AUTHOR
Philip Hughes Farro

ABSTRACT

The present paper combines work being carried out by the author in two fields of study: in the Professional Ethics task force of the Costa Rican Computer Professional College and in the postgraduate programme in Cognitive Science at the University of Costa Rica. The interrelationships between computer professionals, users, administrators and computer equipment are seen here as a scenario where ever-increasing complexity and technological dependence desperately require computer based explanatory tools. This requirement is justified on moral authority grounds [see Hoven 94] and a specific computer model is proposed for small and complex data bases.

Society, in its search to understand reality, has devised forms and representations for the data that particularly interests its wellbeing. Comparing Incan quipus with modern data bases we can find at least one common factor: vectorial data representation.

For the first time in history, information systems can produce answers in natural language to formulated questions. Previously, answers needed to be compiled and interpreted by a technician or expert who could understand not only the data context (aplication) but also the data representations and mechanisms used by the information system. Naturally the expert alone could give the reasoning behind the answers so produced.

Establish a truth value over a set of propositions is a necessary condition to exercising any profession. For example lawyers follow strict judicial protocol, designed to determine and document true events, maintained and developed for over 2000 years, and in medicine, clinical procedures are used in order to correctly diagnose illness. In informatics there is no established practice to determine the truth value of computer produced data, yet the term “computer profession” is in general use. The social and ethical consequences of this can be serious and far reaching.

As with the scientific method, the truth of a computer produced statement is dependent on perceived world data, effective measurement of the data, the model used to interpret the facts, the processes used in the model and the method used to display the results. An error in any one of these five processing areas can cause false results.

Increased complexity in information systems has tended to widen the gap between systems designers and future users who receive partial views of a data base with little possibility of inquiring into the original system design. That is, a user is epistemically dependent on the system creator. This situation has arisen probably because, with exponential increase in computing capacity, importance has been given to a cuantitive increase in users and data whereas the qualitative aspect of data manipulation, for example reasoning and verification, has remained at a mimimal level.

System and user documentation are traditionally offered as “explanation” to system operation, system design and user profiles. A user may receive answers from a system if he or she follows a required formalism in the submission of questions. However, systems may, and must, change rapidly to reflect needed corrections or new requirements. Documentation obviously cannot keep pace with system change. How therefore can truth values be assured across frequent model and data changes?

In answer to the stated problems above, we propose that the introduction of the question “why?” at all levels of data base usage (design staff, administrators and users) is critical. To a computer produced proposition X, the question “why X?” may be interpreted in two possible ways: as the chain of partial operational results from input data to X, or as that part of the model (system) that has been used to produce X. The scientific method requires both to be available, also that the chain and result be repeatable. In a very volatile system it may not be possible, with present day technology, to duplicate particular results.

Let us now propose a computer model that will begin to overcome the stated problems. In a compiled program or data base the original data structures, field names and operations are virtually lost in the resultant machine code. We therefore propose an interpreted data base as a means of ensuring permanent access to design and implementation criteria. In order to allow access to all raw and design data without previously establishing any user view bias leads us to furthur propose that all data be stored in RAM; in this way all possible search mechanisms can be optimized. We note here that this means that several typical database operations, such as indexing and joining, are unnecessary under this data modelling method.

Under this scheme, raw data (or flat files in the data base context) and design criteria, organized into some arbitrary model, may be examined immediately by professionals who have had no previous contact with that particular application.

We note furthur that traditional data base design criteria [see Codd 90] presuppose disk storage as the primary medium for data storage and access with consequent relatively slow access times when compared with RAM storage. This supposition may be gradually eliminated as modern technology provides cheaper RAM with each successive upgrade in hardware.

An interpreted data base definition will naturally require new types of variables in order to substitute the recursive and cyclic search processes typical of data base user routines. In this area we propose three new types of variables called structure, pointer and domain. These are all recursive vector variables, that is, an element of the variable can be a variable of the same type.

A query language over the previously defined data, design variables and data relations can now be formalized. Answers to standard data base queries may be given that include design or model criteria as well as data dependent chains. The vocabulary of this language will automatically include terms defined in specific models such as user defined names of fields, files and relations.

An implementation of the above proposed modelling scheme has been developed in standard C for a Unix-TCP/IP client-server platform.

AUTHOR
N Ben Fairweather

ABSTRACT

This paper looks at a variety of ways in which teleworking can be linked to surveillance in employment, making a number of recommendations about how telework can be made more acceptable.

Telework can give substantial benefits both to employers and to many employees. The idea of introducing telework, however, may be resisted by both managers and unions. The potential benefits of telework are briefly discussed, together with the types of telework, and questions of definition.

