Chapter 3:

Networking
ISEC 610:
Information Systems Ethics and
Security

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 Chapter Overview

• Email and spam

• World Wide Web
• Censorship
• Freedom of expression
• Children and inappropriate content
• Breaking trust on the Internet
• Internet addiction
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 3.2 Email and Spam

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 How Email Works

• Email: Messages embedded in files

transferred between computers
• Email address: Uniquely identifies
cyberspace mailbox
• Messages broken into packets
• Routers transfer packets from sender’s
mail server to receiver’s mail server

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 Routers Pass Email from LAN to LAN

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 The Spam Epidemic (1/3)

• Spam: Unsolicited, bulk email

• Spam is profitable
– More than 100 times cheaper than “junk mail”
– Profitable even if only 1 in 100,000 buys product
• Amount of email that is spam has ballooned
– 8% in 2001
– 90% in 2009

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 The Spam Epidemic (2/3)

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 The Spam Epidemic (3/3)

• How firms get email addresses

– Web sites, chat-room conversations, newsgroups
– Computer viruses harvest addresses from PC address
books
– Dictionary attacks
– Contests
• Most spam sent out by bot herders who control
huge networks of computers
• Spam filters block most spam before it reaches
users’ inboxes
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 Need for Socio-Technical Solutions

• New technologies sometimes cause new social

situations to emerge
– Calculators  feminization of bookkeeping
– Telephones  blurred work/home boundaries
• Spam an example of this phenomenon
– Email messages practically free
– Profits increase with number of messages sent
– Strong motivation to send more messages
• Internet design allows unfair, one-way
communications
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 Case Study: Ann the Acme Accountant

• Ann: Accountant at Acme Corporation

• She distributes paychecks to all 50 employees
• Ann sends email advertising Girl Scout cookie
sale
• 9 recipients order cookies; average 4 boxes each
• Other 40 recipients unhappy to get email; half
complain to a co-worker
• Did Ann do anything wrong?

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 Kantian Analysis

• We should always respect autonomy of others, treating

them as ends in themselves and never only as the means
to an end (2nd formulation of Categorical Imperative)
• Ann didn’t misrepresent what she was doing
• She didn’t force anyone to read the entire email
• Some who read her email chose to order cookies
• Therefore, she didn’t “use” others, and her action was not
strictly wrong
• An “opt in” approach would have been better

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 Act Utilitarian Analysis

• Benefit to Girls Scouts = $108

– $3 profit per box of cookies
– 36 boxes sold
• Harm to company: time wasted
– Orders taken during breaks
– Lost productivity from complaining: $70
• 20 employees ×2 ×5 minutes/employee = 200 minutes
• 3.5 hours ×$20/hour = $70
• Benefits exceed harms, so action good
• Company may create policy against future fundraisers

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 Rule Utilitarian Analysis

• Q: What would be consequences of everyone in

company used email to solicit donations?
• A: Plenty of employee grumbling and lower
morale
• If all doing it, unlikely any one cause would do
well
• Harms greater than benefits, so Ann’s action was
wrong

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 Social Contract Theory Analysis

• Acme Corporation has no prohibition against

using its email system this way
• Ann was exercising her right to express herself
• Some people didn’t appreciate message, but she
didn’t act like a spammer
– She didn’t conceal her identity
– She wasn’t selling a fraudulent product
• Ann did nothing wrong

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 Summary

• Analyses reached different conclusions, but Ann

could have taken a less controversial course
• She could have posted a sign-up sheet to
identify those interested in cookie sale
• That way, she would have sent email only to
those interested, avoiding the problems of
grumbling and lost productivity

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 3.3 The World Wide Web

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 Attributes of the Web

• It is decentralized
• Every Web object has a unique address
• It is based on the Internet

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 How We Use the Web
• Shopping
• Socializing (e.g., Facebook)
• Contributing content (e.g., wikis, blogs)
• Blogging
• Learning
• Exploring our roots
• Entering virtual worlds
• Paying taxes
• Gambling
• Taking humanitarian action
• Lots more!
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 Online Source of Genealogical Information

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 Twitter

• More than 200 million users

• Blogging tool
• Business promotion
• Role in Arab Spring uprisings debated
– (+) Social networks lead to politicization
– (-) Ties in social networks too weak for high-
risk activism

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 Governmental Control: Too Much or Too Little?

