Ethics and legal aspects of Computer Technology and search engines

[University of abertay]

Ethics and legal aspects of Computer Technology and search engines

ELPP Coursework 2

By:

Rahmad Evan Purnawan

0703976

 

Tutor:

Linda Archibald

 

2007

 

 

 

 

 

Ethics and legal aspects of Computer Technology and search engines

 

    Internet, which was first developed in the beginning of 1960's from internetworking computers became more and more popular as a communication tool in the world. It can provide a lot of information for the people. Most of them do not know how the search engines work to search, classify and display the information we need because the creator put the codes behind the pages. Some search engines put in codes to monitor users' behaviour and store the information in databases. So, search engine developer can analyse and develop their tools for better performance which can attract more users.

    The rapid development of the internet, especially search engines, which provide new choices and actions, need to be followed with ethics: how do we create, develop and use the new technology? Of course, we should consider issues such as users' privacy and users' information.

This essay will explain how the search engines work and how they monitor and store users' behaviour for market information; it will also discuss the ethical and legal aspect of using users' personal information by the search engines for their development or marketing purposes.

    The development of search engines and placing relevant products advertising are done by monitoring users' activities when they use search engines or visit certain websites. Fielden (2002, p.53) claimed that "users are identified by electronic tags in cookies which are saved in the users' computer with a specific identification codes. This code can be used to access a behaviour profile in database." By analyzing the database, search engine developers can determine the important things to be added or reduced in search engines and make the relevant advertising method for the advertisers.

    Occasionally, we receive emails which have links to a website offering benefits if we join by filling in some forms. We fill in the form with our personal data such as age, gender, job, salary and interests. The web collects a large amount of personal data as valuable assets which can be offered to another marketing firms or companies. According to Reynolds (2007, p.123) "Marketing firms want to know as much as they can about consumers, then they offer the data to the company so they can tailor their products and services to individual consumer preferences."

    However, consumers' data can be used in harmful ways. Many companies offer some discounts if users fill in a form which is provided by their web pages. A day later emails arrive offering unwanted products, and consumers are not aware that their information is being collected because they have not been informed. Furthermore, the companies share or sell the data to others without any consent from the owner. These situations will create tensions between companies and their consumers.

All the processes in the search engines are invisible. According to Baird (2000, p.23) "the invisibility factor generates policy vacuum how we use computer technology. Beside that it gives us more capabilities and choice for action". Is it ethical if search engines monitor users' activities without any acknowledgment and using users' hard disk to save data for their purpose or sell information about users' behaviour in order to get money from marketing companies? According to Spinello (2000, p.110) "from a moral perspective, the primary issue appears to be the consumer's loss of autonomy".

    Computer technology is a new technology, still being developed until now and as a new technology, it has some considerations. Firstly, in the beginning it was very unpredictable because businesses developed it continuously and quickly. Secondly, it has an impact on morality because it has to interact with other people. Thirdly, it makes traditional moral practices out of date as traditional norm; principles lose their force or become irrelevant. Bynum (2004, p.325) argued that "Actions in cyberspace will not be local but global," bad actions done by someone in other continent will have bad affects to another people who live in a small village in Scotland, so to know who is responsible to catch him/her will be more difficult because of facing different barriers of law, culture and language.

    As a new technology, computers have uniqueness. Johnson (2000, p.14) argued the "computer has uniqueness because it makes new entities such as programs, software, websites and programmers, then it changes scale of activities because in its era everyone can make activities have bigger and wider effect for humanity and it increases scale of calculations," for example it is easy to know the exact day in the past future. So, it needs new ethical parameters which are respected by the creators or users.

    Ethical and legal factors should also be considered because the computer technology gives new opportunities to earn money by displaying advertising for products or services to the users who visit the websites or use search engines. Everyone is aware this chance includes two biggest companies Microsoft and Netscape. Without any regulations it will be a threat for all users'.

    As a result, in 1998 all European countries agreed to execute a law that purchasing and selling personal data was prohibited which was known as EU Directive of Data Protection. The main goal of this law is to prohibit the companies using information about their customers which they did not want to, such as selling customers' information to other companies to be used as a marketing tool.

