Ethics and Information Management

read at least four (4) academically reviewed articles on the ethical issues that may arise in information management. Please note that Wikipedia articles will not be accepted for this discussion.

1.    Write a comparative analysis of the articles noting the similarities and differences.

2.    Compare the information in those articles to the materials in Chapter 14 of your textbook. Does the premise of those articles support the overall theme of the materials in Chapter 14 of your textbook? Why or why not?

3.    Discuss what you learned from those articles. In your discussion, give example(s) of your organization handles ethic concerns as they relate to information management

 Instructions: 2-3 APA citations & matching references, 300 or more words. 

Chapter 14

Ethical Risks and Responsibilities of IT Innovations

Prepared by Dr. Derek Sedlack, South University

Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. All rights reserved.
Learning Objectives

Responsible Conduct

Technology Addictions and the Emerging Trend of Focus Management

Six Technology Trends Transforming Business

Privacy Paradox, Privacy, and Civil Rights

Privacy Paradox, Privacy, and Civil Rights
Privacy
Right, or freedom of choice and control to self-determine what information about you is made accessible, to whom, when, and for what use or purpose.
Breach of Privacy
Unauthorized disclosure of personal information.
Privacy Paradox
Phenomenon where social users are concerned about privacy but their behaviors contradict these concerns to an extreme degree.
Chapter 14

Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. All rights reserved.

Privacy Paradox, Privacy, and Civil Rights
Social Recruitment
Use of social media to engage, share knowledge among, and recruit and hire employees.
Often involving information the candidate did not want considered (or is illegal) to use in the hiring process.
Best practice provisions are:
Have either a third party or a designated person within the company who does not make hiring decisions do the background check.
Use only publicly available information. Do not friend someone to get access to private information.
Do not request username or passwords for social media accounts.
Chapter 14

Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. All rights reserved.

Privacy Paradox, Privacy, and Civil Rights
EEOC (Equal Employment Opportunity Commission)
Enforces federal laws prohibiting discrimination in employment.
Protected classes
Characteristics identified by law that cannot be used in the hiring process.
Discrimination
Biased or prejudicial treatment in recruitment, hiring, or employment based on certain characteristics, such as age, gender, and genetic information, and is illegal in the United States.
Chapter 14

Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. All rights reserved.

Privacy Paradox, Privacy, and Civil Rights
Corporate Social Media Discrimination
The use of protected class information to weed out candidates.
Civil Rights
Rights protected by federal
law, such as freedom of speech,
press, and assembly; the right
to vote, etc.
Chapter 14

Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. All rights reserved.

Privacy Paradox, Privacy, and Civil Rights
Completing Legal Concerns
Two competing legal concerns are discrimination & negligent hiring.
Social Media Discrimination
Visiting a person’s social media sites, however, clearly creates the opportunity to view large amounts of information going against these nondiscriminatory practices.
Negligent Hiring
If a workplace violence incident occurred and the attacker’s public social networking profile contained information that could have predicted that behavior, the employer may be held liable for negligence in not using readily available information during the hiring decision.
Chapter 14

Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. All rights reserved.

Privacy Paradox, Privacy, and Civil Rights
Balancing the Competing Risks of Negligent Hiring and Social Discrimination
Ask candidates to sign a disclosure statement
Allow self-disclosure
Create a standard process and document it
Consistent well-documented processes
Avoid coercive practices
Eliminate recruiter pressure for applicant disclosure
Training
Emphasize related compliance
Chapter 14

Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. All rights reserved.

Privacy Paradox, Privacy, and Civil Rights
Describe privacy.
What is the phenomenon where social users are concerned about privacy but their behaviors contradict these concerns?
What is the use of social media to find, screen, and select job candidates?
Rejecting a job candidate because of concerns about the person’s health from information on his or her Facebook page is an example of what?
Age, disability, gender, religion, and race are examples of what?
Why are the legal concepts of discrimination and negligent hiring competing demands on a business?
Chapter 14

Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. All rights reserved.

Suggested Answers:
1. Privacy is the right to self-determine what information about you is made accessible, to whom, when, and for what use or purpose. Privacy means we have freedom of choice and control over our personal information, including what we do not want shared with or used by others.
 