The paper looks at one of the major inhibitors to the introduction of telework: a feeling on the part of managers that they will loose control over their workers. Traditional controls are not available in teleworking situations in the same way as they are with on-site workers. Such traditional controls include being able to monitor time of arrival and departure, and being able to monitor ‘what work is being done when’ by looking over the shoulder.Traditional controls have been called a type of surveillance by respected scholars: this argument is briefly discussed.

Illustrations are given of how technological methods can allow managers to keep as close an eye on the actions of teleworkers as could be kept if the workers were ‘on site’. It is also shown how it is possible for managers to monitor teleworking employees in more detail than the same managers could traditionally. Methods include monitoring the number of key-strokes per hour. In such circumstances employees may feel they are under surveillance of a kind they resent more than traditional workplace monitoring. Where technological methods have been introduced for such detailed monitoring or surveillance, they have been associated with very low employee morale. The possibility is discussed that the prospect of such low morale can, in turn, dissuade employers from implementing telework.

The unenthusiastic attitude to telework of trades unions is considered, including their opposition to the possibility of detailed technological surveillance of workers by managers.

Another particular reason covered why trades unions may be unenthusiastic about teleworking is that it may inhibit union surveillance of working conditions. This is because teleworking makes it more difficult for the union to monitor whether employers are meeting their obligations, such as that to ensure health and safety in the workplace.

For an employer to meet their legal requirement to ensure health and safety may well require inspections of the teleworkplace. The possibility that when the teleworkplace is in the home, there may be an invasion of privacy associated with such inspections, is considered. The potential that if used systematically such possible invasions of privacy could amount to surveillance, and may be perceived and resented as surveillance even when not used systematically, is also raised.

The possibility that there is a moral obligation on employers to supply equipment for use by teleworkers in the teleworkplace is briefly looked at. Mention is also made of the possibility that meeting such an obligation simultaneously enables employers to include technologies that enable surveillance of such matters as the number of key-strokes per hour, or what non-work activities computers are used for. Such surveillance by employer-supplied equipment could be conducted without the employee knowing that the equipment is capable of being used as such a tool of surveillance.

One of the recognised problems associated with telework is that teleworkers may feel isolated. Methods to counter this include the provision of video-conferencing facilities. A side effect of video-conferencing is that whatever is in the background may be seen. The possibility that this can provide an invasion of privacy that could be used by managers as a tool for surveillance is also discussed, together with ways of avoiding this.

Another method to counter feelings of isolation among teleworkers is to facilitate peer-to-peer communication. If such peer-to-peer communication is facilitated through video-conferencing, e-mail or telephone calls at the employers expense, there again may well be a strong potential for surveillance of such peer-to-peer communication. The possibility of such surveillance is raised, together with the possibility that fear of such surveillance may inhibit peer-to-peer communication, and thus prevent it from reaching its potential as a means of countering isolation.

By its nature, teleworking employment involves the use of communications technologies in communications between the employee and the employer. This leaves open the possibility that such communications may be intercepted by third parties. Competitors may seek to intercept such communications for competitive advantage, while security agencies may do so in the name of public welfare. There is consideration of the possibility that these types of potential interception could be seen as a reason against introducing telework. Issues in countering such interception are also examined.

The overall conclusion of the paper is that whether or not the technologies associated with telework are actually used to conduct surveillance, the potential for them to be so used exists. Fears of such use, in turn, may turn potential teleworkers, employers of teleworkers, and trades unions against this mode of employment, regardless of whether such fears are justified. However, much can be done by employers to reduce such fears.

AUTHOR
Pat Gannon-Leary

ABSTRACT

In March 1996, American Libraries featured a piece about a librarian at the University of California/Irvine whose supervisor intercepted her e-mail while she was absent on medical leave. As a result of this, UC’s Office for Academic Computing began a review of e-mail privacy on the nine-campus system. This article and UC’s reaction prompted my research into this topic.

A number of American companies now have written policies declaring sovereign power with regard to electronic communications. It is important that companies be up-front about the existence – and intentions – of such policies. It would also be helpful if employees were aware of just how far down the road technology has gone. Corporate computer systems may automatically save and store data for a number of years, partly to ensure against data loss if a system crashes. Who would want to randomly review or divert an employee’s mail ? Since many such policies have come into existence as a result of litigation, the natural assumption is that Security or Legal Departments would be responsible for the diversion of e-mail. However, research indicates that Information Systems and Human Resources are the most likely reviewers.

Why would Information Systems be looking at employees e-mail? While network administrators have to monitor e-mail storage to ensure it is not having an adverse effect on network performance and to control communication costs would this necessitate their reading the content of what, in effect, is a letter? Computer files could be (mis)handled in a variety of ways, some of which may fail to differentiate between personal messages and confidential material.

