MIS NOTES

LEGAL, ETHICAL AND SOCIAL ISSUES IN MANAGEMENT INFORMATION SYSTEMS

Ethics refer to the principles of right and wrong that individuals who act as free moral agents use to make
choices that will guide their behavior.
Although protecting personal privacy and intellectual property are on the spotlight, there are other pressing
ethical issues brought about by the widespread use of information systems. This is because ICT can be used
to commit crime or to threaten social values.

MORAL DIMENSIONS OF THE INFORMATION AGE.

The information age is the era where all communication is digital oriented. The major ethical, social and
legal issues placed by the information systems are addressed with reference to the following moral
dimensions.

1. Information Rights And Obligations

This dimension addresses the rights of individuals and organizations with reference to the information
that belongs to them. It also looks at the obligations that individuals and organizations have concerning
this information.
2. Property Rights
This dimension deals with how the traditional intellectual property rights will be protected in a digital
society where claiming for ownership and accounting for it is difficult.
3. Accountability and Control
This dimension deals with the definition of who will be held accountable for the damage done to
individual and collective information and property rights.
4. System Quality
This dimension defines the standards of data and system quality that should be demanded to protect
individual rights and to ensure the safety of the societies ICT assets.
5. Quality of Life
This dimension evaluates the values that should be preserved in an information and knowledge based
society. It defines the institutions that should be protected from violation and the cultural values and
practices that are supported by the new information technology

BASIC CONCEPTS IN ETHICS

 These basic concepts form the underpinning of an ethical analysis of information systems and those who
manage them.
 Information technologies are filtered through social institutions, organizations, and individuals. Systems
do not have impacts by themselves.
 Responsibility for the consequences of technology falls clearly on the institutions, organizations, and
individual managers who choose to use the technology. Using information technology in a socially
responsible manner means that you can and will be held accountable for the consequences of your
actions.
 In an ethical, political society, individuals and others can recover damages done to them through a set of
laws characterized by due process.
Responsibility
This is a key element of ethical actions which means accepting potential costs, duties and obligations for the
decisions made.

Accountability
This is a feature or concept of social based systems which means that mechanisms must be put in place to
determine who took responsibility for a particular action. Systems and institutions in which it is impossible
to find out who took what action are inherently incapable of ethical analysis or ethical action
Liability
This is the feature of political systems in which a body of laws are in place that permit individuals to recover
the damages done to them by other actors, systems or organizations.

KEY TECHNOLOGY TRENDS THAT RAISE ETHICAL ISSUES

 Ethical issues have preceded information technology and are the abiding concerns of free societies
everywhere in the world. However, information communication technology has heightened ethical
issues, put pressure or stress on existing social arrangements and made existing laws to be obsolete or
severely crippled.
 There are key technological trends that are responsible for these ethical stresses namely, doubling of
computing power, advances in data storage techniques, improved data analysis techniques and advances
in networking.
1. Increase in computing power
The increase in computing power every 18 months has made it possible for most organizations to use
information systems for their core production processes. As a resultof the dependence on systems, our
vulnerability to system errors and poor data quality have increased. Social rules and laws have not yet
adjusted to this dependence. Standards for ensuring the accuracy and reliability of information systems
are not universally accepted or enforced.
2. Advances in data storage techniques
Advances in data storage techniques and rapidly declining storage costs have been responsible for the
multiplying databases on individuals that are maintained by private and public organizations. These
advances in data storage have made the routine violation of individual privacy both cheap and effective.
Already massive data storage systems are cheap enough for regional and even local retailing firms to use
in identifying customers.
3. Advances in data analysis techniques
Advances in data analysis techniques for large pools of data heightens ethical concerns because
companies and government agencies are able to find out much detailed personal information about
individuals. With contemporary data management tools companies can assemble and combine the myriad
pieces of information about an individual stored on computers much more easily than in the past.
4. Advances in Networking
Many organizations are installing computer networks such as the internet which reduce the cost of
moving and accessing large volumes of data. This has caused ethical concerns because it has opened up
the possibility of accessing data remotely, which permits the invasion of privacy.

ETHICAL ANALYSIS
When confronted with a situation that seems to present ethical issues, how should you analyze it? The
following five-step process should help.
1. Identify and describe clearly the facts.
Find out who did what to whom, and where, when, and how. In many instances, you will be surprised at
the errors in the initially reported facts, and often you will find that simply getting the facts straight helps
define the solution. It also helps to get the opposing parties involved in an ethical dilemma to agree on
the facts.
2. Define the conflict or dilemma and identify the higher-order values involved.
Ethical, social, and political issues always reference higher values. The parties to a dispute all claim to be
pursuing higher values (e.g., freedom, privacy, protection of property and the free enterprise system).
Typically, an ethical issue involves a dilemma: two diametrically opposed courses of action that support
worthwhile values.
3. Identify the stakeholders.
Every ethical, social, and political issue has stakeholders: players in the game who have an interest in the
outcome, who have invested in the situation, and usually who have vocal opinions. Find out the identity
of these groups and what they want. This will be useful later when designing a solution.
4. Identify the options that you can reasonably take.
You may find that none of the options satisfy all the interests involved, but that some options do a better
job than others. Sometimes arriving at a good or ethical solution may not always be a balancing of
consequences to stakeholders.
5. Identify the potential consequences of your options.
Some options may be ethically correct but disastrous from other points of view. Other options may work
in one instance but not in other similar instances. Always ask yourself, “What if I choose this option
consistently over time?”