2. The privacy paradox refers to this phenomenon where social users are concerned about privacy but their behaviors contradict these concerns to an extreme degree. Users of social sites often claim that they are concerned about their privacy. At the same time, they disclose their highly personal lives, even content that is incriminating or illegal, in their profiles or posts.
 
3. Social recruitment refers to use of social media to find, screen, and select job candidates. Often it involves searching information the job candidate did not want considered or that is illegal to use in the hiring process.
 
4. This is an example of corporate social media discrimination.
 
5. Protected classes.
 
6. Two competing legal concerns are discrimination and negligent hiring. These put pressure on prospective employers to find out what they can about a potential employee, to avoid negligence in hiring, yet not cross the line into discrimination.
Discrimination. Most employers have stringent employment policies that prevent their recruiters and hiring managers from learning potentially discriminatory information about candidates. Visiting a person’s social media sites, however, clearly creates the opportunity to view large amounts of information going against these nondiscriminatory practices.
Negligent hiring. Employers must consider the potential risk of a negligent hiring or negligent retention lawsuit related to social networking profile information. It is possible that if a workplace violence incident occurred and the attacker’s public social networking profile contained information that could have predicted that behavior, the employer may be held liable for negligence in not using readily available information during the hiring decision.
9

Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. All rights reserved.
Learning Objectives

Responsible Conduct

Technology Addictions and the Emerging Trend of Focus Management

Six Technology Trends Transforming Business

Privacy Paradox, Privacy, and Civil Rights

Responsible Conduct
Too Much Data?
Big Data Analytics
It is possible to identify personal habits and identify patterns before self-disclosure, such as pregnancy.
Targeting shoppers early in a cycle may improve sales opportunities.
Legal and social acceptability may be similar, but they may be different. Legal compliance may not translate to acceptable behavior.
Chapter 14

Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. All rights reserved.

Responsible Conduct
Irresponsible Conduct
Predicting People’s Behavior
Predicting people’s behavior is big business, but companies may face backlash from customers or be subject to investigations or fines (Wi-Spy).
Mobile Apps and Risky Behaviors
93% top 200 free iOS & Andriod apps exhibited at least one risky behavior.
Apple policy prohibits user information gathering without permission, but countless 3rd party apps are unregulated.
Chapter 14

Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. All rights reserved.

Responsible Conduct
Irresponsible Conduct
Risky Behaviors
Location tracking
Accessing the device’s address book or contact list
Identifying user or phone unique identifier (UDID)
Recording in-app purchases
Sharing data with ad networks and analytics companies
Twitter, Foursquare, and Instagram routinely gather information from personal address books and other places on your phone.
Chapter 14

Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. All rights reserved.

Responsible Conduct
Irresponsible Conduct
Wardriving
Driving around sniffing out and mapping the physical location of the world’s Wi-Fi routers (see Wi-Spy).
Open Wi-Fi Networks
Non-password protected routers that provide access over wireless networks.
The FCC posted, “…collecting information sent over Wi-Fi networks clearly infringes on consumer privacy.”
Chapter 14

Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. All rights reserved.

Responsible Conduct
Irresponsible Conduct
FTC vs. Facebook
The only way Facebook’s business works is if they can track what you do and sell that information to advertisers.
Is privacy expected?
Should it be protected?
Chapter 14

Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. All rights reserved.

Responsible Conduct
Competing Responsibilities
Intense competition demands using every tool or technique to gain an edge or nullify a risk.
Personal data collection while in most public spaces allows retailers, through predictive analytics, to better understand customers.
Data collection and monitoring mean better business, but also less privacy, and slow-changing laws means legal limitations.
Chapter 14

Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. All rights reserved.

Responsible Conduct
3D Printing
Depositing tiny layers of material to create computer-assisted design and/or computer-assisted manufacturing blueprints.
Bioprinting
Using DNA to 3D print human
body parts using bioprinting
technology.
Chapter 14

Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. All rights reserved.

Responsible Conduct
3D Printing Dilemmas and Debated Issues
3D-bioprinted human organs may be subject to conflicting religious, political, moral, and financial interests.
3D printers can exert impacts on the environment worse than those of standard manufacturing.
The technology will create new business models and major challenges to intellectual property.
The risks resulting from the ability to 3D print weapons are obvious.
Chapter 14

Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. All rights reserved.

