral information – or the information we freely offer online. Coupled with digital technologies that can help teams generate connections and collaborations, these data sets can support large-scale innovation and insight. However, by looking at a comparable explosion in data-driven journalism, this article hopes to highlight some of the ethical questions that may arise from big data. The popularity of the social networking service Twitter to share information during the riots in London in August 2011 produced a real-time record of sense-making of enormous interest to academics, reporters and to Twitter users themselves; however, when analysed and published, academic and journalistic interpretations of aggregate content was transformed and individualized, with potential implications for a user-base that was unaware it was being observed. Similar issues arise in academic research with human subjects. Here, the questions of reflexivity in data design and research ethics are considered through a popular media frame.
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paper_title: Ethical considerations for educational research in a virtual world

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The combination of features in virtual worlds provides an opportunity to implement and research unique learning experiences. With increasing interest and activity from the educational research community, exploring virtual worlds for teaching and learning, there is a need to identify and understand the ethical implications of conducting research in these new environments. This paper examines the traditional ethical concerns within the context of educational research in virtual worlds and identifies how the features of the technology give rise to new ethical dilemmas in the areas of informed consent, privacy protection and identity.
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paper_title: Researching Personal Information on the Public Web: Methods and Ethics

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There are many personal and social issues that are rarely discussed in public and hence are difficult to study. Recently, however, the huge uptake of blogs, forums, and social network sites has created spaces in which previously private topics are publicly discussed, giving a new opportunity for researchers investigating such topics. This article describes a range of simple techniques to access personal information relevant to social research questions and illustrates them with small case studies. It also discusses ethical considerations, concluding that the default position is almost the reverse of that for traditional social science research: the text authors should not be asked for consent nor informed of the participation of their texts. Normally, however, steps should be taken to ensure that text authors are anonymous in academic publications even when their texts and identities are already public.
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paper_title: Internet adoption by the elderly: employing IS technology acceptance theories for understanding the age-related digital divide

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Information technology (IT) allows members of the growing elderly population to remain independent longer. However, while technology becomes more and more pervasive, an age-related underutilisation of IT remains observable. For instance, elderly people (65 years of age and older) are significantly less likely to use the Internet than the average population (see, for instance, European Commission, 2011). This age-related digital divide prevents many elderly people from using IT to enhance their quality of life through tools, such as Internet-based service delivery. Despite the significance of this phenomenon, the information systems (IS) literature lacks a comprehensive consideration and explanation of technology acceptance in general and more specifically, Internet adoption by the elderly. This paper thus studies the intentions of the elderly with regard to Internet use and identifies important influencing factors. Four alternative models based on technology acceptance theory are tested in the context of comprehensive survey data. As a result, a model that explains as much as 84% of the variance in technology adoption among the elderly is developed. We discuss the contribution of our analyses to the research on Internet adoption (and IT adoption in general) by the elderly, on the digital divide, and on technology acceptance and identify potentially effective paths for future research and theoretical development.
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paper_title: Online survey tools: ethical and methodological concerns of human research ethics committees.

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A SURVEY OF 750 UNIVERSITY HUMAN Research Ethics Boards (HRECs) in the United States revealed that Internet research protocols involving online or Web surveys are the type most often reviewed (94% of respondents), indicating the growing prevalence of this methodology for academic research. Respondents indicated that the electronic and online nature of these survey data challenges traditional research ethics principles such as consent, risk, privacy, anonymity, confidentiality, and autonomy, and adds new methodological complexities surrounding data storage, security, sampling, and survey design. Interesting discrepancies surfaced among respondents regarding strengths and weaknesses within extant guidelines, which are highlighted throughout the paper. The paper concludes with considerations and suggestions towards consistent protocol review of online surveys to ensure appropriate human subjects protections in the face of emergent electronic tools and methodologies.
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paper_title: The danger of big data: Social media as computational social science

