What are some ethical issues in information technology?

In Technology Ethics, the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics addresses issues arising from transhumanism and human enhancement ethics, catastrophic risk and ethics, religion and technology ethics, and space ethics.

AI ethics and corporate tech ethics development and training are researched, created, and delivered in collaboration with Internet Ethics.

By Brian Patrick Green, director of Technology Ethics

Technology ethics is the application of ethical thinking to the practical concerns of technology. The reason technology ethics is growing in prominence is that new technologies give us more power to act, which means that we have to make choices we didn't have to make before. While in the past our actions were involuntarily constrained by our weakness, now, with so much technological power, we have to learn how to be voluntarily constrained by our judgment: our ethics.

For example, in the past few decades many new ethical questions have appeared because of innovations in medical, communications, and weapons technologies. There used to be no need for brain death criteria, because we did not have the technological power to even ask the question of whether someone were dead when their brain lost functioning – they would have soon died in any case.  But with the development of artificial means of maintaining circulation and respiration this became a serious question. Similarly, with communications technologies like social media we are still figuring out how to behave when we have access to so many people and so much information; and the recent problems with fake news reflect how quickly things can go wrong on social media if bad actors have access to the public. Likewise with nuclear weapons, we never used to need to ask the question of how we should avoid a civilization-destroying nuclear war because it simply wasn’t possible, but once those weapons were invented, then we did need to ask that question, and answer it, because we were – and still are – at risk for global disaster.

These changes obviously present some powerful risks, and we should ask ourselves whether we think such changes are worthwhile – because we do have choices in the technologies we make and live by. We can govern our technologies by laws, regulations, and other agreements. Some fundamentally ethical questions that we should be asking of new technologies include: What should we be doing with these powers now that we have developed them? What are we trying to achieve? How can this technology help or harm people? What does a good, fully human life look like? As we try to navigate this new space, we have to evaluate what is right and what is wrong, what is good and what is evil.

As an example, artificial intelligence is a field of technological endeavor that people are exploring in order to make better sense of the world. Because we want to make sense out of the world in order to make better choices, in a way, AI has a fundamentally ethical aspect. But here we need to not mistake efficiency for morality – just because something is more efficient does not mean that it is morally better, though often efficiency is a dramatic benefit to humanity. For example, people can make more efficient weapons – more efficient at killing people and destroying things – but that does not mean they are good or will be used for good. Weapons always reflect, in an ultimate sense, a form of damage to the common good, whether the weapon is ever used or not (because its cost could have been spent on something better).

Returning to AI, lots of the organizations are exploring AI with a goal in mind that is not necessarily the best goal for everyone. They are looking for something good, whether it is making sense of large datasets or improving advertising. But is that ultimately the best use for the technology? Could we perhaps apply it instead to social issues such as the best way to structure an economy or the best way to promote human flourishing? There are lots of good uses of AI, but are we really aiming towards those good uses, or are we aiming towards lower goods?

Additionally, we’ve become so powerful now that we not only have the power to destroy ourselves, but we also have the ability to change ourselves. With CRISPR and synthetic biology, we can choose to genetically modify people, and by implanting biomedical devices into our bodies and brains we can change how we function and think. Right now, most medical interventions are done for therapy, but in the future, we'll have to consider enhancement, as well. At some point we could potentially even change human nature.

That’s a tremendous power, one that must be matched with serious reflection on ethical principles such as dignity, fairness, and the common good. The temptation to power without ethics is something we need to avoid now more than ever. If one is powerful without goodness, one becomes dangerous and capable of very evil actions. In fact, such dangerous power may well destroy itself and perhaps take many innocent lives with it.

As long as there is technological progress, technology ethics is not going to go away; in fact, questions surrounding technology and ethics will only grow in importance. As we travel this path into the future together, we will choose the kind of future we create. Given our growing technological power, we need to put more and more attention towards ethics if we want to live in a better future and not a worse one.

This article is adapted from the video What Is Technology Ethics?

It's a common view that information technologies are rapidly changing the global social order. Digital transformation affects the state, business, and everyday human life — we all face it. Moreover, these processes blur the boundaries between the physical, biological, and digital worlds. By changing the material and social context of human life dramatically, technology changes our perceptions of ethical decisions and unethical behavior in specific situations and alters codes of ethics.

An Overview of the Main Ethical Issues the IT Industry Faces

Advances in intelligence (AI), the Internet of Things (IoT), robotics, 3D printing, quantum computing, genetic engineering, and other technologies inevitably affect human behavior's moral norms and the perception of reality. 

Computer ethics study how computer use affects human behavior and changes moral standards. It considers technical, moral, legal, social, political, and philosophical issues. It goes hand in hand with information ethics that focuses on various aspects of information abuse.

Let's have a closer look at the main ethical and social issues the IT field faces. 

Privacy in Information Systems

Just a few years ago, some innovative ways of data processing seemed impossible. Today, hardly anybody is surprised by such technologies as profiling, contextual advertising, or customized services. It's no longer sufficient to only comply with legislation requirements and privacy laws when developing client data-based information technology products and online services.

These technologies pose potential threats to personal data protection. Let's take health care applications as an example. Computer systems collect great amounts of sensitive data - hereditary diseases, age, gender, medical history, lifestyle information (bad habits, mobility), etc. 

The other example is financial applications and services like online banking, tax management software, or digital wallets. The breach of confidentiality can lead to tremendous and often irreversible consequences.