    An earlier act was passed in the USA which known as The Privacy Acts 1974 which regulates Federal Government in using personal data. In short, Federal Government has to inform the public about databases, allow people to access their own data and make corrections, protect the databases and not use the information without any consent from the owner (Baase 1997, p.49).

    The Association Computer Machinery (ACM) also makes a regulation applied by its members and this code is supplemented by guidelines. As a member of ACM they should contribute to society and human well-being which means the profession must ensure their product will be used in a socially responsible way, avoid harm to others by reducing malfunctions by implementing standards in designing and testing, be honest and trustworthy, be fair and take action not to discriminate, honour property rights including copyright and patent, give proper credit for intellectual properties, respect the privacy to others and honour confidentiality (Erman, Shauf, 2003 p.23).

    Everyone who uses computer data in European countries should follow a regulation which is known as The EU Data Protection Directives 1998. This regulation states that data must be fairly and lawfully used for limited purpose and processed in accordance with data subjects' rights; it must be secured and cannot be transferred outside European region without adequate security. This regulation is important because there are so many computers related users or workers in this region in order to ensure that data are properly used without harm other people.

Preventive actions also should be taken to avoid personal data being improperly used or to harm people. Szuprowicz (1997, p.53) argued that "User monitoring is critical in selling web advertising; users of search service should be aware of this activity for their own protection." For instance, such important information should never have been in public or online databases and include Social Security Numbers which are linked to wealth and sensitive information and mother's maiden name which is used for identification verification at bank and other financial institutions.

In conclusion, computer technology and its derivatives like search engines is a new technology which has new abilities in making actions. it will influence other people for good or bad depend on the purposes of its creator. So, new regulations and ethics should be implemented for this technology to clarify and ensure what is constructive or destructive, right or wrong in search engine implementation. Some countries have made a certain regulation for this issue, but because its global effect or technology, the global regulations are needed which are followed by all the countries in the world. The ethical and legal aspects of computing and internet may be included in the national curriculum of basic education.

 

 

 

 

 

Referrences:

1. Baase, S., 1997. A Gift of fire, Social, legal and ethical issues in computing, New Jersey, USA, Prentice Hall.
   
2. Baird, R.M. 2000. Social and moral issues in the computer age, USA, Prometheus Books.
   
3. Bynum, W. B. Rogerson, S. 2004. Computer Ethics and Professional Responsibility, India, Blackwell Publishing.
   
4. Erman, M.D. Shauf, M.S. 2003. Computers, Ethics and Society, New York, Oxford University Press.
   
5. Fielden, N.L. Kuntz, L. 2002. Search Engines Handbook, North Carolina.USA,Mc. Farland & Company.
   
6. Johnson, G.J. 2000. Computer Ethics 3^rd Edition, New Jersey: USA, Prentice Hall.
   
7. Reynolds, G.W. 2007. Ethics In Information Technology, USA, Thomson Course Technology.
   
8. Spinello, R. 2000. Cyber Ethics, Morality and law in Cyberspace, London, Jones and Bartlett Publisher Inc.
   
9. Szuprowicz, B.O. 1997. Search engine technologies for the World Wide Web and Intranets, South Carolina, USA, Computer Technology Research Corp.
   

 

    

Source for Computer Ethics Problems

Sources :