Why are Human Resource departments reviewing e-mail messages? Surveillance may be used in appraisal – checking on an employee’s abilities by listening in to her/his phone calls is not unknown (although in some states it is illegal to eavesdrop on phone calls even when made on a company-owned phone). Might e-mail surveillance be used as an evaluative tool also? While the “1984” aspect may be alarming, might such a practice improve a company’s productivity, make employees more accountable, and raise their performance? Should such of activity be regarded as the company’s right to control, monitor and evaluate its personnel?

Inspection of websites of academic institutions revealed that most of these, both sides of the Atlantic, have an acceptable use policy (AUP) of some sort. Such policies do not refer to e-mail alone but most contain advice about e-mail. They stress that e-mail is not completely private nor secure and that, due to occasional security breaches at sites across the Internet, it may be seen by a system hacker. AUPs are considered in relation to privacy, reasonable use, academic integrity and harassment.

Institutional harassment policies extend to the networked world and the sending of e-mail or other electronic messages which unreasonably interfere with anyone’s education or work at the organization is in violation of the intended use of the system and may constitute harassment. Inclusion of e-mail harassment in wider harassment policies stresses the fact that all institutions have rules for acceptable behaviour and extend these rules to encompass procedures governing the use of information networks.

In developing an AUP an organization should ideally do so in a democratic fashion, using a group of the interested and representative. Every account holder needs to respect and protect the rights of all others in the community and on the Internet; to act in a responsible, ethical and legal manner, in accordance with Acceptable Use Policy, the missions and purposes of the organization and laws both local and national.

AUTHOR
Phil Clipsham, Dave Chadwick and Andrew Stanley

ABSTRACT

Maintaining integrity of data during information processing is a problem throughout industry. The current emphasis in teaching and research into ensuring information integrity is on the technical aspects of systems development. These include look at the occurrence of errors in programming, hardware and software security, encryption and hashing algorithms. All of these are considered to be essential in ensuring safe and accurate information.

Although these issues are important, there is still a real problem of information and data integrity which lies with the end user and the type of systems used. Little research has been done on the security and integrity of end user applications such as spreadsheets and small, single-user databases. Lack of formality in the design of these systems lead to errors occurring and remaining undetected, There is a difficulty with auditing data and information in single user systems and, in particular, spreadsheets. This leads to weak information and an easy opportunity for unscrupulous end users to carry out fraudulent activity. A key problem is that, as systems developers, we are concentrating on ‘how to do things correctly’ but ignoring ‘how to avoid doing this incorrectly’

This paper suggests that the systems developer needs to be made aware of the information integrity pitfalls and dangers in the development of end user systems. This should not be considered as an ‘add on extra’ but should be an integral part of the development of any end user system. The University of Greenwich believes that by making students aware of information integrity problems at an early stage will instil good systems building practice in the future.

A fundamental part of this approach is the way systems development is taught to students. Rather than taking a traditional view of systems development teaching, with separate strands of programming and systems analysis, students are taken through the complete systems development life cycle. This allows for easy identification of areas where problems might occur. Students are also allowed to dissect already built systems to discover for themselves some of the information integrity problems.

Research carried out at the University of Greenwich into the development of spreadsheets and small database applications has identified common errors made by end users in industry and by university students whilst learning. This has led to the creation of a set of methods/tools which can be used in the development of end user systems

The University believes that all students should be aware of the wider implications of the technical skills they may later apply in industry. Through its Systems Building approach it has provided, not only an integrated approach to the teaching of technical skills, but has concentrated on issues in three pertinent areas:

1. Accuracy of data and Information encompassing issues of fidelity and accuracy.
2. Security and computer misuse issues
3. Ensuring social values are properly addressed

To complement this approach the University of Greenwich has also developed an ethical and human factors strand which is available to all undergraduate students taking computing and information systems courses. This set of units includes issues of security, the law and social impact of information technology. By incorporating these units into the syllabus, students are provided with an ethical framework for the development of end user systems.

AUTHOR
Johannes J. Britz and K. E. van Zyl

PUBLISHED IN
ETHICOMP Journal Vol 1 Issue 1

ABSTRACT

The aim of this paper is to illustrate that there is a conflict of interests between the right to intellectual freedom, with specific emphasis on the right of access to intellectual products, and the right to intellectual property. The reasons for this statement are explained and the norm of justice is identified that can act as an ethical guideline with regard to the different ethical problems. The way in which intellectual property rights in the South African university environment (with specific referens to the University of Pretoria) are protected is used as a case study.

The paper is structured as follows:

1. Introduction

A clarification and definition of the concepts intellectual freedom (as the right to know) and intellectual property (as the right to own) are given. Both are indicated as information related human rights and the importance of these rights in the information era are illustrated.