• Burma (Myanmar), Cuba, North Korea:

Internet virtually inaccessible
• Saudi Arabia: centralized control center
• People’s Republic of China: “one of most
sophisticated filtering systems in the world” as
well as censorship
• Germany: Forbids access to neo-Nazi sites
• United States: Repeated efforts to limit access
of minors to pornography
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 3.4 Censorship

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 Forms of Direct Censorship

• Government monopolization
• Prepublication review
• Licensing and registration

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 Self-censorship

• Most common form of censorship

• Group decides for itself not to publish
• Reasons
– Avoid subsequent persecution
– Maintain good relations with government officials
(sources of information)
• Ratings systems created to advise potential
audience
– Movies, TVs, CDs, video games
– Not the Web
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 Challenges Posed by the Internet

• Many-to-many communications
• Dynamic connections
• Huge numbers of Web sites
• Extends beyond national borders, laws
• Hard to distinguish between minors and
adults

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 Ethical Perspectives on Censorship

• Kant opposed censorship

– Enlightenment thinker
– “Have courage to use your own reason”
• Mill opposed censorship
– No one is infallible
– Any opinion may contain a kernel of truth
– Truth revealed in class of ideas
– Ideas resulting from discourse are more influential

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 Mill’s Principle of Harm

“The only ground on which intervention

is justified is to prevent harm to others;
the individual’s own good is not a
sufficient condition.”

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 3.5 Freedom of Expression

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 Freedom of Expression: History

• De Scandalis Magnatum (England, 1275)

• Court of Star Chamber
• 18th century
– No prior restraints on publication
– People could be punished for sedition or libel
• American states adopted bills of rights
including freedom of expression
• Freedom of expression in 1st amendment to
U.S. Constitution
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 1st Amendment to U.S. Constitution

Congress shall make no law respecting an

establishment of religion, or prohibiting the
free exercise thereof; or abridging the
freedom of speech, or of the press; or the
right of the people peaceably to assemble,
and to petition the government for a
redress of grievances.

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 Freedom of Expression
Not an Absolute Right

• 1st Amendment covers political and

nonpolitical speech
• Right to freedom of expression must be
balanced against the public good
• Various restrictions on freedom of
expression exist

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 Jeremy Jaynes
Jeremy Jaynes was convicted
under Virginia law for sending
millions of spam messages.
His conviction was overturned
by the Supreme Court of
Virginia because the antispam
law was too broad and also
prohibited the anonymous
transmission of unsolicited bulk
emails “containing political,
religious or other speech
protected by the First
Amendment to the United
States Constitution” AP Photo/Loudoun County Sheriff’s office 1-32

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 FCC v. Pacifica Foundation et al.

• George Carlin records “Filthy Words”

• WBAI in New York airs “Filthy Words” (1973)
• FCC issues declaratory order to Pacifica
• Pacifica sues
• U.S. Supreme Court ruled FCC did not violate 1 st
Amendment (5-4 decision)
– Broadcast media “uniquely pervasive”
– Broadcasting uniquely accessible to children

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 Case Study: Kate’s Blog

• Kate: Maintains a popular “life on campus” blog

• Jerry: Another student; active in Whig Party
• At private birthday party, someone gives Jerry a Tory
Party T-shirt as a gag, and Jerry puts it on
• Kate uses cell phone to take picture of Jerry when he
isn’t looking, posts it on her blog
• Story read by many people on and off campus
• Jerry confronts Kate and demands she remove photo;
she complies, and they remain friends
• Kate’s blog and Jerry both become more popular
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 Kantian Analysis

• Kate uploaded Jerry’s photo to her blog

without asking his permission
• She treated him as a means to her end of
increasing the readership of her Web site
• Her action was wrong

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 Social Contract Theory Analysis

• Birthday party held in apartment of one of

Jerry’s friends
• Jerry had a reasonable expectation of
privacy
• Kate violated Jerry’s right to privacy
• Kate’s action was wrong

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 Act Utilitarian Analysis

• Benefits
– Popularity of Kate’s blog increased (definitely)
– Jerry become more popular on campus (definitely)
• Harms
– Jerry’s anger at Kate (only temporary)
– Photo could discredit Jerry at some point in future
(unlikely)
• Kate did nothing wrong by posting Jerry’s photo

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 Rule Utilitarian Analysis

• What if everyone were constantly taking photos of people

they encountered and posting them?
• Positive consequences
– People would have more opportunities to keep up with what their
friends are doing
– People might be more reluctant to engage in illegal activities
• Negative consequences
– People would become more self-conscious
– Some relationships would be harmed
• Negative consequences more weighty than positive
consequences, so Kate’s action was bad
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 Summary