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Social networking Web sites are amassing vast quantities of data and computational social science is providing tools to process this data. The combination of these two factors has significant implications for individuals and society. With announcements of growing data aggregation by both Google and Facebook, the need for consideration of these issues is becoming urgent. Just as Web 2.0 platforms put publishing in the hands of the masses, without adequate safeguards, computational social science may make surveillance, profiling, and targeting overly accessible. The academic study of computational social science explains the field as an interdisciplinary investigation of the social dynamics of society with the aid of advanced computational systems. Such investigation can operate at the macro level of global attitudes and trends, down to the personal level of an individual’s psychology. This paper uses the lenses of computation social science to consider the uses and dangers that may result from the data aggregation social media companies are perusing. We also consider the role ethics and regulation may play in protecting the public.
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paper_title: Practical versus moral identities in identity management

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Over the past decade Identity Management has become a central theme in information technology, policy, and administration in the public and private sectors. In these contexts the term `Identity Management' is used primarily to refer to ways and methods of dealing with registration and authorization issues regarding persons in organizational and service-oriented domains. Especially due to the growing range of choices and options for, and the enhanced autonomy and rights of, employees, citizens, and customers, there is a growing demand for systems that enable the regulation of rights, duties, responsibilities, entitlements and access of innumerable people simultaneously. `Identity Management' or `Identity Management Systems' have become important headings under which such systems are designed and implemented. But there is another meaning of the term `identity management', which is clearly related and which has gained currency. This second construal refers to the need to manage our moral identities and our identity related information. This paper explores the relation between the management of our (moral) identities and `Identity Management' as conceptualized in IT discourse.
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paper_title: “But the data is already public”: on the ethics of research in Facebook

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In 2008, a group of researchers publicly released profile data collected from the Facebook accounts of an entire cohort of college students from a US university. While good-faith attempts were made to hide the identity of the institution and protect the privacy of the data subjects, the source of the data was quickly identified, placing the privacy of the students at risk. Using this incident as a case study, this paper articulates a set of ethical concerns that must be addressed before embarking on future research in social networking sites, including the nature of consent, properly identifying and respecting expectations of privacy on social network sites, strategies for data anonymization prior to public release, and the relative expertise of institutional review boards when confronted with research projects based on data gleaned from social media.
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paper_title: Digital Disempowerment in a Network Society

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The objective of this article is to examine how the inequalities of participation in network society governmental systems affect the extent that individuals are empowered or disempowered within those systems. By using published data in conjunction with theories of communication, a critical secondary data analysis was conducted. This critical analysis argues that the Digital Divide involves issues concerning how democracy and democratization are related to computer-mediated communication (CMC) and its role in political communication. As the roles of CMC/ICT systems expand in political communication, existing Digital Divide gaps are likely to contribute to structural inequalities in political participation. These inequalities work against democracy and political empowerment for some people, while at the same time producing expanded opportunities of political participation for others. This raises concerns about who benefits the most from electronic government in emerging network societies.
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paper_title: A new look at software piracy: Soft lifting primes an inauthentic sense of self, prompting further unethical behavior

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Soft lifting refers to the process whereby a legally licensed software program is installed or copied in violation of its licensing agreement. Previous research on this pervasive kind of unethical computer use has mainly focused on the determinants of this unethical act, which are rooted in personal, economic, technological, cultural, socio-political, or legal domains. However, little is known about the symbolic power that soft lifting has on the sense of self. Based on recent advances in behavioral priming, we hypothesized that soft lifting can influence the signals one sends to oneself; more specifically, soft lifting may prime individuals to experience an inauthentic sense of self, which, in turn, prompts further unethical behavior. In Study 1, we showed that participants, primed with the memory of a recent soft lifting experience, cheated more than participants recalling a recent experience of purchasing authentic software or than control participants. Moreover, feelings of inauthenticity mediated the priming effect of soft lifting on dishonest behavior. In Study 2, participants primed with soft lifting showed a greater willingness to purchase a wide range of counterfeit products over authentic products. Besides those antecedents or correlates of soft lifting already identified in the literature, educators should pay more attention to the negative impact of soft lifting on the self-images of users, which may go beyond computer-related behaviors. Priming may provide a new direction for HCI researchers to examine the impact of computer-use-related factors on users' perceptions, motivations, and behaviors.
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paper_title: Using APIs for Data Collection on Social Media

paper_content:

