ITE4103 Tutorial 3: Ethics and Social Issues

Module Intended Learning Outcome (#2):
On completion of the module, students are expected to be able to:

•  exercise appropriate judgments as IT practitioners according to the codes of conduct of leading professional bodies of related disciplines in

various ethical and legal aspects related to IT professions
Lesson Intended Learning Outcome:
On completion of this tutorial, students are expected to be able to understand:

•  Ethics and decision making
•  Ethical issues and making moral decisions
• Preventive measures for unethical and immoral behaviors in organizations
•  IT professional codes of conduct and practices

Section A: True and False
( F)  It is considered illegal to use the Internet for private use while at work.
( F)  All ethics principles that are universal, i.e. they are the same in every part of the world.
( T ) Most information technology professionals would agree that the application of ethics in their
field is more difficult than in other disciplines
( T ) Moral relativism is ethical principle focus on there is no absolute reference
( F ) Ethical standard is generally lower but boarder than legal standard


Section B : Match the followings:

A - ( 2 ) ; B - ( 4 ) ; C - ( 1 ) ; D - ( 3 ) ; E - ( 5 ) ;

Section C: Multiple Choice Questions (10 marks )
1. Having very good knowledge in IT could be dangerous sometimes if one does not have the corresponding ethics to use the knowledge properly. It is because:
(a) The technology is used by many people and a lot of harm can be done to many people.
(b) The position may need to access sensitive information and sometimes there is great temptation to use this for personal gains.
(c) The more knowledge one has on the technology, the more serious the potential damage that can be done to others.
(d) All of (a), (b), (c) and (d).

2. Which one is a bigger domain, being “ethical” or being “legal”?
(a) “Ethical” is bigger than “legal”.
(b) “Legal” is bigger than “ethical”.
(c) They are about equal in size.
(d) “ethical” is a subset of “legal”
(e) “legal” is a subset of “ethical”

3. One of the differences between “legal” and “ethical” is:
(a) “Legal” takes reference from an external reference system and judgment. “Ethical” comes from one’s own internal personal value.
(b) “Legal” takes reference from one’s own internal personal value and judgment. “Ethical” comes from an external reference system.
(c) “Legal” take reference from its own, and “Ethical” come from different culture and background.
(d) “Legal” and “Ethical” take the same reference.

4. Which statement is true about ethical and legal training for IT professionals?
(a) Ethical training focuses on establishing correct personal values for doing good things. Legal training focuses on establishing limits below which doing bad things will be punished.
(b) Ethical training focuses on establishing limits below which doing bad things will be punished
(c) Ethical training focus on punishment, and legal training focuses on establishing correct personal values for doing good things.
(d) Ethical training focuses on learning, and legal training focuses on doing

5. Which statement(s) below is (are) most correct?
(a) What is ethical is always legal and there are no exceptions.
(b) What is ethical is often legal but there are sometimes exceptions.
(c) What is ethical is very seldom legal.
(d) What is legal is very seldom ethical.

D A A A B

Section D: Short Question
1. Give TWO reasons to explain why ethical issues are considered more difficult for IT professionals
to handle when compared with other professionals.
IT people had a lot of opportunities to contact with data privacy e.g. being a database administrator / IT people are more competent in various hacking techniques and methods / many IT related activities are anonymous (i.e. faceless) and difficult to track.
(Any TWO of the above)

2. Ethics are rules of human behavior based on ideas with respect to the rightness and wrongness of
certain actions. What are the differences between legal and ethical?
Legal

• The law is based on a system of rules and  regulations built on penalties for violation.
• It relies on the legal system to enforce it. It is based on the creation and interpretation of the law.
• People do not do illegal things most likely because of being afraid of the penalty associated with it
• The law is probably the bottom line of being ethical.

Ethics

• Ethics is based on a person’s own good personal values  and society’s customs.
• It relies on a person own internal initiative based on one’s education, upbringing, culture and value judgment to act and behave in an ethical way.
• People are awarded with high self-satisfaction for doing ethical things. This is the basic motivation.
• It is much, much bigger and broader than the law.