Development of a Code of Ethics: It Challenges
Development of a Code of Ethics: IT Challenges
Brandon M. Glover
Northcentral University
In our modern era of business and society, Information Technology has become an overwhelming system integrated in just about all aspects of our lives. Cell phones, computers, social networks, websites, email, etc. are but just a few examples of how IT is used and distributed throughout society. What was once a society that was based on manual transactions and labor has now become predominantly computerized and electronic. Our mode of living has become faster and we now move and do things at a quicker pace because of new technology. This is even truer within business organizations; businesses use IT in just about every department of their organization. Marketing, HR, payroll, communication, billing, security, etc. all use some type of IT within their respective departments to function at a more efficient and quicker pace. Through information technology, many (or few) people have direct access to personal and non-personal information about the organization and the people that are apart of it. Because of the amount of access and information a person can gain through IT within a business, there should be an ethical standard applied within the business to avoid inappropriate IT behavior. In other words, with the heightened access of sensitive information through IT, there has to be a natural heightened sense of accountability and responsibility to those that are involved with IT.
Accountability and responsibility deals directly with ethics, and for the purpose of this paper, we can call it computer ethics. What is computer ethics? My goal in this essay is to first answer that question, then point out some societal changes because of IT, the ethical usage of it, and how a “code of ethics” would be established within an academic setting. Ethics in technology is important not because of the technology itself, but because of who is controlling the technology.
Brandon M. Glover
Northcentral University
In our modern era of business and society, Information Technology has become an overwhelming system integrated in just about all aspects of our lives. Cell phones, computers, social networks, websites, email, etc. are but just a few examples of how IT is used and distributed throughout society. What was once a society that was based on manual transactions and labor has now become predominantly computerized and electronic. Our mode of living has become faster and we now move and do things at a quicker pace because of new technology. This is even truer within business organizations; businesses use IT in just about every department of their organization. Marketing, HR, payroll, communication, billing, security, etc. all use some type of IT within their respective departments to function at a more efficient and quicker pace. Through information technology, many (or few) people have direct access to personal and non-personal information about the organization and the people that are apart of it. Because of the amount of access and information a person can gain through IT within a business, there should be an ethical standard applied within the business to avoid inappropriate IT behavior. In other words, with the heightened access of sensitive information through IT, there has to be a natural heightened sense of accountability and responsibility to those that are involved with IT.
Accountability and responsibility deals directly with ethics, and for the purpose of this paper, we can call it computer ethics. What is computer ethics? My goal in this essay is to first answer that question, then point out some societal changes because of IT, the ethical usage of it, and how a “code of ethics” would be established within an academic setting. Ethics in technology is important not because of the technology itself, but because of who is controlling the technology.
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