Private organizations and government agencies use Non-Obvious Relationship Awareness (NORA) technology to collect large amounts of data and combine it to profiles. Casinos first used it to profile cheaters, and now it benefits law enforcement. However, it also comes at the price of individual privacy.

Tech companies are willing to provide any service to their users for free to obtain personal data on an ongoing basis. This leads us to "privacy inflation." To get every new or improved service, the user has to provide access to an increasing amount of personal data. There's a variety of these deceitful practices, and they become more elaborate every day.

Deloitte defines conduct risk as a number of unscrupulous practices like fine print, contract terms confusion, unnecessary services imposition, or customer misleading companies use to obtain client's additional personal data.

Confidentiality issues in IT lead to the creation and implementation of the Privacy by Design framework, which is based on the use of information through seven key principles:

1. Proactive not reactive; preventive, not remedial;
2. Privacy as the default setting;
3. Embedded into the design;
4. Full functionality — positive-sum, not zero-sum;
5. End-to-end security — full lifecycle protection;
6. Visibility and transparency — keep it open;
7. Respect for user privacy — keep it user-centric.

The National Cyber Security Alliance (NCSA) created a portal to monitor privacy settings and information security. It includes links to popular e-commerce sites, email and mobile services, search engines, and social networks. The NCSA recommends using these direct links to update your privacy settings on popular online services and devices.

Intellectual Property

The next sensitive topic regarding ethical issues in information technologies is intellectual property protection. The collective term intellectual property refers to the exclusive rights to creative activity results and individualization means.

• Unauthorized access to content is easily available. People think about the ethical factors and consequences less.
• Internet social codes of free downloading, streaming, and sharing affect understanding of the intellectual property concept. In many cases, content and software piracy become a norm.
• In the digital media environment, people often are less empathic towards people affected by their actions.
• Easy access to large amounts of content brings a lot of confusion. 

Intellectual property is protected by trade secrets, trademarks, patents, and copyrights. Companies use trade secrets to protect strategically important information they are not willing to disclose. Legal specialists use the other three terms in a situation when non-tangible property owners share the information that needs protection.

Several global organizations and many governmental initiatives help prevent intellectual property theft.

• The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) cooperates with international organizations and countries and administers key international intellectual property conventions. WIPO currently has 193 member-countries. Among other services, the organization has international patent, trademark, and design systems.
• The ICC (the International Chamber of Commerce) Commission on Intellectual Property includes 300+ members from 50 countries and is a leading policy-making figure influencing business processes worldwide.
• Creative Commons is a US non-profit organization and international network that offers legal tools to mark creative work, including free licenses and copyright protection. These tools help you use your work commercially, create remixes, or share it according to copyright law.
• Many companies and organizations successfully practice signing non-disclosure agreements (NDA) with employees, partners, or any other third-party accessing their internal information. Such documents are a regular practice in business ethics.

Artificial Intelligence

Artificial intelligence (AI) can improve discriminatory measures such as racial profiling, behavior forecasting, and even sexual orientation. However, rising ethical dilemmas require solid legislation development to ensure a responsible approach to AI technologies development.

As of now, there are two main approaches to further AI development:

• Utopian view: Intelligent systems will open a new age of enlightenment, where people are free from work for better goals. AI systems will be programmed to treat disease, settle disputes fairly, and improve human existence.
• Apocalyptic view: intellectual systems will steal our work, surpass people, become used for military purposes, and shape the future over current needs. Our dubious efforts to control them will show only our own shortcomings and poor ability to apply morality to technologies that we cannot control.

Many specialists agree that AI development requires an integrated approach to reduce the possible risks of ethical problems. This approach includes three steps.

• Step One: Ensuring data quality. AI algorithms learn by using preprocessed datasets. If your algorithm makes inaccurate or unethical decisions, this may mean there was not enough data to teach the model. Sometimes developers involuntarily input unethical values into the system by biased data selection or false labeling. That is why the input data should be complete and correct.
• Step Two: Ensuring proper supervision. Whether it's a data analyst or an ethics specialist, assigned professionals should take responsibility for AI policies and protocols, including compliance with standards and system quality. This helps take into account AI errors and establish clear limits of AI development.
• Step Three: Considering new technologies' impact. It's impossible to foresee all potential scenarios of AI development. However, adjusting training datasets, controlling the data sources, and nonbiased data transformations may help predict possible outcomes.

According to UNESCO, artificial intelligence can support millions of students in secondary education, provide an additional 3.3 million jobs, and help address the spread and impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. Beyond the many benefits, AI also poses risks of misuse of information systems and deepening the digital divide between countries. The organization is proposing a comprehensive global normative instrument to provide artificial intelligence with a solid ethical framework that will protect and promote respect for human rights and human dignity. Once adopted, the instrument will provide an ethical framework and a global regulatory framework for the rule of law in the digital world.

Conclusion

The digital world's essential features allowed millions of people to initially see it as an opportunity for additional freedom, including liberty from social control and moral imperatives. It has lead to many challenges information technologies face today. The conventional principles of right and wrong often shift. 

Privacy issues and confidentiality breaches, intellectual property theft, and ethics of AI development are among many problematic topics information society has to deal with on a daily basis. Many government agencies, non-profit, global, and local organizations introduce new practices to address them as political issues, influence global decision-making, and ensure innovation technologies' positive development.

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