Fielden N.L, Kuntz L, Search Engines Handbook, North Carolina.USA,Mc. Farland & Company,2002.
P16-17	The Search Engine Idea : "The need to analyze large amount of text led to the development of search engines to automate the process" "The basic search engine is simplicity itself: The program reads a document and notes its universal resources locator (URL), title and some text which is stored in an index. Every item in the index has a direct link to the original. When user enter a query, the search engine looks for a match in the index and displays a list of matches."
P52	Cookies: "To track the path a user takes through web sites and provide personalised advertising, search services depend on psychographics rather than demographics of their user audiences. Psychographics is a way of charting a user's thought and is accomplished by tracking user movement on the web with 'cookies' technology, which allow web publisher to deposit information on a user's hard drive. This information includes details of previous visits to a Web site such as particular search engine, time spent , and specific information accessed.
P53	User Monitoring : "Individual users are identified by electronic tags stored in cookies that maintain the user identification code, which can be used to access a behaviour profile in a database. The search service then use the information to offer specific advertising that matches the user's interests."
Spinello R., Cyber Ethics, Morality and law in Cyberspace, London, Jones and Bartlett Publisher Inc., 2000.
P102	A Definition and Theory of Privacy: " Samuel Warren and Louis Brandeis in 1890. They differentiated the right to privacy from other legal rights and defined it as the right to be left alone." "Ruth Gavison defined it as the limitation of others' access to an individual with three key elements: secrecy, anonymity, and solitude. Anonymity refers to protection from undesired attention, solitude is the lack of physical proximity to others and secrecy (or confidentiality) involves limiting the dissemination of knowledge about oneself."
P106	Personal Information on the Internet: "A feasible alternative might be to work out a responsible middle ground between an outright ban (or detailed restrictions) and a completely laissez-faire approach. Certain data element should never be in public, on-line database, and this includes Social Security Numbers, which are link to wealth of other sensitive information. This database should also exclude mothers' maiden name information, which is used for identification verification at banks and other financial institutions."
P110	Consumer privacy on the internet: "From a moral perspective, the primary issue appears to be the consumer's loss of autonomy. Should any company be allowed to deposit a cookie file on a user's hard drive without the user's knowledge and consent? One could argue that this is presumptuous and disrespectful of a user's right to control his or her "private space," which should include the disk space of his or her personal computers."
P114	Privacy Protection in Europe: "In the fall of 1998, acting on behalf of all its member countries, the European Union executed a law prohibiting the buying and selling of personal data. It is known as the EU Directive on Data Protection. According to The New York Times, " The goal of European Law is to prohibit companies from using information about their customers in ways the customers never intended-for example, selling it to other companies for use as a marketing tools."
Szuprowicz B.O., Search engine technologies for the World Wide Web and Intranets, South Carolina, USA, Computer Technology Research Corp., 1997.
P53	User Monitoring: "Individual users are identified by electronic tags store in cookies that maintain the user identification code, which can be used to access a behaviour profile from database. The search service then uses the information to offer specific advertising that matches the user's interests. Other search service approaches include user surveys." " User monitoring is critical in selling web advertising; users of search service should be aware of this activity for their own protection."
Baird R.M., Social and moral issues in the computer age, USA, Prometheus Books, 2000.
P23             P35     P45                       P57	A typical problem in computer Ethics arises because there is a policy vacuum about how computer technology should be used. Computer gives us more capabilities and more choice for actions. The Invisibility Factors : Important fact about computer that most of the time and under most conditions computer operation are invisible and this condition often generates policy vacuums about how to use computer technology. At the moment computer sprawl driven by marketplace. Opportunities to make significant amount of many was opened, and everyone aware of these opportunities include two big players Microsoft and Netscape. New Technology and New Ethics : Adoption of new technology at the beginning will largely unpredictable. So ethical consideration was required after some trouble appears. New technology is bound to have impact on morality. Thus, it is needed to revise accepted practice, rethink them, give them new articulation and functions or abolished them altogether. Because It is a radically new technology, it makes certain moral practices out of date, inasmuch as traditional norms, principles, and institutions lose their force and become irrelevant and new norms, principles and institutions to meet new conditions, opportunities and powers have not yet been developed. New technology will solve the world's recurrent problems such as poverty and violence. Ethics derived from Greek word ethos which means habit. Aristotle points out those habits are the result of accumulated decisions.
Johnson G.J., Computer Ethics 3rd Edition, New Jersey: USA, Prentice Hall,2000.
