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CHAPTER 6
ETHICS AND PROFESSIONALISM OF EMERGING TECHNOLOGIES
Outline
★ Technology and ethics
★ New ethical questions
★ General ethical principles
★ Professional responsibilities.
★ Professional leadership principles.
★ Digital privacy
★ Accountability and trust
★ Ethical and regulatory challenge
★ Threats
Technology and ethics
★ Technology can serve to promote or restrict human rights. The Information Societyshould foster the use of emerging technologies in such a way as to maximize thebenefits that they provide while minimizing the harms.
★ Ethics is particularly important for the accountancy profession, with a code for
professional ethics based on five basic principles –
- Integrity
- Objectivity
- Competence and due care
– Confidentiality
- Professional behavior
★ However, the emergence of new technologies raises some new challenges for the profession to address.
New ethical questions
★ The increasing use of big data, algorithmic decision-making, and artificialintelligence can enable more consistent, evidence-based and accurate judgments ordecisions, often more quickly and efficiently. However, these strengths canpotentially have a darker side too, throwing up questions around the ethical use ofthese fairly new technologies.
★ questions are being asked regarding the interaction between computers and humans.
✓How much reliance can we place on data and models?
✓ What is the role of human judgment ?
✓ How do we ensure that we understand the decision-making process?
★ Whatever the power of the machine, humans will still need to be involved, so thatpeople can be held accountable, or explain the reasons behind a decision.
General ethical principles
1. Contribute to society and to human well-being, acknowledging that all people arestakeholders in computing.
2. Avoid harm.
3. Be honest and trustworthy.
4. Be fair and take action not to discriminate
5. Respect the work required to produce new ideas, inventions, creative works, andcomputing artifacts.
6. Respect privacy.
7. Honor confidentiality
Professional responsibilities
1. Strive to achieve high quality in both the processes and products of professional work.
2. Maintain high standards of professional competence, conduct, and ethical practice.
3. Know and respect existing rules pertaining to professional work.
4. Accept and provide appropriate professional review.
5.Give comprehensive and thorough evaluations of computer systems and their impacts,including analysis of possible risks.
6. Perform work only in areas of competence.
7. Foster public awareness and understanding of computing, related technologies, and their consequences.
8.Access computing and communication resources only when authorized or when compelled by the public good.
9. Design and implement systems that are robustly and usably secure.
Professional leadership principles
1. Ensure that the public good is the central concern during all professional computing work.
2. Articulate, encourage acceptance of and evaluate fulfillment of social responsibilities by members of the organization or group.
3. Manage personnel and resources to enhance the quality of working life.
4. Articulate, apply, and support policies and processes that reflect the principles of the Code.
5. Create opportunities for members of the organization or group to grow as professionals.
6. Use care when modifying or retiring systems. Interface changes, the removal of features, and even software updates have an impact on the productivity of users and the quality of their work.
7. Recognize and take special care of systems that become integrated into the infrastructure of society.
Digital privacy
★ Digital Privacy is the protection of personally identifiable or business identifiable information that is collected from respondents through information collection activities or from other sources.
★ It is a collective definition that encompasses three sub-related categories; information privacy, communication privacy, and individual privacy.
★ It is often used in contexts that promote advocacy on behalf of individual and consumer privacy rights in digital spheres, and is typically used in opposition to the business practices of many marketers/businesses/companies to collect and use such information and data.
Information Privacy
★ Information privacy is the notion that individuals should have the freedom, or right, to determine how their digital information, mainly that pertaining to personally identifiable information, is collected and used.
★ Every country has various laws that dictate how information may be collected and used by companies. Some of those laws are written to give agency to the preferences of individuals or consumers in how their data is used.
★ In other places, like in the United States, privacy law is argued by some to be less developed in this regard,
★ For example, some legislation, or lack of, allows companies to self-regulate their collection and dissemination practices of consumer information.
Communication Privacy
★ Communication privacy is the notion that individuals should have the freedom, or right, to communicate information digitally with the expectation that their communications are secure; meaning that messages and communications will only be accessible to the sender's original intended recipient.
★ However, communications can be intercepted or delivered to other recipients without the sender's knowledge, in a multitude of ways.
★ Communications can be intercepted directly through various hacking methods; this is expanded upon further below.
★ Communications can also be delivered to recipients unbeknownst to the sender due to false assumptions made regarding the platform or medium which was used to send information.
★ An example of this is a failure to read a company's privacy policy regarding communications on their platform could lead one to assume their communication is protected when it is in fact not.
★ Additionally, companies frequently have been known to lack transparency in how they use information, this can be both intentional and unintentional.
★ Discussion of communication privacy necessarily requires consideration of technological methods of protecting information/communication in digital mediums, the effectiveness, and ineffectiveness of such methods or systems, and the development or advancement of new and current technologies.
Individual Privacy
★ Individual privacy is the notion that individuals have a right to exist freely on the internet, in that they can choose what types of information they are exposed to, and more importantly that unwanted information should not interrupt them.
★ An example of a digital breach of individual privacy would be an internet user receiving unwanted ads and emails/spam, or a computer virus that forces the user to take actions they otherwise wouldn't.
Chapter 6 discusses the ethics and professionalism of emerging technologies. It highlights that technology can either promote or restrict human rights and emphasizes the need to maximize the benefits of emerging technologies while minimizing harms. The profession of accountancy has a code of professional ethics based on principles such as integrity, objectivity, competence, confidentiality, and professional behavior. However, the emergence of new technologies raises new challenges for the profession.
The chapter explores new ethical questions arising from the increasing use of big data, algorithmic decision-making, and artificial intelligence. It raises questions about the reliance on data and models, the role of human judgment, and understanding the decision-making process. It emphasizes that even with the power of machines, humans still need to be involved to ensure accountability and explanation of decision-making reasons.
General ethical principles are outlined, including contributing to society and human well-being, avoiding harm, being honest and trustworthy, being fair and non-discriminatory, respecting the work required for new ideas, respecting privacy, and honoring confidentiality.
The chapter also highlights professional responsibilities such as achieving high quality in professional work, maintaining standards of competence and ethical practice, knowing and respecting existing rules, giving thorough evaluations of computer systems and their impacts, and fostering public awareness of computing and its consequences. It emphasizes the importance of designing secure systems and ensuring the public good is the central concern.
Digital privacy is discussed, including information privacy, communication privacy, and individual privacy. It explains that individuals should have the freedom to determine how their digital information is collected and used, and that their communications should be secure. However, there are challenges such as interception of communications, false assumptions about platform security, lack of transparency in information usage by companies, and breaches of individual privacy through unwanted advertisements or computer viruses.
Overall, the chapter emphasizes the importance of ethical considerations and professional responsibilities in the context of emerging technologies, and the need to protect digital privacy.