• Three out of four analyses: Wrong for Kate to

post the photo without asking Jerry’s permission
• Kate figured it would be better to beg for
forgiveness than ask for permission, but she cut
Jerry out of a decision that affected both of them,
and that’s no way to treat a friend
• Kate should have tried to get Jerry’s consent

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 3.6 Children and Inappropriate
Content

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 Web Filters

• Web filter: Software that prevents display

of certain Web pages
– May be installed on an individual PC
– ISP may provide service for customers
• Methodologies
– Maintain “black list” of objectionable sites
– Examine content for objectionable
words/phrases

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 Calvin and Hobbes, 1990 / © Universal Press Syndicate

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 Child Internet Protection Act

• Libraries receiving federal networking

funds must filter pages containing
obscenity or child pornography
• U.S. Supreme Court ruled CIPA did not
violate 1st Amendment guarantees
(6-3 decision in June 2003)

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 Ethical Evaluations of CIPA

• Kantian evaluation: Children's Internet

Protection Act (CIPA) is wrong
• Act utilitarian evaluation: depends on how
benefits and harms are weighed
• Social contract theory: freedom of
conscience should be given precedence

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 Sexting

• Definition: sexually suggestive text messages or

emails with nude or nearly nude photographs
• In a 2009 survey, 9% of U.S. teenagers admitted
to sending a sext, 17% admitted to receiving a
sext
• Case of Jesse Logan
• Case of Phillip Alpert
• Case of Ting-Yi Oei

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 3.7 Breaking Trust on the Internet

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 Identity Theft (1/2)

• Identity theft: When a person uses another person’s

electronic identity
• Leading form of identity theft is credit card fraud
• Financial institutions contribute to problem by making it
easy to open new accounts
• About 10 million cases of identity theft in U.S. in 2010
• Consumer’s liability for credit card losses limited to $50

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 Identity Theft (2/2)

• Nearly half of cases from lost credit card, checkbook, etc.

• In 20% of cases, credit card number stolen at time of
making purchase (skimmers)
• About 1 million cases of identity theft annually in United
States from online activities
• Phishing: Use of email to attempt to deceive people into
revealing personal information
• Identity theft a federal crime, but only 1 in 700 cases
results in an arrest

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 Chat-Room Predators

• Chat room: Supports real-time discussions

among many people connected to network
• Instant messaging and chat rooms
replacing telephone for many people
• Some pedophiles meeting children through
chat rooms
• Police countering with “sting” operations

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 Ethical Evaluations of “Stings”

• Utilitarian evaluation
• Kantian evaluation
• Social contract theory evaluation

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 False Information

• Quality of Web-based information varies widely

• Other media also have information of varying
quality
– The New York Times v. The National Enquirer
– 60 Minutes v. Conspiracy Theory
• Google attempts to reward quality
– Ranking uses “voting” algorithm
– If many links point to a page, Google search engine
ranks that page higher

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 Cyberbullying

• Cyberbullying: Use of the Internet or phone

system to inflict psychological harm
• In a 2009 survey, 10% admitted to
cyberbullying, and 19% said they had been
cyberbullied
• Case of Ghyslain Raza
• Case of Megan Meier
• Megan Meier Cyberbullying Prevention Act
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 3.8 Internet Addiction

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 Is Internet Addiction Real?

• Some liken compulsive computer use to

pathological gambling
• Traditional definition of addiction:
– Compulsive use of harmful substance or drug
– Knowledge of its long-term harm
• Some people spend 40-80 hours/week on
the Internet, with individual sessions
lasting up to 20 hours

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 Is Internet Addiction Real?
• Kimberly Young created test for Internet addiction
– Sample question: “Have you repeatedly made
unsuccessful efforts to control, cut back, or stop Internet
use?”
– Patients who answer “yes” to at least 5 of 8 questions
may be addicted
• Others disagree, noting
– Computer use is generally considered a positive activity
– Excessive use does not lead to criminal activity
– More accurate to call excessive use a compulsion

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 Contributing Factors

• Social factors
– Peer groups
• Situational factors
– Stress
– Lack of social support and intimacy
– Limited opportunities for productive activity
• Individual factors
– Tendency to pursue activities to excess
– Lack of achievement
– Fear of failure

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 Ethical Evaluation

• Enlightenment view
– Individuals can and should govern their lives
– People are responsible for their choices
• Jeffrey Reiman’s view
– Addict’s behavior makes sense if addict has
no hope for a better future
– Society bears responsibility for putting people
in hopeless situations
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