P14                 P133	Computer Uniqueness : The computer technology is unique and has its own unique ethical issues. Firstly, Computer technology brought the creation of new entities – programs, software, microchips, and websites and so on. Secondly, it changed the scale of activities, arrangements and operations such as increasing scale of data collection, calculations and statistical analysis as well as the scale of communication. The increases scale of calculation has facilitated the creation of more sophisticated machines such as robots and spaceships. Finally, it is focused on the power and pervasiveness of the technology. It changes the character that we do. The ACM code of Professional Conduct specified that an ACM member, whenever dealing with data concerning individuals, shall always consider the principle of the individuals privacy and seek the following : To minimize the data collected To limit authorized access to the data To provide proper security of the data To determine the required retention period of the data To ensure proper disposal of the data One of General Moral Imperatives of 1992 ACM Code of Ethics and professional conduct that an ACM member will Respect the privacy of others.
Baase S., A Gift of fire, Social, legal and ethical issues in computing, New Jersey, USA, Prentice Hall,1997.
P49               P51	In the USA, The Privacy Act 1974 regulates the Federal Government's use of personal data, and it has summarized as followed: Restricts the data the federal government may collect. Requires federal agencies to publish a notice of their record system in the Federal Register so that the public may be informed about what database exists. Allow people to access their records and correct inaccurate information. Requires procedures to protect the security of the information in databases. Prohibits disclosure of information about a person without his or her consent. The online companies and many other online businesses are building consumer profiles based on particular services used. A company is selling lists of e-mail addresses of people who post to newsgroups on the internet; the lists are organized by interest areas, including general interests, hobbies, religion and adult. Consumer Data At Risk : Some government agencies are increasing their access to consumer databases. Conversely, marketers make extensive use of the many government databases that are open to the public. Consumer data can leak in ways that maybe threaten people's safety, someone filled a form about his/her details and then other people send him/her something that he/she does not wanted to. These examples illustrate the importance of thinking about possible dangerous use of personal information and the consequences of making it available to the wrong people. Key Issues: Consumers are not aware that information is being collected which is called invisible information gathering, because consumers is not informed that the information is being collected. Secondary use of consumers data, it will be serious problem when information collected by one business or organization is shared or sold to another, without the knowledge or consent of the person who provided the information. A dilemma of balancing risk and benefit. Computer databases with detailed information on purchases can help both businesses and consumers. But distribution leakage and various specific uses of the information by businesses or government agencies can have detrimental effects.
Erman M.D., Shauf M.S., Computers, Ethics and Society, New York, Oxford University Press, 2003.
P23	ACM Executive council voted to revise code ethics. The code is supplemented Guidelines, which provide explanation to assist members in dealing with various issues contained in the code. It is expected that the guidelines will be changed more frequently than the code. Some of the conduct s are : Contribute to society and human well being. This main aim is to minimize negative consequences of computing systems, professional must attempt to ensure that product will be used in socially responsible ways. Avoid harms to others. Professionals must minimize malfunction by following generally accepted standards for system design and testing. Be honest and trustworthy. A computer professional has a duty to be honest about his or her own qualifications, and about any circumstances that might lead to conflicts of interest. Be fair and take action not to discriminate. Discrimination on the basis of race, religion, age, disability, national origin or other such factors will not be tolerated. Honour property rights including copyrights and patents. Give proper credit for intellectual property. Respect the privacy of others. Honour confidentiality.
Reynolds G. W., Ethics In Information Technology, USA, Thomson Course Technology, 2007.
P123     P126	Marketing firms want to know as much as they can about consumers, then they offer the data to the company so they can tailor their products and services to individual consumer preferences. Treating Consumer data responsibly : When dealing with consumer data, strong measure are re required to avoid consumer relationship problems. The most widely accepted approach to treating consumer data responsibly is for company to adopt the Code of Fair Information Practices and the 1980 OECD privacy guidelines. Under these guidelines, an organization collects only personal information that is necessary to deliver its product or service. The company ensures that the information is carefully protected and accessible only by those with a need to know, and that consumers can review their own data and make corrections. The company informs customers if it intends to use customer information for research or marketing, and it provides a mean for them to opt out. Some company are appointing a chief privacy officer ( CPO) who can avoid violating government regulations and reassure customers that their privacy will be protected.
Bynum W. B., Rogerson S., Computer Ethics and Professional Responsibility, India, Blackwell Publishing, 2004.
P272       P325	EU Data Protection Directives 1998. It states data must be fairly and lawfully processed for limited purposes, adequate, relevant and not excessive, accurate, not longer than necessary, processed in accordance with the data subject's rights, secure and not transferred to countries without adequate protection. Actions in cyberspace will not be local. Therefore, the ethical rules of such actions cannot be rooted in a particular local culture.