Transcription
chapter 2 ethics for IT workers and IT users part 1 of four
the IT profession
the learning outcomes include summarized characteristics that distinguish a professor professional from other kinds of workers, assess if an IT worker is a professional, analyze relationships that an IT worker must be able to manage, and evaluate key ethical issues that might arise when IT workers interact with other others.
let's start by defining profession and then we will discuss whether IT workers are considered professionals. the standard Myriam wilt Webster definition says that a professor a profession is a type of job that requires special education training or skill and the people who work in a particular profession.
if we take that definition, we can easily argue that IT workers need some sort of specialized education, training, certifications, and/or skills. they may be project managers or coders or mobile application developers or database administrators or website developers, etc. for the first part of the merriam-webster dictionary, we can make a pretty good argument that IT workers are professionals. the second part of the definition refers to people who work in a profession, and IT workers qualified there as well.
there are other aspects to professionals, however. as noted in the textbook, professionals have academic preparation, and most IT workers qualify there. they have advanced training and experience, and again, IT workers qualify. they have to exercise discretion and judgment and their activities, and IT workers certainly have to make decisions and exercise judgment as they develop online training programs or create a new or manage a global IT project.
professionals also performed some kind of routine iced work, according to the textbook. think about CPAs, for instance. they all have minimal standards that they have to understand general ledger and debits and credits, for instance. IT workers, by contrast, may have widely different, varying skill sets depending on their responsibilities.
the next point is that professionals contribute to society, and we can easily make that argument. IT workers help their company become more effective through bringing meaning to big data, for instance. finally, professionals must commit to lifelong training and professional development. if I T workers don't do this, they will quickly find their skills out-of-date.
so, rwal IT workers professionals or not? the textbook says no, mainly because the work is not standardized and there are no overall licensing or certifications for IT workers, like you see with CPAs than professional engineers or Pe's.
I actually disagree with the art author and contend that IT workers are professionals, although they don't have one standardized licensing agency. from a legal perspective, however, as the textbook rightly notes, IT workers are not licensed by any state or federal government agencies. in general, IT workers are not liable for malpractice. so, from those strict set of legal criteria, IT workers are not considered professionals.
however, I contend that from a practical perspective, IT workers are professionals. of course, whether they are considered professionals or not, IT workers should interact with others in an ethical manner.
IT workers encounter multiple ethical challenges. as an employee of an organization, IT workers need to develop information security policies that inhibit the potential for software piracy, which cost billions businesses billions of dollars a year. we will discuss software privacy later in piracy later in the semester.
anybody ever use Facebook at work or check Instagram or send a personal email message? unless your organization has a strict policy policy against use of technology for non-work activities, we have all likely quickly checked Twitter or you snapchat to create a funny face at lunch. have you checked YouTube or your phone while you're watching this video? I bet you have.
some organizations, of course, have strict policies against any non work-related activities, and it's important to understand what you can and cannot do as IT professionals. you should be involved in developing, communicating, and reporting on any violations of acceptable use policies, which we will discuss later.
trade secrets are valuable information that you have access to because of your position in an organization. trade secrets provide some economic value and are kept private. we will discuss trade secrets and other intellectual property later in the semester.
as an IT worker, in general, you shouldn't share valuable information from one employer with a subsequent employer. you may be violating contract law or even be prosecuted.
as IT workers, you are responsible for ensuring that inappropriate content is blocked where appropriate. otherwise, one employee may be viewing something on his or her computer, and it may be harassing to the person who works with him or her and who can also see the content.
you might think, for instance, that it would always be inappropriate to anyone for anyone to ever need to view child pornography. however, in an academic or research setting, there may be very valid reasons to view normally inappropriate and maybe even ill illegal websites. you may be completing research, or you may be working with the GBI or FBI to capture a ring of pedophiles. in those cases, even child pornography might be an acceptable use of technology, but clear bounds would need to be established, and I make I'd make sure my employer knew upfront what I was doing.