This article discusses how social media research may benefit from social media companies making data available to researchers through their application programming interfaces (APIs). An API is a back-end interface through which third-party developers may connect new add-ons to an existing service. The API is also an interface for researchers to collect data off a given social media service for empirical analysis. Presenting a critical methodological discussion of the opportunities and challenges associated with quantitative and qualitative social media research based on APIs, this article highlights a number of general methodological issues to be dealt with when collecting and assessing data through APIs. The article further discusses the legal and ethical implications of empirical research using APIs for data collection.
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paper_title: The Digital Divide and Increasing Returns: Contradictions of Informational Capitalism

paper_content:

The far-reaching advances in information and communications technologies (ICTs) in tandem with the globalization of trade, investment, business regulation, production, and consumption have signaled the rise of “informational capitalism.” This article reflects on the social and economic inequalities of informational capitalism by examining two contradictions of ICTs-led economic development—increasing returns and the digital divide. Two main and interrelated strands of evidence are presented: First, contrary to expectations that rising income per capita will tend to reduce wealth and wage disparities, the distribution of income and wealth both between countries and individuals has sharply skewed in the information age; second, knowledge production is a self-reinforcing cycle that tends to disproportionately reward some and exclude others. The so-called digital divide is as much a symptom and a cause of these broader techno-economic phenomena, and regarding it as a simple issue of connectivity is simplistic...
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paper_title: Studying cyborgs: re-examining internet studies as human subjects research

paper_content:

Virtual communities and social networks assume and consume more aspects of people's lives. In these evolving social spaces, the boundaries between actual and virtual reality, between living individuals and their virtual bodies, and between private and public domains are becoming ever more blurred. As a result, users and their presentations of self, as expressed through virtual bodies, are increasingly entangled. Consequently, more and more Internet users are cyborgs. For this reason, the ethical guidelines necessary for Internet research need to be revisited. We contend that the IS community has paid insufficient attention to the ethics of Internet research. To this end, we develop an understanding of issues related to online human subjects research by distinguishing between a disembodied and an entangled view of the Internet. We outline a framework to guide investigators and research ethics committees in answering a key question in the age of cyborgism: When does a proposed Internet study deal with human subjects as opposed to digital material?
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paper_title: Big Data, Big Problems: Emerging Issues in the Ethics of Data Science and Journalism

paper_content:

As big data techniques become widespread in journalism, both as the subject of reporting and as newsgathering tools, the ethics of data science must inform and be informed by media ethics. This article explores emerging problems in ethical research using big data techniques. It does so using the duty-based framework advanced by W.D. Ross, who has significantly influenced both research science and media ethics. A successful framework must provide stability and flexibility. Without stability, ethical precommitments will vanish as technology rapidly shifts costs. Without flexibility, traditional approaches will rapidly become obsolete in the face of technological change. The article concludes that Ross's duty-based approach both provides stability in the face of rapid technological change and flexibility to innovate to achieve the original purpose of basic ethical principles.
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paper_title: A software platform to analyse the ethical issues of electronic patient privacy policy: the S3P example

paper_content:

Paper-based privacy policies fail to resolve the new changes posed by electronic healthcare. Protecting patient privacy through electronic systems has become a serious concern and is the subject of several recent studies. The shift towards an electronic privacy policy introduces new ethical challenges that cannot be solved merely by technical measures. Structured Patient Privacy Policy (S3P) is a software tool assuming an automated electronic privacy policy in an electronic healthcare setting. It is designed to simulate different access levels and rights of various professionals involved in healthcare in order to assess the emerging ethical problems. The authors discuss ethical issues concerning electronic patient privacy policies that have become apparent during the development and application of S3P.
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paper_title: Psycho-Informatics: Big Data shaping modern psychometrics

paper_content:

For the first time in history, it is possible to study human behavior on great scale and in fine detail simultaneously. Online services and ubiquitous computational devices, such as smartphones and modern cars, record our everyday activity. The resulting Big Data offers unprecedented opportunities for tracking and analyzing behavior. This paper hypothesizes the applicability and impact of Big Data technologies in the context of psychometrics both for research and clinical applications. It first outlines the state of the art, including the severe shortcomings with respect to quality and quantity of the resulting data. It then presents a technological vision, comprised of (i) numerous data sources such as mobile devices and sensors, (ii) a central data store, and (iii) an analytical platform, employing techniques from data mining and machine learning. To further illustrate the dramatic benefits of the proposed methodologies, the paper then outlines two current projects, logging and analyzing smartphone usage. One such study attempts to thereby quantify severity of major depression dynamically; the other investigates (mobile) Internet Addiction. Finally, the paper addresses some of the ethical issues inherent to Big Data technologies. In summary, the proposed approach is about to induce the single biggest methodological shift since the beginning of psychology or psychiatry. The resulting range of applications will dramatically shape the daily routines of researches and medical practitioners alike. Indeed, transferring techniques from computer science to psychiatry and psychology is about to establish Psycho-Informatics, an entire research direction of its own.
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paper_title: From Speculative Nanoethics to Explorative Philosophy of Nanotechnology

paper_content:

In the wake of the emergence and rapid development of nanoethics there swiftly followed fundamental criticism: nanoethics was said to have become much too involved with speculative developments and was concerning itself too little with actually pending questions of nanotechnology design and applications. If this diagnosis is true, then large parts of nanoethics are misguided. Such fundamental criticism must surely either result in a radical reorientation of nanoethics or be refuted for good reasons. In this paper, I will examine the critics’ central arguments and, building on this scrutiny, formulate an answer to these alternatives. The results lead to conclusions which allow explaining and unfolding the thesis of this paper that instead of speculative nanoethics we should better speak of and develop explorative philosophy of nanotechnology.
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paper_title: The Ethics of Synthetic Biology: Guiding Principles for Emerging Technologies

paper_content:

Some call synthetic biology an epochal development—the start of a new industrial revolution, the moment humans learned to be gods. Others think it is an incremental advance with an iffy payoff. In these essays, the chair of the Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues and participants from a recent Hastings project examine the social challenge it presents.
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paper_title: Developing a framework for responsible innovation

paper_content:

The governance of emerging science and innovation is a major challenge for contemporary democracies. In this paper we present a framework for understanding and supporting efforts aimed at ‘responsible innovation’. The framework was developed in part through work with one of the first major research projects in the controversial area of geoengineering, funded by the UK Research Councils. We describe this case study, and how this became a location to articulate and explore four integrated dimensions of responsible innovation: anticipation, reflexivity, inclusion and responsiveness. Although the framework for responsible innovation was designed for use by the UK Research Councils and the scientific communities they support, we argue that it has more general application and relevance.
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paper_title: The Transnational Governance of Synthetic Biology: Scientific uncertainty, cross-borderness and the ’art’ of governance

paper_content:

This working paper summarises and appraises current thinking and proposals for the governance of synthetic biology. Considering that contemporary synthetic biology was only born around 2004, when the first international conference (SB1.0) was held, the extent of the literature already produced about the governance of this field is very extensive. Annex I lists 39 reports produced since 2004 by scientific, governmental and non-governmental organisations, and shows how activity in this field has increased rapidly in the last few years, with 28 reports published in just the last 3 years. Alongside this grey literature, there are also numerous articles published in academic journals by synthetic biologists, sociologists, legal scholars and philosophers. We have utilised this literature as a resource and particular attention has been paid to identifying the range of views expressed by different actors. This literature review is complemented by participant observation in synthetic biology laboratories, scientific meetings and policy forums in the UK, as members of the joint LSE-Imperial College Centre for Synthetic Biology and Innovation (CSynBI). Additional fieldwork consisting of laboratory visits and interviews with scientists and policy makers was conducted in the UK (by Claire Marris), in China (by Joy Zhang) and in Japan (by Caitlin Cockerton and Susanna Finlay). ::: ::: The report is organised as follows: ::: · Section 2 summarises current accounts of synthetic biology and explains how conflicting narratives occur in parallel. ::: · Sections 3 and 4 then elucidate the main sources of governance challenges exhibited by synthetic biology. Section 3 demonstrates that current concerns over synthetic biology mostly originate from two key features of synthetic biology: scientific uncertainty and cross-borderness. By examining the case of the US, the UK, China, Section 4 further illustrates both the inter-national divergences and the transnational interconnectedness that any governing attempts for synthetic ::: biology need to take into consideration. ::: · Section 5 discusses three key governance challenges that arise from these two features of synthetic biology: the salience of both knowing and non-knowing; the need for external accountability; and the fragmentation of social authorities. ::: · Section 6 outlines our proposal for the ‘art of governance’ to address these challenges.
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Title: The Ethics of Computing: A Survey of the Computing-Oriented Literature

Section 1: INTRODUCTION
Description 1: Provide context on the increasing relevance of ethical aspects in computing technologies, the lack of common understanding among technical communities, and the aim of the article to systematically review the literature on ethics in computing.

Section 2: THE ETHICS OF COMPUTING
Description 2: Introduce the term "ethics" and its importance for computing professionals, discussing various ethical dilemmas and the relevance of understanding philosophical ethics.

Section 3: Computer and Information Ethics as Applied Ethics
Description 3: Discuss the development and significance of computer ethics as a specialized field within applied ethics, emphasizing the role of professional organizations and the broader discourse within the academic community.

Section 4: The Ethics of Computing
Description 4: Explain the approach taken in the survey to explore the literature on ethics and computing available to technical research communities, focusing on the structure and relevance of "ethical issues."

Section 5: METHODOLOGY
Description 5: Describe the methodology employed for selecting appropriate literature, identifying and coding themes, and validating the quality of the review.

Section 6: Selection of the Literature
Description 6: Detail the selection process for the literature review, including databases used, inclusion and exclusion criteria, and the final sample size.

Section 7: Identification and Coding of Themes
Description 7: Outline the process of identifying relevant themes in the literature and the coding scheme used to categorize ethical issues, technologies, ethical theories, methodologies, contributions, and recommendations.

Section 8: Categorization of Codes
Description 8: Explain how similar and overlapping codes were grouped into useful categories to better understand past and current questions in the ethics of computing.

Section 9: FINDINGS
Description 9: Present the findings of the survey, discussing the most frequently identified ethical issues, technologies, ethical theories, methodologies, contributions, and recommendations.

Section 10: Relationship Between Key Ethical Issues and Other Categories
Description 10: Explore the relationships between different categories of ethical issues and their connections to other aspects of the discourse, providing a deeper understanding of key topics.

Section 11: DISCUSSION
Description 11: Discuss general trends and gaps in the overall discourse on ethics and computing, highlighting the static nature of ethical issues and computing technologies over time, and the limited use of ethical theories.

Section 12: CONCLUSION: ALIGNING ETHICS OF COMPUTING AND RESPONSIBLE RESEARCH AND INNOVATION
Description 12: Summarize the importance of ethical considerations in computing, the need for a more practical and actionable approach, and recommend aligning ethics in computing with the principles of responsible research and innovation.

Section 13: Limitations
Description 13: Discuss the limitations of the research, including potential biases in coding and the challenges of summarizing a large body of work within a short space.

Section 14: Implications and Recommendations: The Transition to Responsible Research and Innovation in ICT
Description 14: Provide recommendations for future research and practice, emphasizing the importance of practical contributions, explicit methodologies, and broader societal engagement to align ethics in computing with responsible research and innovation principles.