Cyber Law and

Professional Ethics
By: Diwakar Upadhyaya
 An Overview of
Ethics, Ethics for IT
Workers and IT
Users
Ethics
• Ethics in technology, simply put, refers to moral principles that govern
how technologies should be used.
• These principles include accountability, digital rights, privacy,
freedom, data protection, online behavior, and more.
• As new technologies become available, ethical issues are raised in an
attempt to ensure that these have a positive impact on the human
race and the environment.
• With the implementation of new technology comes an ethical duty,
and it’s important that the generation who’ll be taking up these
future jobs have a sound understanding of their ethical
responsibilities.
• Take hacking, for instance.
• Hacking has both negative and positive meanings, in that accessing a
computer system without authorization might be illegal, but it’s also a
term used for remixing or testing new ways of using computers or
programs.
• It’s important that young people have a good understanding of how
and when it’s acceptable to hack, and when and where the line is
crossed.
• And then there’s copyright.
• It’s easy to download and copy information from the Internet, but is
this acceptable behavior, does it breach someone’s rights, and how
should someone respond if their work is directly copied or
plagiarized?
• Teaching children about copyright laws and respecting others’ work is
imperative in a world where more and more content is being made
available online.
• And what about privacy?
• With the internet being inherently open, we need to teach young
people about their rights and responsibilities within this area: their
right to maintain privacy and their responsibility to treat others’
information with care.
• When is it acceptable to share data about others and what does the
law say about how we should store this data?
• A solid understanding of privacy and data protection could help future
generations avoid issues currently being experienced by social media
companies.
• There is a growing international consensus that ethics is of increasing
importance to education in technical fields, and that it must become
part of the language that technologists are comfortable using.
• Today, the world’s largest technical professional organization, IEEE
(the Institute for Electrical and Electronics Engineers), has an entire
division devoted just to technology ethics.
• In 2014 IEEE began holding its own international conferences on
ethics in engineering, science, and technology practice.
• To supplement its overarching professional code of ethics, IEEE is also
working on new ethical standards in emerging areas such as
AI,robotics, and data management.
• For example: face- and voice-recognition algorithms can now be used
to track and create a lasting digital record of your movements and
actions in public, even in places where previously you would have felt
more or less anonymous.
• There is no consistent legal framework governing this kind of data
collection, even though such data could potentially be used to expose
a person’s medical history
• What does a person given access to all that data, or tasked with
keeping it secure, need to understand about its ethical significance
and power to affect a person’s life?
Ethics in the Business World
• Another factor driving the recent explosion of interest in technology
ethics is the way in which 21st century technologies are reshaping the
global distribution of power, justice, and responsibility.
• Companies such as Facebook, Google, Amazon, Apple, and Microsoft are
now seen as having levels of global political influence comparable to, or
in some cases greater than, that of states and nations.
• In the wake of revelations about the unexpected impact of social media
and private data analytics on 2017 elections around the globe, the idea
that technology companies can safely focus on profits alone, leaving the
job of protecting the public interest wholly to government, is increasingly
seen as naïve and potentially destructive to social flourishing.
• Business ethics is the prescribed code of conduct for businesses. It is a
set of guidelines for dealing with various procedures ethically.
• The discipline comprises corporate responsibility, personal
responsibility, social responsibility, loyalty, fairness, respect,
trustworthiness, and technology ethics.
• It emphasizes sustainability, customer loyalty, brand image, and
employee retention.
• The motive is to prevent unethical business practices, both deliberate
and inadvertent. Some unethical practices circumvent law enforcement.
• Even then, businesses risk paying a hidden cost—the loss of reputation.
• Business ethics ascertain social, cultural, legal, and other economic
limitations and safeguard the interest of parties involved.
• Further, it emphasizes moral and social values like consumer
protection, welfare, fair business practices, and service to society.
• Accountability: Ethics is all about taking individual responsibility. It goes both
ways. Individuals are responsible for unethical practices of the firm because
they did not come forward to become whistle-blowers. Similarly, when an
employee indulges in unethical business practices, the firm is responsible.
• Care and Respect: Professional interactions between co-workers should be
responsible and respectful. Firms should make sure that the workplace is safe
and harmonious.
• Honesty: The best way to gain the trust of the employees is to have
transparent communication with them.
• Avoid Conflicts: Firms need to minimize conflicts of interest in the workplace.
Excessive competition within the workforce can end disastrously.
• Compliance: Firms need to comply with all the rules and regulations.
• Loyalty: The employees should be faithful to the organization and
uphold the brand image. Grievances, if any, should be dealt internally.
• Relevant Information: It is necessary to provide information that is
comprehensible. All the relevant facts, whether positive or negative,
must be disclosed. It is unethical to hide unreasonable terms and
conditions in the fine print.
• Law Abiding: Corporate laws protect the rights of every section of
society. Any kind of discrimination is unethical. Personal biases of
individuals should not affect the decision-making of leaders.
• Fulfilling Commitments: It is unethical to justify non-compliance by
interpreting agreements unreasonably.
