Aist2601 06 Ethics

2022-23 Term 2
AIST2601
Technology, Society and
Engineering Practice
Professional Ethics
By Dr. King Tin Lam

Department of Computer Science and Engineering
2
Image source: i.imgur.com
Ethics
§ Study of what it means to “do the right thing”.
§ Assumes people are rational and make free choices.
§ Rules to follow in our interactions and our actions that affect
others.
Ethics
§ New technology → new risks
§ Something may be “legal” but unethical!
◦ The legal institution is still catching up.
◦ e.g., is cyberbullying illegal in Hong Kong?
Some references:
• https://www.hkreform.gov.hk/en/docs/essay21_2015.pdf
• https://www.pcpd.org.hk/english/publications/files/cyberbullying_e.pdf
AIST2601 — Engineering Design and Innovation 4

Theories and Views
§ A variety of ethical views:
◦ Deontological theories
◦ Utilitarianism
◦ Natural rights
◦ Negative rights (liberties)
◦ The right to act without interference
◦ Positive rights (claim-rights)
◦ An obligation of some people to provide certain things for others
Theories and Views
§ Golden rules
◦ Treat others as you would want them to treat you.
§ Contributing to society
◦ Doing one’s work honestly, responsibly, ethically, creatively, and well is
virtuous.
§ Social contracts and a theory of political justice
◦ People willingly submit to a common law in order to live in a civil society.
Theories and Views
§ No simple answers
◦ Human behavior and real human situations are complex. There are often
trade-offs to consider.
◦ Ethical theories help to identify important principles or guidelines.
Theories and Views
§ Do organizations have ethics?
◦ Ultimately, it is individuals who are making decisions and taking actions.
◦ We can hold both the individuals and the organization responsible for their
acts.
Theories and Views
§ Some important distinctions:
◦ Right, wrong, and okay
◦ Distinguishing wrong and harm
◦ Separating goals from constraints
◦ Personal preference and ethics
◦ Law and ethics
Information Ethics
§ The PAPA model
— Richard Mason “Four Ethical Issues of the Information Age” (1986)
◦ Privacy
◦ What information must people reveal about themselves to others? To whom?
◦ Accuracy
◦ Who is to check the information's accuracy and fidelity? Who's accountable for errors?
◦ Property
◦ Who owns the information? By how?
◦ Accessibility
◦ What can one access? Who has access?

Professional Ethics
§ Professional ethics—responsibilities toward customers, clients,
coworkers, employees, employers, product/service users, or
people affected by a product

Ethical Acceptable Questionable Unethical Computer
• Proper and well • Not too bad, • Grey area of • Not up to crime
agreed yet there may human ethical • Unethical and
behavior be doubts behavior standards illegal

Scenarios for Discussion
§ Scenario: Software License Violation
◦ Your company has 25 licenses for a computer program, but you discover
that it has been copied onto 80 computers.
§ Scenario: Going Public
◦ Suppose you are a member of a team working on a computer-controlled
crash avoidance system for automobiles.
◦ You think the system has a flaw that could endanger people. The project
manager does not seem concerned and expects to announce completion
of the project soon.
◦ Do you have an ethical obligation to do something?
§ Scenario: Release of Personal Information
◦ You work for the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), the Social Security
Administration, a movie-rental company, or an Internet service provider.
◦ Someone asks you to get a copy of records about a particular person and
will pay you $500.
◦ You know another employee sells records with people’s personal
information.
◦ What would you do?
§ Scenario: Conflict of Interest
◦ You have a small consulting business. The CyberStuff company plans to buy
software to run a cloud data-storage business. CyberStuff wants to hire you
to evaluate bids from vendors.
◦ Your spouse works for NetWorkx and did most of the work in writing the
bid that NetWorkx plans to submit. You read the bid while your spouse was
working on it and you think it is excellent.
◦ Do you tell CyberStuff about your spouse’s connection with NetWorkx?
§ Scenario: Kickbacks and Disclosure
◦ You are an administrator at a major university. Your department selects a
few brands of security software to recommend to students for their
desktop computers, laptops, tablets, and other devices.
◦ One of the companies whose software you will evaluate takes you out to
dinner, gives you free software (in addition to the security software), offers
to pay your expenses to attend a professional conference on computer
security, and offers to give the university a percentage of the price for
every student who buys its security package.
§ Scenario: A Test Plan
◦ A team of programmers is developing a communications system for
firefighters to use when fighting a fire. Firefighters will be able to
communicate with each other, with supervisors near the scene, and with
other emergency personnel. The programmers will test the system in a
field near the company office.
◦ As one of the programmers, what questions you may ask the team.
◦ Is the test plan sufficient?
§ Scenario: A Gracious Host
◦ You are the computer system administrator for a mid-sized company. You
can monitor the company network from home, and you frequently work
from home. Your niece, a college student, is visiting for a week. She asks to
use your computer to check her email. Sure, you say.
◦ What is the ethical issue?

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2022-23 Term 2

By Dr. King Tin Lam

AIST2601 — Engineering Design and Innovation 4

AIST2601 — Engineering Design and Innovation 10

AIST2601 — Engineering Design and Innovation 11

AIST2601 — Engineering Design and Innovation 12

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