Ethics in the Information Age                                  Cases for Discussion

Case #1
A self-employed computer consultant is designing a data-base management system for the personnel office of a medium size company.  The system will store sensitive information: employee performance reviews, salaries, health information for insurance claims, etc.  Because the system is costing more than the client had anticipated, they are asking her to use a cheaper, but less secure design – a design that will make it fairly easy for employees and outside hackers to figure out how to access the data.  She has tried to convince them that the extra cost of a more secure system is worth paying, but the CEO, the director of personnel, and the IT director all agree that less security is OK.  She is wondering whether she should refuse to build the system as they wish.

Case #2
The management team of a US electronics firm has just discovered that a valued supplier, who has been providing excellent products at very low prices, is employing 'sweatshop' labor.  The working conditions in the supplier’s 3rd world plants include mandatory overtime, low pay, exposure to hazardous chemicals, and no opportunity for advancement. The supplier has had to put nets around its buildings to keep miserable workers from committing suicide by leaping to their deaths from the roof.  The US company sells its goods in the US and other rich countries at a very substantial profit.  The managers are considering continuing to buy from the supplier and pretending no knowledge of conditions in the factories or, if the conditions become public, asserting that it is not their problem but the supplier’s.

Case #3
A man has just discovered that a friend and co-worker of his is cheating their employer.  (He is basically running his own business on the side, using company computers, internet access, time, etc.  His work performance is suffering as a result, though not to the point where his job is in jeopardy.)  He is sure that the employer, for whom he has a good deal of respect, would not want to keep his friend around, if she knew about his behavior.  He is wondering whether he should tell her about it.

Case #4
Members of a legislature are considering passing a law intended to reduce the health problems associated with prolonged computer use.  The law would require any organization that requires its employees to use computers for protracted periods of time to provide ‘ergonomically correct’ workstations.  Though it is framed so as to avoid pushing anyone into bankruptcy, the law would impose significant costs on many organizations.  The organizations would recoup some of those costs (but only  some – let’s say one half) by reducing lost work time, reducing workman’s compensation claims, etc.   Should they pass the bill?

Case #5
An internet service provider collects information about the interests and purchases of its users by keeping track of the web sites they visit and the purchases they make; it then sells this information to other merchandisers and ‘information aggregators’. Users are not asked if they wish to participate in redistribution of such information.  Are they doing anything wrong?  Is it enough if customers are ‘informed’ of this practice in vague language contained somewhere in the fine print of their (typically unread) user agreement?

Case #6
An IT graduate has been offered a job working for a company that is known to make most of its profits from its operations in a certain Third World country. In that country wages are so low that most children are malnourished, no environmental or safety regulations are imposed on businesses, and a corrupt and brutal government uses violent repression to keep people from organizing to change any of these circumstances.  The job would be personally challenging and a good career move (in fact, it is by far the best job available to him from this point of view), but it would offer him no opportunity to influence the company's business practices abroad.  He is wondering whether he should accept the job.