2. The ethical dilemma of the right to intellectual freedom versus the right to intellectual property

This part of the paper is to be understood against the background of the preceding. Specific attention will be given to the main ethical issues regarding the right to intellectual freedom and the right to the protection of intellectual property. It will be indicated that the right to intellectual freedom is based on the right to know (or to be intelligent) which implies the right of access to other people\x{FFFD}s intellectual products. The question will therefore be posed whether knowledge (defined here as the intellectual products of people) can be seen as a common good which must be accessible for the benefit of society. The importance of access to knowledge in the educational/academic environment is emphasized.

It will further be illustrated that this right of access to intellectual products does sometimes clash with the interests of those who generate and distribute these intellectual products. It will be argued that the main reason for this clash is of an economic nature (the protection of the economic interests of both the authors and publishers). The way in which the protection of these economic interests (for example copyright legislation) can hamper the right of access to other people\x{FFFD}s intellectual products will be explained.

This dilemma results in the following ethical questions, which will briefly be dealt with:

• Must the value of ownership of information be seen as a higher value than the right of access to information?
• Does the government (or any other authority) have any responsibility towards the protection of both these rights?
• In which cases can copyright be infringed with regard to the right of access to certain categories of information?
3. The South African situation

In this section of the paper attention will be given to the South African situation with specific reference to DALRO (the official organisation in South African protecting the property rights of authors and publishers) and the South African universities (with specific reference to the University of Pretoria), regarding the use and distribution of academic information. It will be argued that the application of the copyright legislation by DALRO has hampered to a certain extent the freedom of access to intellectual products and therefore inhibiting students’ right to know. Freedom of access to information does not however imply the free access thereof. The question will therefore be posed in which manner this right to own can be protected without hampering the right to know.

4. Justice as an applicable ethical norm to be considered

In this section the justice as an ethical norm with regard to the above mentioned ethical questions will be dealt with. The concept justice is defined as an act of giving a person what s/he deserves and fairness. Four categories of justice are distinguished namely commutative, distributive, contributive and retributive justice. The relevance of each of these categories with regard to the ethical dilemma of the right to know versus the right to own will be illustrated. A few practical guidelines, based on these categories of justice, will be suggested. These guidelines will be of specific relevance to the South African context.

AUTHOR
Philip Brey

ABSTRACT

This essay aims to assess how digital networks impact the worker autonomy of employees in the tertiary sector, with special emphasis on office workers. Its guiding assumption is that worker autonomy is in large part defined by the position of a worker in the information network of his or her organization. This information network is the standard pattern of information flow in an organization, including both technologically mediated information and communication processes, oral communication, and visual and auditory information processes. It is standardized to the extent that it is determined by norms, regulations, and standard practices, as well as by physical infrastructure. This network largely determines who sees, hears, or knows about whom and what. Worker autonomy depends on what employees (can) know, what information they have exclusive control over, what information they are excluded from, and what (they know that) others (can) know about them.

It is also assumed that the introduction of any new information medium in an organization implies changes in its information network, and therefore a potential change in worker autonomy. However, changes in the information network and in worker autonomy are not predetermined by a medium. In the words of Richard Sclove, media have polypotentiality, in that they offer multiple application possibilities. The introduction of a digital network in an organization can be analyzed through Bryan Pfaffenberger’s model of a technological drama, in which design constituencies (including management) and impact constituencies (including employees) battle over the meaning, use and even the finalized design of an artifact, in a series of episodes that involve ‘statements’ and ‘counterstatements,’ intended to secure particular interests or goals.

The essay will start with an analysis of the nature and importance of worker autonomy, which will be analyzed as the freedom of workers to contribute to the overall goals of the organization as well as to their own legitimate personal goals through plans, decisions and actions that they can give shape to themselves. This is followed by a review of the impact of digital networks on worker autonomy, including literature on worker privacy and monitoring, and on the impact of digital networks on the distribution of decision-making power in organizations. Next, the above theoretical assumptions will be expounded.

This will be followed by an analysis of several cases that involve the introduction of digital networks in organizations. These will be analyzed as technological dramas in which the role of a network in organizational information flow is fixed. It will be analyzed what the outcomes imply for worker autonomy. Cases include the introduction of a new, digital telephone system in a bank, the introduction of an information systems in the nursery ward of a hospital, and the introduction of a computer network in an accountancy firm. The relative importance of network design (e.g., centralized/decentralized, ring/star, versatile/rigid) in these cases will be weighed against some of the structural and cultural features in these organizations, as well as individual actions.

Generalizing from these cases and from others in the literature, it will be assessed what threats and opportunities digital networks pose to worker autonomy (e.g., monitoring and the erosion of informational and relational privacy of employees, employee-to-management and employee-to-employee information flows) , and what strategies may be available for workers to enhance autonomy.