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Sample answers regarding the Editors’ Introduction: Ethics in the Information Age (pages 1–13) Question 6. Explain why privacy and anonymity on the Internet can be “double edged swords” with both good and bad consequences. Give a few examples of good and bad consequences. Answer: When someone has privacy, others cannot see or find out what that person is doing or saying. When someone is anonymous, others may see what is being done or said, but they cannot find out the identity of the person who is doing it. On the Internet, privacy and anonymity can provide valuable protection for people who are getting psychological or medical advice, or who are engaging in politically sensitive discussions (for example, on gay marriage, abortion, sexually transmitted diseases), or who are reporting crimes to government officials or the police. More generally, privacy and anonymity help to preserve people’s security, peace of mind, and mental health. In spite of these good consequences, privacy and anonymity on the Internet also can be used to hide or enable crimes and unethical behavior, such as terrorism, drug dealing and preying upon vulnerable people. [The second answer regarding this Editors’ Introduction will be posted here.] Sample answer regarding the Editors’ Introduction to Part I (pages 17–20) Question 5. How did Moor define the field of computer ethics in 1985 in his influential article “What Is Computer Ethics”? [Hint: Relate his definition to “policy vacuums” and “conceptual muddles.”] Answer: According to Moor in his 1985 article “What Is Computer Ethics?”, computers are “logically malleable”, which means that they can be designed and programmed to do almost any job. This makes computers so powerful that humans are able to do many things which they never could do before. Since they never could do them before, there are no laws or other “policies” that apply. Moor calls this kind of situation a “policy vacuum”. In computer ethics, one tries to fill such “vacuums” by developing appropriate policies and ethically justifying them. Sometimes this process reveals a conceptual confusion or “conceptual muddle”, which must be clarified first before any new policies can be suggested or adopted. [The second answer regarding this Editors’ Introduction will be posted here.] Sample answers regarding Chapter 1 (pages 21-38) [The first answer regarding Chapter 1 will be posted here.] [The second answer regarding Chapter 1 will be posted here.] Sample answers regarding Chapter 2 (pages 39-59) [The first answer regarding Chapter 2 will be posted here.] [The second answer regarding Chapter 2 will be posted here.] Sample answers regarding Chapter 3 (pages 60-86) [The first answer regarding Chapter 3 will be posted here.] [The second answer regarding Chapter 3 will be posted here.] Sample answers regarding the Editors’ Introduction to Part II (pages 91-97) Question 15. Explain how the professional-to-society relationship can be viewed as a contractual relationship. What are the contractual responsibilities of each participant in the contract? Answer: The relationship between a professional and society can be interpreted as something like a contract in which the professional agrees to provide safe and useful products and services to society in exchange for the opportunity to become such a professional. Thus, a computer professional agrees to provide quality computer products and services to society, and in return society provides schools and universities, laws and regulations, business opportunities and security, roads and bridges, water and electricity, and so on, which together make it possible for a person to have a career as a computer professional. In sum, the individual benefits by having a career, while the society benefits by getting quality goods and services. [The second answer regarding this Editors’ Introduction will be posted here.] Sample answers regarding Chapter 4 (pages 98-106) [The first answer regarding Chapter 4 will be posted here.] [The second answer regarding Chapter 4 will be posted here.] Sample answers regarding Chapter 5 (pages 107-118) [The first answer regarding Chapter 5 will be posted here.] [The second answer regarding Chapter 5 will be posted here.] Sample answers regarding Chapter 6 (pages 119-128) [The first answer regarding Chapter 6 will be posted here.] [The second answer regarding Chapter 6 will be posted here.] Sample answers regarding the Editors’ Introduction to Part III (pages 135–141) Question 14. Even though codes of professional ethics are not laws, they nevertheless have some enforcement power. Explain why. Answer: Even though codes of professional ethics are not laws passed by legislatures, nor decisions of courts, nor regulations established by government agencies, they nevertheless can help judges, juries and prosecutors decide whether a professional was behaving responsibly according to the standards of good practice of the profession. This kind of information can be very helpful in deciding the outcome of a lawsuit or a criminal trial. [The second answer regarding this Editors’ Introduction will be posted here.] Sample answers regarding Chapter 7 (pages 143-156) [The first answer regarding Chapter 7 will be posted here.] [The second answer regarding Chapter 7 will be posted here.] Sample answers regarding Chapter 8 (pages 157-164) [The first answer regarding Chapter 8 will be posted here.] [The second answer regarding Chapter 8 will be posted here.] Sample answers regarding the Editors’ Introduction to Computer Security (pages 206–207) Question 7. Why must computer security include concern about trusted personnel within a company or organization? Answer: Certain crimes, such as embezzlement or the planting of logic bombs in a computer system are normally committed by trusted employees. For this reason, concern for computer security must consider the possibility that a trusted employee, who has a right to enter and use a computer system, could compromise the security of the system. [A second consideration, which is not mentioned in this Editor’s Introduction, is the fact that trusted employees can make mistakes, such as entering the wrong data or accidentally deleting a file. Computer security, therefore, must include consideration of unintended actions of trusted employees.] [The second answer regarding this Editors’ Introduction will be posted here.] Sample answers regarding Chapter 9 (pages 208-226) [The first answer regarding Chapter 9 will be posted here.] [The second answer regarding Chapter 9 will be posted here.] Sample answers regarding Chapter 10 (pages 227-240) [The first answer regarding Chapter 10 will be posted here.] [The second answer regarding Chapter 10 will be posted here.] Sample answers regarding the Editors’ Introduction to Privacy and Computing (pages 246–248) Question 4. What is the role of computer networks in increasing the risks to privacy? Answer: Computer networks have hundreds or thousands or even millions of computers connected to them. Private information in one of those computers might be accidentally, or intentionally, sent to other computers on the network used by people who have no right to that information. Or hackers on the network, perhaps even thousands of miles away, might break into the computer and steal private information. If a network has massive databases of private information connected to it, then the privacy of thousands or even millions of people could be at risk. [The second answer regarding this Editors’ Introduction will be posted here.] Sample answers regarding Chapter 11 (pages 249-262) [The first answer regarding Chapter 11 will be posted here.] [The second answer regarding Chapter 11 will be posted here.] Sample answers regarding Chapter 12 (pages 263-273) [The first answer regarding Chapter 12 will be posted here.] [The second answer regarding Chapter 12 will be posted here.] Sample answers regarding the Editors’ Introduction to Computing and Intellectual Property (pages 278–284) Question 6. Explain the “labor theory of ownership.” Answer: According to the English philosopher John Locke, if resources are available that do not belong to anyone – for example trees in an unowned forest or the words of a language – and if someone mixes his labor with those resources to create a product, then he owns that product. He gave his energy and a part of his lifetime to create the product, so he has a right to use it and say what will be done with it. Locke added a proviso that the laborer must leave “as much and as good” of the unowned resources for anyone else who might wish to create something as well. One should not be greedy and use too much of the unowned resources. This theory applies to physical objects, like log cabins built from unowned trees, and “intellectual property” such as poems, pieces of music, novels and computer programs created from the resources of a language or a musical scale. [The second answer regarding this Editors’ Introduction will be posted here.] Sample answers regarding Chapter 13 (pages 285-293) [The first answer regarding Chapter 13 will be posted here.] [The second answer regarding Chapter 13 will be posted here.] Sample answers regarding Chapter 14 (pages 294-310) [The first answer regarding Chapter 14 will be posted here.] [The second answer regarding Chapter 14 will be posted here.] Sample answers regarding the Editors’ Introduction to Global Information Ethics (pages 316–318) Question 3. There are many thousands of laws around the globe – national laws, state laws, local laws. Each law has a specific jurisdiction where it applies. How has the Internet generated jurisdictional “policy vacuums” that are relevant to the field of computer ethics? Explain in general, then give a specific example. Answer: The Internet connects about two hundred countries of the world, each with its own set of laws and legal practices. If a person in one country uses the Internet to commit a crime in a different country, whose laws apply? Should the person be prosecuted in the first country where he used a computer to commit the crime, or in the second country where the crime actually took place? Is it even clear where the crime took place? Or whether a crime took place? For example, if someone in a country where selling sexually explicit materials is legal uses the Internet in his home country to sell such materials to a person living where those materials are illegal, did a crime take place? If so, where? – in the country of the seller or the country of the buyer – or, perhaps, somewhere in between the two countries? If a crime took place, who should prosecute the “criminal”? [The second answer regarding this Editors’ Introduction will be posted here.] Sample answers regarding Chapter 15 (pages 319-326) [The first answer regarding Chapter 15 will be posted here.] [The second answer regarding Chapter 15 will be posted here. Sample answers regarding Chapter 16 (pages 327-340) [The first answer regarding Chapter 16 will be posted here.] [The second answer regarding Chapter 16 will be posted here.] |
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