Computer Ethics
Philip Brey
This is a preprint version of the following article:
Brey, P. (2009). Computer Ethics. In J. Berg-Olsen, S. Pedersen, V. Hendricks (Eds.), A Companion
to Philosophy of Technology. Blackwell.
Computer ethics is a new field of applied ethics that addresses ethical issues in
the use, design and management of information technology and in the
formulation of ethical policies for its regulation in society. For contemporary
overviews of the field, see Tavani (2007), Weckert (2007), Spinello and Tavani
(2004) and Himma and Tavani (2007). Computer ethics, which has also been
called cyberethics, emerged in the 1980s, together with the rise of the personal
computer. Early work in the field, however, already started in the 1940s, soon
after the invention of the computer. The birth of computer ethics as a field is
often fixed at 1985, a year that saw the appearance of seminal publications by Jim
Moor (1985) and Deborah Johnson (1985). The field is sometimes also defined to
be a part of a more general field of information ethics, which includes computer
ethics, media ethics, library ethics, and bioinformation ethics.
Why would there be a need for computer ethics, while there is no need for
a separate field of ethics for many other technologies, like automobiles and
appliances? Jim Moor (1985) has argued that the computer has had an impact
like no other recent technology. The computer seems to impact every sector of
society, and seems to require us to rethink many of our policies, laws and
behaviors. According to Moor, this great impact is due to the fact that computers
have logical malleability, meaning that their structure allows them to perform any
activity that can be specified as a logical relation beween inputs and outputs.
Many activities can be specified in this way, and the computer therefore turns
out to be an extremely powerful and versatile machine that can perform an
incredible amount of functions, from word processor to communication device to
gaming platform to financial manager.
The versatility of computers is an important reason for the occurrence of a
computer revolution, or information revolution, that is now transforming many
human activities and social institutions. Many important things that humans do,
including many that raise moral questions like stealing from someone, defaming
someone, or invading someone’s privacy now also exist in electronic form. In
addition, the computer also makes substantially new types of activities possible
that are morally controversial, such as the creation of virtual child pornography
for which no real children were abused. Because many of the actions made
possible by computers are different and new, we often lack policies and laws to
guide them. They generate what Moor has called policy vacuums, being the lack
of clear policies or rules of conduct. The task of computer ethics, then, is to
propose and develop new ethical policies, ranging from explicit laws to informal
guidelines, to guide new types of actions that involve computers.
Computer ethics has taken off since its birth in the mid-80s, and has
established itself as a mature field with its own scientific journals, conferences
and organizations. The field initially attracted most of its interests from
computer scientists and philosophers, with many computer science curricula
nowadays requiring a course or module on computer ethics. However, given the
wide implications for human action sketched by Moor, computer ethics is also of
interest to other fields that focus on human behavior and social institutions, such
as law, communication studies, education, political science and management.
Moreover, computer ethics is also an important topic of debate in the public
arena, and computer ethicists regularly contribute to public discussions
regarding the use and regulating of computer technology.
Approaches in computer ethics
Computer ethics is sometimes defined as a branch of professional ethics similar to
other branches like engineering ethics and journalism ethics. On this view, the
aim of computer ethics is to define and analyze the moral and professional
responsibilities of computer professionals. Computer professionals are individuals
employed in the information technology branch, for example as hardware or
software engineer, web designer, network or database administrator, computer
science instructor or computer-repair technician. Computer ethics, on this view,
should focus on the various moral issues that computer professional encounter in
their work, for instance in the design, development and maintenance of
computer hardware and software.
Within this approach to computer ethics, most attention goes to the
discussion of ethical dilemmas that various sorts of computer professionals may
face in their work and possible ways of approaching them. Such dilemmas may
include, for example, the question how one should act as a web designer when
one’s employer asks one to install spyware into a site built for a client, or the
question to what extent software engineers should be held accountable for harm
incurred by software malfunction. Next to the discussion of specific ethical
dilemma’s, there is also general discussion of the responsibilities of computer
professionals towards various other parties, such as clients, employers,
colleagues, and the general public, and of the nature and importance of ethical
codes in the profession. A recent topic of interest has been the development of
methods for value-sensitive design, which is the design of software and systems in
such a way that they conform to a desired set of (moral) values (Friedman, Kahn
and Borning, 2006)
While the professional ethics view of computer ethics is important, many
in the field employ a broader conception that places the focus on general ethical
issues in the use and regulation of information technology. This approach may
be called the philosophical ethics approach to computer ethics. This conception
holds, following Moor (1985), that computer ethics studies moral issues that are
of broad societal importance, and develops ethical policies to address them.
Such policies may regulate the conduct of organizations, groups and individuals
and the workings of institutions. The philosophical approach focuses on larger
social issues like information privacy and security, computer crime, issues of
access and equity, and the regulation of commerce and speech on the Internet. It
asks what ethical principles should guide our thinking about these issues, and
what specific policies (laws, social and corporate policies, social norms) should
regulate conduct with respect to them.
Although most ethical commentary in the philosophical approach is
directed to the use of computers by individuals and organizations, attention has
also started to be paid to systems and software themselves, as it has been
recognized these are not morally neutral but contain values and biases in their
design that must also be analyzed. Approaches that emphasize this angle
include values in design approaches (Nissenbaum, 1998) and disclosive computer
ethics (Brey, 2000). Another development in the field that is of more recent origin
is the emergence of intercultural information ethics (Capurro, 2007), which
attempts to compare and come to grips with the vastly different moral attitudes
and behaviors that exist towards information and information technology in
different cultures.
