8/3/2019 Introduction to Information Technology Q

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/introduction-to-information-technology-q 1/5

Introduction to Information Technology Q&A

Chapter 5

Q2.What are the key technological trends that heighten/raise ethical concerns?

A2. Key technology trends that raise ethical issues:

1.  Doubling of the computer power every 18 months.

Increased dependence on systems and our vulnerability to system errors and poor data quality

have increased.

2.  Advancing in data storage techniques and rapidly declining storage costs.

Advanced in data storages have made violation of individual privacy both cheap and effective.

3.  Advances in data mining techniques for large databases.

They enable companies to find out much detailed personal information about individuals.

4.  Advances in networking, including the internet, promise to reduce costs of moving, accessing large

quantities of data, open possibility of mining large pools of data remotely using small desktops,

permitting invasion of privacy.

Q3.What are the differences between responsibility, accountability and liability? 

A3. Difference between Responsibility, Accountability, Liability:

  Responsibility: Accepting the potential costs, duties, and obligations for decisions one makes.

  Accountability: The mechanisms for assessing responsibility for decisions made and actions taken. 

  Liability: The existence of laws that permit individuals to recover the damages done to them by

other actors, systems, organizations. 

These basic concepts form the underpinning of an ethical analysis of information systems and those

who manage them.

Q4. What are the five steps in an ethical analysis? 

A4. Five steps of Ethical Analysis:

1.  Identify and describe clearly the facts.

Who did What  to Whom, and Where, When, and How .

2.  Define the conflict or dilemma and identify the higher-order values involved.

Example of two competing values: the need for companies to use marketing to be efficient and

the need to protect individual privacy.

3.  Identify the Stakeholders.

4.  Identify the options that you can reasonably take.

None of the options satisfy all the interests involved, but some options are better than others.

5.  Identify the potential consequences of our opinions.

8/3/2019 Introduction to Information Technology Q

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/introduction-to-information-technology-q 2/5

 

Q5. Identify six ethical principles? 

A5. Six ethical principles:

1.  Do unto others as you would have them do unto you (The Golden Rule). 

Putting your-self in the situation of others.

2.  If an action is not right for everyone to take, then it is not right for anyone (Immanuel Kant’s

Categorical Imperative). “If everyone did this, could the organization, society, survive? !”  

3.  If an action can’t be taken repeatedly, then it is not right to be taken any time (Descartes’ rule of 

change).Slippery-Slope rule: An action may bring small acceptable change now, if repeated would

bring unacceptable changes in long run.

4.  Take the action that achieves higher or greater value (Utilitarian Principle).Assumes one can put

values in rank order and understand the consequences of various courses of actions.

5.  Take the action that produces the least harm, or the least potential cost (Risk Aversion Principle).

Some actions have extremely high failure costs of very low probability (Building nuclear facility in

urban area) or extremely high failure costs of moderate probability (Speeding and automobile

accidents). 

6.  Assume that virtually all tangible and intangible objects are owned by someone else unless there

is a specific declaration otherwise (Ethical “No free lunch” rule).If someone create something

useful to you, you should assume the creator wants compensation for his work.

Q7.What are meant by “privacy” and “fair information practices”? How is the internet

challenging the protection of individual privacy? 

A7. Privacy, Fair Information Practices. How is internet challenging the protection of individual privacy?

  Privacy: The claim of individuals to be left alone, free from surveillance or interference from other

individuals, organizations and state.

  Claims to privacy are also involved at the workspace: Millions of employees are subject to

electronic surveillance.

  Fair Information Practices FIP: A set of principles originally set forth in 1973 that governs the

collection and use of information about individuals and forms the basis of most U.S and European

privacy laws. 

  Fair Information Practices Principles:

1.  No secret personal record systems. 

2.  Individuals have rights of access, inspection, review and amendment to systems that

contain information about them. 

3.  No use of personal information for purpose other than those for which it was gathered

without prior consent. 

4.  Managers of systems are responsible, accountable and liable for the damage done by

systems for their reliability and security. 

8/3/2019 Introduction to Information Technology Q

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/introduction-to-information-technology-q 3/5

5.  Governments have the right to intervene in the information relationships among private

parties. 

