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
The company that owns a popular social media platform has been getting a lot of criticism for allowing the spread of misinformation related to public health policies and to the results of a recent election.. The company has decided that it will take down posts that 'fact-checkers' have decided are false and will ban the accounts of users who persist in posting misleading and false content on their platform. Because the kind of misinformation that they are concerned about is more likely to be posted by people who identify as conservatives than by people with other political views, they are now being accused of having a 'bias against conservatives.' Should they continue to remove posts and ban accounts to stop the spread of misinformation that they regard as dangerous?