Topics in computer ethics
Privacy
Privacy is a topic that has received much attention in computer ethics from early
on. Information technology is often used to record, store and transmit personal
information., and it may happen that this information is accessed or used by
third parties without the consent of the corresponding persons, thus violating
their privacy. Privacy is the right of persons to control access to their personal
affairs, such as their body, thoughts, private places, private conduct, and
personal information about themselves. The most attention in computer ethics
has gone to information privacy, which is the right to control the disclosure of
personal data. Information technology can easily be used to violate this right.
Privacy issues play, amongst others, on the Internet, where cookies,
spyware, browser tracking and access to the records of internet providers may be
used to study the Internet behavior of individuals or to get access to their PCs.
Privacy issues also play in the construction of databases with personal
information by corporations and government organizations, and the merging of
such databases to create complex records about persons or to find matches across
databases. Other topics of major concern include the privacy implications of
video surveillance and biometric technologies, and the ethics of medical privacy
and privacy at work. It has also been studied whether people have a legitimate
expectation to privacy in public areas or whether they can be freely recorded,
screened and tracked whenever they appear in public.
Security and crime
Security has become a major issue in computer ethics, because of rampant
computer crime and fraud, the spread of computer viruses, malware and spam,
and national security concerns about the status of computer networks as
breeding grounds for terrorist activity and as vulnerable targets for terrorist
attacks. Computer security is the protection of computer systems against the
unauthorized disclosure, manipulation, or deletion of information and against
denial of service. Breaches of computer security may cause harms and rights
violations, including economic losses, personal injury and death, which may
occur in so-called safety-critical systems, and violations of privacy and
intellectual property rights.
Much attention goes to the moral and social evaluation of computer crime
and other forms of disruptive behavior, including hacking (non-malicious break-
ins into systems and networks), cracking (malicious break-ins), cybervandalism
(disrupting the operations of computer networks or corrupting data), software
piracy (the illegal reproduction or dissemination of proprietary software), and
computer fraud (the deception for personal gain in online business transactions by
assuming a false online identity or by altering or misrepresenting data). Another
recently important security-related issue is how state interests in monitoring and
controlling information infrastructures to better protect against terrorist attacks
should be balanced against the right to privacy and other civil rights
(Nissenbaum, 2005).
Free expression and content control
The Internet has become a very important medium for the expression of
information and ideas. This has raised questions about whether there should be
content control or censorship of Internet information, for example by
governments or service providers. Censorship could thwart the right to free
expression, which is held to be a basic right in many nations. Free expression
includes both freedom of speech (the freedom to express oneself through
publication and dissemination) and freedom of access to information.
Several types of speech have been proposed as candidates for censorship.
These include pornography and other obscene forms of speech, hate speech such
as websites of fascist and racist organizations, speech that can cause harm or
undermine the state, such as information as to how to build bombs, speech that
violates privacy or confidentiality, and libelous and defamatory speech. Studies
in computer ethics focus on the permissibility of these types of speech, and on
the ethical aspects of different censorship methods, such as legal prohibitions
and software filters.
Equity and access
The information revolution has been claimed to exacerbate inequalities in
society, such as racial, class and gender inequalities, and to create a new, digital
divide, in which those that have the skills and opportunities to use information
technology effectively reap the benefits while others are left behind. In computer
ethics, it is studied how both the design of information technologies and their
embedding in society could increase inequalities, and how ethical policies may
be developed that result in a fairer and more just distribution of their benefits
and disadvantages. This research includes ethical analyses of the accessibility of
computer systems and services for various social groups, studies of social biases
in software and systems design, normative studies of education in the use of
computers, and ethical studies of the digital gap between industrialized and
developing countries.
Intellectual property
Intellectual property is the name for information, ideas, works of art and other
creations of the mind for which the creator has an established proprietary right
of use. Intellectual property laws exist to protect creative works by ensuring that
only the creators benefit from marketing them or making them available, be they
individuals or corporations. Intellectual property rights for software and digital
information have generated much controversy. There are those who want
ensure strict control of creators over their digital products, whereas others
emphasize the importance of maintaining a strong public domain in cyberspace,
and argue for unrestricted access to electronic information and for the
permissibility of copying proprietary software. In computer ethics, the ethical
and philosophical aspects of these disputes are analyzed, and policy proposals
are made for the regulation of digital intellectual property in its different forms.
Moral Responsibility
Society strongly relies on computers. It relies on them for correct information,
for collaboration and social interaction, for aid in decision-making, and for the
monitoring and execution of tasks. When computer systems malfunction or
make mistakes, harm can be done, in terms of loss of time, money, property,
opportunities, or even life and limb. Who is responsible for such harms?
Computer professionals, end-users, employers, policy makers and others could
all be held responsible for particular harms. It has even been argued that
intelligent computer systems can bear moral responsibility themselves. In
computer ethics, it is studied how the moral responsibility of different actors can
be defined, and what kinds of decisions should be delegated to computers to
begin with. It is studied how a proper assignment of responsibility can minimize
harm and allows for attributions of accountability and liability.
Other Topics
There are many other social and ethical issues that are studied in computer ethics
next to these central ones. Some of these include the implications of IT for
community, identity, the quality of work, and the quality of life, the relation
between information technology and democracy, the ethics of Internet
governance and electronic commerce, the ethics of trust online, and metaethical
and foundational issues in computer ethics. The constant addition of new
products and services in information technology and the coming into being of
new uses and new social and cultural impacts ensures that the field keeps
meeting new challenges.
References
Brey, P. (2000). Disclosive Computer Ethics. Computers and Society 30(4), 10-16.
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Hausmanningers (eds.), Localizing the Internet. Ethical Issues in Intercultural Perspective.
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Friedman, B., Kahn, P. H., Jr., & Borning, A. (2006). Value Sensitive Design and Information
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