  How is the internet challenging the protection of individual privacy?

1.  Information sent over networks may pass through many different computer systems

capable of monitoring, capturing and storing communications before reaching its

destination.

2.  Recording on-line activities such as on-line groups, files and websites accessed by the user.

Information collected by subscriber’s own internet service provider and system operators

of remote sites. 

3.  Spamming: The practice of sending unsolicited e-mail and other electronic

communications. 

A8. What are three different regimes that protect intellectual property rights? What challenges

to intellectual property rights are posed by the internet? 

Q8. Intellectual property: Intangible property created by individuals or corporations that is subject to

protections under trade secret, copyright, and patent law.

Protected by different regimes such as:

1.  Trade Secret: Any intellectual work or product used for a business purpose that can be classified

as belonging to that business, provided it is not based on information in the public domain.

Example: Coca-Cola. 

2.  Copyright: A statutory grant that protects creators of intellectual property against copying by

others for any purpose for a period of 28 years.

3.  Patent: A legal document that grants the owner an exclusive monopoly on the ideas behind an

invention for 17 years; designed to ensure that inventors of new machines or methods are

rewarded for their labor while making widespread use of their inventions.

Challenges to intellectual property rights: 

A10.What is most common cause of system quality problems? 

Q10. Most common causes of system quality problems are:

1.  Software bugs and errors.

2.  Hardware or facility failures due to natural or other causes.

3.  Poor input data quality.

Note: The most common source of business system failure is data quality .

8/3/2019 Introduction to Information Technology Q

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/introduction-to-information-technology-q 4/5

Examples of Data Quality Problems:

1.  J.P.Morgan, a New York Bank, discovered that 40 percent of the data in its credit-risk management

database was incomplete, needing double-checking by the user.

2.  About 5 to 12 percent of bar code sales at retail grocery and merchandise chains are erroneous

and that the ratio of overcharges or undercharges as 5:1, with 4:1 as norm.

A11.Name and describe four “quality of life” impacts of computers and information systems? 

Q11. Quality of life impacts of computer and information systems:

1.  Balancing power center vs. periphery:

2.  Rapidity of change: Reduced response time to competition:

Information systems have helped to create much more efficient national and international

markets.

The now-more-efficient global marketplace has reduced the normal social buffers that permitted

business many years to adjust competition.

“Time-based Competition “has an ugly side as there is no enough time to respond to global

competitors.

3.  Maintaining boundaries: Family, Work, Leisure.

Due to “Do anything anywhere” computing environment, the traditional boundaries that separate

work from family and leisure will be weakened.

The “work umbrella” now extends far beyond the eight-hour day.

4.  Dependence and vulnerability:

5.  Computer crime and abuse:

Computer crime: The commission of illegal acts through the use of a computer or against a

computer system.

Computer abuse: The commission of acts involving a computer that may not be illegal but are

considered unethical.

6.  Employment: Trickle-Down technology and re-engineering job loss:

7.  Health risks: RSI, CVS, Technostress. 

A12. What is technostress , and how would you identify it ? 

Q12. Technostress: Stress induced by computer use whose symptoms include aggravation, hostility

toward humans, impatience and enervation.

Identify it as:

1.  Humans working continuously with computers come to expect other humans and human

institutions to behave like computers, providing instant response, attentiveness and with an

absence of emotion.

2.  Computer-intense workers are aggravated when put on hold during a phone call.

8/3/2019 Introduction to Information Technology Q

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/introduction-to-information-technology-q 5/5

3.  Become incensed or alarmed when their PCs take a few seconds longer to perform a task.

4.  Lack empathy for humans and seek out friends who mirror the characters of their machines.

A13. Name three management actions that could reduce RSI? 

Q13. RSI is avoidable through: 

1.  Designing workstations for natural wrist position, proper monitor stands, and footrests all

contribute to proper posture and reduced RSI.

2.  These measures should be backed by frequent rest breaks, rotation of employees to different jobs,

and moving toward voice or scanner data entry.

3.  New, ergonomically correct keyboards are also an option.