Four Ethical Issues of the Information Age
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Management Information Systems Quarterly
Volume 10, Number 1, March, 1986
The copyright for this document is owned by the Management Information Systems Quarterly. The article may not be printed out or sold through any service without permission of the Management Information Systems Quarterly
[pic]Issues & Opinons
Four Ethical Issues of the Information Age
by Richard O. Mason
Today in western societies more people are employed collecting, handling and distributing information than in any other occupation. Millions of computers inhabit the earth and many millions of miles of optical fiber, wire and air waves link people, their computers and the vast array of information handling devices together. Our society is truly an information society, our time an information age. The question before us now is whether the kind of society being created is the one we want. It is a question that should especially concern those of us in the MIS community for we are in the forefront of creating this new society.
There are many unique challenges we face in this age of information. They stem from the nature of information itself. Information is the means through which the minds expands and increases its capacity to achieve its goals, often as the result of an input from another mind. Thus, information forms the intellectual capital from which human beings craft their lives and secure dignity.
However, the building of intellectual capital is vulnerable in many ways. For example, people 's intellectual capital is impaired whenever they lose their personal information without being compensated for it, when they are precluded access to information which is of value to them, when they have revealed information they hold intimate, or when they find out that the information upon which their living depends is in error. The social contract among people in the information age must deal with these threats to human dignity. The ethical issues involved
Management Information Systems Quarterly
Volume 10, Number 1, March, 1986
The copyright for this document is owned by the Management Information Systems Quarterly. The article may not be printed out or sold through any service without permission of the Management Information Systems Quarterly
[pic]Issues & Opinons
Four Ethical Issues of the Information Age
by Richard O. Mason
Today in western societies more people are employed collecting, handling and distributing information than in any other occupation. Millions of computers inhabit the earth and many millions of miles of optical fiber, wire and air waves link people, their computers and the vast array of information handling devices together. Our society is truly an information society, our time an information age. The question before us now is whether the kind of society being created is the one we want. It is a question that should especially concern those of us in the MIS community for we are in the forefront of creating this new society.
There are many unique challenges we face in this age of information. They stem from the nature of information itself. Information is the means through which the minds expands and increases its capacity to achieve its goals, often as the result of an input from another mind. Thus, information forms the intellectual capital from which human beings craft their lives and secure dignity.
However, the building of intellectual capital is vulnerable in many ways. For example, people 's intellectual capital is impaired whenever they lose their personal information without being compensated for it, when they are precluded access to information which is of value to them, when they have revealed information they hold intimate, or when they find out that the information upon which their living depends is in error. The social contract among people in the information age must deal with these threats to human dignity. The ethical issues involved
References: Solzhenitsyn, Aleksandr I., The Cancer Ward, Dial Press, New York, New York, 1968. U.S. House of Representatives, The Computer and Invasion of Privacy, U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C., 1966. Written by: Richard O. Mason, Carr P. Collins Distinguished Professor of Management Information Sciences, Edwin L. Cox School of Business Southern Methodist University, Dallas, TX