whistleblowing is a very difficult issue to confront. if you work somewhere and your organization is doing something like illegal and you report it, do you have any legal protections as a whistleblower? maybe or maybe not. if your organization is the government agency, then yes, you would receive protection for reporting fraud or misuse.
of course, contracts come into play, and you may have agreed not to share any information. in those cases, contract law may apply, and you may be barred from making any reports. if you're at a private organization who does work with a government agency, you may have protection if fraud or misuse of government funds is occurring. if you're at a private organization who doesn't work with a government contractor, you likely will have little or no protection.
if it's a matter of public health, eg your company is dumping toxic waste into the water source, you may have protection, but a whistleblower has to think about the repercussions of sharing information publicly. in some cases, that could land you in jail, where you might be labeled a traitor to the US, for instance, all US Edward Snowden. in other the case, other cases, the organization will fire you outright or giving meaningless work with no access to useful data until the case is resolved.
if you're terminated from your organization, you do have to think of the impact on your family. it may take years for whistle blowing case to be resolved. your conscience, however, may force you to take to make the difficult decision to bring forward information to an appropriate agency, your supervisor, a government agency or unit, or the news media. we will discuss whistleblowing in more detail later.
here are a few examples of trade secrets. are they familiar to you? KFC's original recipe chicken, Coca-Cola's secret formulation, and Krispy Kremes recipe. are you getting hungry yet? I sure AM. IT workers may have access to confidential, valuable information about a secret formula. you are then ethically obligated to protect that secret formula, even after you leave the organization.
here are a couple of examples of IT related trade secrets. Google's search algorithm is vigorously protected. have you ever used Google? have you used it today? have you used it while listening to this lecture? it's ok, you're not the only one. the algorithm is valuable and highly sought-after. if you happen to work at Google and have access to the underlying algorithms, you are obligated not to share that information with a future employer. you likely signed an agreement to that effect on day one with all those other papers. your obligation to keep the algorithm secret after your departure from Google is still in place. it's typically upheld through contract law.
how about Ashley Madison? have you heard of them? they got into some trouble recently. if you're not familiar with Ashley Madison, hit they are a company who advertise themselves as a place for married people to find a quote friend who was interested in an extramarital affair. Ashley mayor Madison guaranteed their client confidentiality, something that their customers would likely find important. they also said that if you ask them to delete you forever, they would do it, and nobody would ever find out.
well, needless to say, somebody broke into Ashley Madison's database of subscribers and said that they would release the data unless Ashley Madison took down the website, a form of ransomware. we'll talk more about ransomware later when we talk about securing data. to their credit, Ashley Madison did not pay the ransom, and guess what? the names were published. although they didn't have complete first and last names, many names could be easily determined by the their email address. in fact, one of the Duggar children of t/l show 19 Kids and Counting fame was one of the people outed. Josh Duggar ended up losing his job as a lobbyist for a conservative group, and the show was cancelled. there were stories of others who committed suicide because of their shame. the shame and embarrassment weren't the problem, however. Ashley Madison did not live up to the terms of use agreement with his customers, and those people who I said their day to be deleted forever, guess what? it wasn't. unless you take a hammer to a physical hard drive and really beat it up, data is never gone. we will see how the courts rule on several pending lawsuits. incidentally, in the course of revealing names and Ashley Madison secrets, it was determined that 90% of the women from the sites were not real at all. they were BOTS. they would get the man interested, and he would receive lots of date opportunities, then he would shell out more money.
the moral of the story? well, first, don't cheat on your spouse. but second, don't promise more than you can deliver. rather than saying you will never share data, say that you will use high standards of care to protect the customer data and will provide appropriate recourse if your data is accidentally com and if your customers suffer harm or loss.
quite often IT workers find themselves dealing with global partners. partners in some countries, bribery is part of the culture. it's not only expected but required if you want to do business in this in the country. however, the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act or FCPA makes it a crime to bribe a foreign official, a foreign political party, or a candidate for foreign political office. you shouldn't interfere in the elections about other countries, and they shouldn't intervene in our elections. sound vaguely familiar?