INTERNET CHALLENGES TO PRIVACY

 Internet technology has brought new challenges to the protection of individual privacy. Information sent
over this network may pass through many different computer systems before it reaches its final
destination. Each of these systems is capable of monitoring, storing and capturing the information.
 Two issues describe how the internet has challenged data privacy namely cookies and web bugs
Cookies
 They are tiny files that are deposited onto a computer hard drive when users visit certain websites
 Cookies will identify the visitor’s web browser and will record the visitor’s activities when they are
accessing the web.
 When the visitor returns to the website that deposited the cookie, the website software will search the
visitors computer, find the cookie and identify what the visitor has done in the past
 Web sites using cookie technology cannot directly obtain visitors’ names and addresses. However, if
a person has registered at a site, that information can be combined with cookie data to identify the
visitor. Web site owners can also combine the data they have gathered from cookies and other Web
site monitoring tools with personal data from other sources such as offline data collected from
surveys or paper catalog purchases to develop very detailed profiles of their visitors.
Web bugs
 They are tiny graphics files that are embedded onto email messages or web pages and are designed to
monitor those who are accessing the web pages or reading the email messages.
 They will then transmit information about the user and the page that is being viewed to a monitoring
computer.

INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY
Contemporary information systems have severely challenged existing law and social practices that protect
private intellectual property. Intellectual property is considered to be intangible property created by
individuals or corporations including trademarks, patents, trade secrets and copyright. Information
technology has made it difficult to protect intellectual property because computerized information can be so
easily copied or distributed on networks. Intellectual property is subject to a variety of protections under
three different legal traditions namely trade secrets, copyright, and patent law.
Trade Secret Law
 Trade secret refers to an intellectual work or product used by business organizations to achieve their
goals and classified as belonging to that business.
 The trade secret law states that an organization will not only have a monopoly on the information or
product but also on the ideas behind that product.
 To make this claim, the creator or owner must take care to bind employees and customers with
nondisclosure agreements and to prevent the secret from falling into the public domain.
 The limitation of trade secret protection is that, although virtually all software programs of any
complexity contain unique elements of some sort, it is difficult to prevent the ideas in the work from
falling into the public domain when the software is widely distributed.
Copyright Law
 Copyright is a set of exclusive rights granted to the author or creator of an original work, including the
right to copy, distribute and adapt the work during their entire life plus additional 70years after their
death.
 The drawback to copyright protection is that the underlying ideas behind a work are not protected, only
their manifestation in a work. A competitor can use your software, understand how it works, and build
new software that follows the same concepts without infringing on a copyright.
Patent law
It is a form of intellectual property law that protects novel, useful and non-obvious inventions or processes. It
provides ownership rights and protection for unique processes, procedures, methods, inventions, and
discoveries for a limited period of time.

CODE OF ETHICS
A code of ethics is a guide of principles designed to help professionals conduct business honestly and with
integrity. A code of ethics document may outline the mission and values of the business or organization, how
professionals are supposed to approach problems, the ethical principles based on the organization's core
values and the standards to which the professional is held. A code of ethics, also referred to as an "ethical
code," may encompass areas such as business ethics, a code of professional practice and an employee code
of conduct

Regardless of whether your organization is legally mandated to have a code of conduct (as public companies
are), every organization should have one. A code has value as both an internal guideline and an external
statement of corporate values and commitments.
A well-written code of conduct clarifies an organization’s mission, values and principles, linking them
with standards of professional conduct. The code articulates the values the organization wishes to foster in
leaders and employees and, in doing so, defines desired behavior. As a result, written codes of conduct or
ethics can become benchmarks against which individual and organizational performance can be measured.
Additionally, a code is a central guide and reference for employees to support day-to-day decision making.
A code encourages discussions of ethics and compliance, empowering employees to handle ethical dilemmas
they encounter in everyday work. It can also serve as a valuable reference, helping employees locate relevant
documents, services and other resources related to ethics within the organization.

IMPORTANCE OF CODE OF ETHICS

1. Compliance
Legislation requires individuals serving on boards and organizational leaders of public companies to
implement codes or clearly explain why they have not.
2. Marketing
A code serves as a public statement of what the company stands for and its commitment to high
standards and right conduct.
3. Risk Mitigation
Organizations with codes of ethics, and who follow other defined steps can reduce the financial risks
associated with government fines for ethical misconduct by demonstrating they have made a “good faith
effort” to prevent illegal acts.
KASNEB PAST PAPER QUESTIONS
May 2018 Q6a
Dec 2017 Q6b(iii), Q7b
May 2017 Q4a
Nov 2016 Q4a
May 2016 Q1c
Sept 2015 Q1c
May 2015 Q2b, Q6b
Dec 2014 Q2d, Q5b