Types of Business Ethics
• Corporate Responsibility: The organization works as a separate legal
entity with certain moral and ethical obligations. Such ethics safeguard
the interest of all the internal and external parties associated with the
firm. This includes the employees, customers, and shareholders.
• Social Responsibility: Making profits should not be at the cost of society.
Therefore, corporate social responsibilities (CSR) have been a common
practice where businesses work towards environmental protection, social
causes, and spreading awareness.
• Personal Responsibility: Employees are expected to act responsibly with
honesty, diligence, punctuality, and willingness to perform excepted
duties. Individuals should settle dues in time and avoid criminal acts.
• Technology Ethics: In the 21st century, companies have adopted e-
commerce practices. Technology ethics includes customer-privacy,
personal information, and intellectual property fair practices.
• Fairness: Favouritism is highly unethical. Every individual possesses
certain personal bias. But at the workplace, personal beliefs and
biases should not affect decision-making. The firm has to ensure fair
chances of growth and promotion for all.
• Trustworthiness and Transparency: Businesses should maintain
transparency in business practices and financial reports
Corporate Social Responsibility
• Corporate social responsibility (CSR) refers to strategies that
companies put into action as part of corporate governance that are
designed to ensure the company’s operations are ethical and
beneficial for society.
• Generally, corporate social responsibility initiatives are categorized as
follows:
• 1. Environmental responsibility
• Environmental responsibility initiatives aim to reduce pollution and
greenhouse gas emissions and the sustainable use of natural resources.
• 2. Human rights responsibility
• Human rights responsibility initiatives involve providing fair
labor practices (e.g., equal pay for equal work) and fair trade practices,
and disavowing child labor.
• 3. Philanthropic responsibility
• Philanthropic responsibility can include things such as funding
educational programs, supporting health initiatives, donating to
causes, and supporting community beautification projects.
• 4. Economic responsibility
• Economic responsibility initiatives involve improving the firm’s
business operation while participating in sustainable practices – for
example, using a new manufacturing process to minimize wastage.
Fostering Corporate Social
Responsibility and Good
Business Ethics
Benefits:
• 1. Stronger brand image, recognition, and reputation
• CSR adds value to firms by establishing and maintaining a good
corporate reputation and/or brand equity.
• 2. Increased customer loyalty and sales
• Customers of a firm that practices CSR feel that they are helping the firm
support good causes.
• 3. Operational cost savings
• Investing in operational efficiencies results in operational cost savings as
well as reduced environmental impact.
• 4. Retaining key and talented employees
• Employees often stay longer and are more committed to their firm
knowing that they are working for a business that practices CSR.
• 5. Easier access to funding
• Many investors are more willing to support a business that practices
CSR.
• 6. Reduced regulatory burden
• Strong relationships with regulatory bodies can help to reduce a firm’s
regulatory burden.
Improving Business Ethics
• Business ethics is a form of professional ethics. Business ethics are the
rights, responsibilities and duties between a company and its
employees, suppliers, customers and neighbors.
• In places of work, the law requires one to observe an acceptable code
of conduct at all times.
• It is important to foster good business ethics first is in order to gain
goodwill of the community because according – Marshall Field
(American Businessman, 1834- 1906)
• “Goodwill is the one and only asset that competition cannot undersell
or destroy.”
Steps to improve business ethics
• Employees must understand that expectations for ethical behavior begin at the
top and that senior management expects all employees to act accordingly.
• Managers and others must be trained to consider the ethical implications of all
business decisions.
• An ethics office must be set up with which employees can communicate
anonymously.
• Outsiders such as suppliers, subcontractors, distributors, and customers must be
told about the ethics program. Pressure to put aside ethical considerations often
comes from the outside, and it helps employees resist such pressure when
everyone knows what the ethical standards are.
• The ethics code must be enforced with timely action if any rules are broken.
That is the most forceful way to communicate to all employees that the code is
serious.
Ethical Considerations in
Decision Making
• Ethics is concerned with what is "right" and "wrong," "fair" and
"unfair" in decisions and actions that affect others.
• Our ethical framework is found on the values we hold and believe to
be important.
• Values are a set of moral principles we embrace about what is
"good," "desirable," "just,“ and "of value" in human actions and
interactions.
• We use these principles (values) to evaluate choices and actions.
• Ethical decisions are almost always complex, for several reasons.
• Most ethical decisions have:
• (a) multiple alternatives;
• (b) consequences that extend beyond the immediate situation;
• (c) uncertain consequences;
• (d) outcomes that mix various economic, legal, and social benefits and
costs; and
• (e) personal implications.
• Four factors that can be useful in sorting out the ethical features of a given
situation are (adapted from Fletcher, 1966):
• Goals (considering multiple goals and their compatibility, plus constituent
priorities)
• Methods (including constituent acceptability, effectiveness in satisfying
goals, and whether a proposed method is essential, incidental, or
extraneous to achieving the goals)
• Motives (hidden or known, shared or selfish, and implicit value
orientations)
• Consequences (impacts on constituents, impacts on other stakeholders and
entities, and considering various time frames)