the F CPE CPA is a US law, while the UN Convention Against Corruption looks at the issue on a global scale. the UN Convention Against Corruption is a global treaty to fight bribery and corruption worldwide. from a practical standpoint, however, how does a company do business in the country with where bribery is expected and required? it's a difficult question to answer, and your organization should involve lawyers experienced with the country that interests you and determine how you can operate without violating US or UN laws.
you can take a look at this estimated corruption map of the world from 2010. the lighter colors of yellow and orange indicate less corruption, while the darker colors indicate significant corruption. Canada and the US and Australia and parts of Western Europe received very clean scores, while Eastern Europe, Mexico and Central America, South America, Asia, and Africa have generally high levels of corruption.
as a personal example, I adopted my younger child from Ukraine many years ago. bribery was expected if you wanted to avoid a lengthy and expensive stay in country. while we never gave money to an official for expediting our case, is quite possible our facilitator or adoption agency did. I was in country for three and a half weeks and then left after court to care for our other son who was at home and being cared for by my parents. my husband stayed another three weeks before the waiting period was over, and he could legally bring our son home.
if you could pay a hundred dollars and get home two weeks earlier than if you didn't pay, would you do it? the time spent away was very costly, and maybe it made it difficult for us to do our banking. internet cafes were not secure. moreover, we had very little time to prepare for the trip, 22 hours from a Friday afternoon phone call until we got on the plane to go to Ukraine, so we couldn't do a lot in advance. I understand why organizations and people pay expediting fees, but you should carefully consider your actions, particularly when you're acting on behalf of your organization.
sometimes it's hard to determine if a fee is bribery or a valid way to expedite your claim. bribes are generally our secret and generally morally unacceptable. a fee to expedite your case or move your organisation up in the queue, for instance, might be perfectly legal, as long as the fees are publicly posted and uniform. for instance, if I want to get a package to you more quickly, I pay for overnight shipping, which is a posted rate available to anyone who might want to use them. but if you ask me to pay you a certain amount and you will move money ahead of others, and it's an amount not posted, then you should avoid it and or consult an attorney.
bribes are often made through a facilitator, like in Ukraine with my adopted adoption or other third parties. if you can't go and pay the expediting fee in person and in front of everyone, that it may be considered a bribe. then that bribe or gift encourages the person or organization or company DAC favorably towards you. you are given an opportunity that others might not have because of the bribe or gift you paid, or you're given a step ahead in line.
here's an instance that's not hard to determine here on the right. do you remember the congressman who had ninety thousand dollars in his freezer? this was in 2005, and he was accepting money from lobbyists and others to vote in favor of those who gave him the bribe. representative William Jefferson, a Democrat out of Louisiana, was ultimately sentenced to 13 years in prison and is due to be released in 2023. the charges stemmed from bribes paid by technology company iGate, who wanted Jefferson to use his influence to convince the US Army to test new broadband to a technology made by the company. i gay also was hoping that Jefferson could use his influence to help secure funding in Nigeria, Ghana, and Cameroon. the FBI caught Jefferson on tape accepting $100,000, and he subsequently put $90,000 in his freezer, where it was found upon execution of a search warrant.
most situations, particularly those in the global economy, are not as clear-cut as someone hiding $90,000 in the freezer. however, is it a bribe? is it a gift? in some, a gift is made openly and publicly, and it's okay for others to know that you gave or receive the gift. you make it directly to the recipient without a third party. you give the gift freely with no expectation of future favors. if those qualifications are not met, you are dealing with a potential bribery situation.
to summarize, professionals have advanced training, experience, certifications, and/or education. they must exhibit discretion and judgment in their actions, and they perform non-standardized work. from a strictly legal standpoint, a professional has passed state, local, and/or federal licensing requirements and has earned the right to practice in a particular area. examples include a professional engineer (PE), a certified public accountant (CPA), and many others.
when dealing with other countries where bribes or a routine part of getting things done, it's best to consult an attorney who understands the laws in both countries. even if bribes are expected and are the only way to get tasks accomplished, the organisation could be in violation of various US and international laws. hire a good attorney and perhaps partner with someone from the other country in order to improve your chances for success.