Responsible Conduct
By avoiding illegal conduct, do companies also act responsibly? Explain your answer.
What types of companies can benefit from predicting people’s behavior?
When is predicting people’s behavior a violation of privacy? Give an example.
When is predicting people’s behavior not a violation of privacy? Give an example.
What are the ethical challenges attached to 3D printing and 3D bioprinting?
Research the current debate about 3D printing and bioprinting.
Chapter 14

Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. All rights reserved.

Suggested Answers:
1. No. What is legal is not necessarily ethical or responsible. Laws lag behind what is possible to do because laws change slowly whereas technology changes rapidly.
 
2. Virtually any type. The most benefit is for those at the end of the supply chain (retailers, etc.)
 
3. Answers may vary. Certainly when personal data upon which the prediction relies are collected without consent, as appears with Target, especially for those underage.
 
4. Answers may vary. It depends on the level of intrusiveness, and that can be very subjective. One might argue that Canadian Tire’s credit card business inherently has purchase information and can analyze to determine risk of missed payments.
 
5. Answers may vary. There are many. They range from legal to illegal activities (e.g., theft of intellectual property.) When demand is high, will living and/or nonliving medical organs/devices go to the highest bidder? Who is legally responsible for ensuring the quality of the resulting organs and devices? In some cases, 3D printing may be the only mechanism to produce an item. 3D printing is costly. In cases where non-additive manufacturing can do the same at less cost, which will be used?
 
6. Answers will vary.
19

Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. All rights reserved.
Learning Objectives

Responsible Conduct

Technology Addictions and the Emerging Trend of Focus Management

Six Technology Trends Transforming Business

Privacy Paradox, Privacy, and Civil Rights

Technology Addictions and the Emerging Trend of Focus Management
Cognitive Overload
Interferes with our ability to focus and be productive.
Potential modern causes:
Mobile apps
Wearable technology
Constant updates
Desire to stay connected
Chapter 14

Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. All rights reserved.

Technology Addictions and the Emerging Trend of Focus Management
Focus Counts
An inability to concentrate for longer periods reduces an ability to distinguish important information from trivia.
Some researchers estimate that distraction costs hundreds of billions of dollars a year in lost productivity.
Heavy online users (media high multitaskers) scored poorly on the cognitive test.
Chapter 14

Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. All rights reserved.

Technology Addictions and the Emerging Trend of Focus Management
Focus Recovery
Lost focus can take about 25 minutes recovery time.
Noradrenaline, a chemical that helps us concentrate, is released by focusing.
The best strategy to improve focus: practice doing it.
There is disagreement if multitaskers are working as well as they could, or they could improve their focus.
Chapter 14

Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. All rights reserved.

What are several potential causes of cognitive overload?
What are the consequences of constant distractions?
When a person is distracted, how long does it take to return to the task at hand and get focused again?
Why are senior managers interested in focus management?
What is the difference between the performance of high and low multitaskers on cognitive tests?
How can multitaskers improve their ability to focus?
Chapter 14
Technology Addictions and the Emerging Trend of Focus Management

Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. All rights reserved.

Suggested Answers:
1. Tweets, texts, e-mail, social media, and annoying electronic static are potential causes.
 
2. Distractions cause a loss of focus and a loss of productivity.
 
3. Gloria Mark, a professor of informatics at the University of California, Irvine, says a worker distracted by a Web search that goes rogue or a new text or tweet can take about 25 minutes to return to the task at hand and get focused again (Dumaine, 2014).
 
4. To improve creativity and productivity. If your mind is free of distraction, your mind is better able to absorb data, interactions, and trends and synthesize the new information with what you already know. As a result, you are more likely to come up with innovative ideas.
 
5. In contrast to widely held assumptions, subjects who were Media (high) multitaskers scored poorly on cognitive tests.
 
6. The best strategy to improve focus is to practice doing it.
24

Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. All rights reserved.
Learning Objectives

Responsible Conduct

Technology Addictions and the Emerging Trend of Focus Management

Six Technology Trends Transforming Business

Privacy Paradox, Privacy, and Civil Rights

Six Technology Trends Transforming Business
The physical–digital blur signifies a new layer of connected intelligence that augments employees, automates processes, and integrates machines into our lives.
Converging Technologies
The explosion of connected M2M (machine-to-machine) devices and IoT (Internet of Things)
Greater bandwidth
Advanced robotics, including expanding human–robot collaboration in industries beyond manufacturing
Increased use of real time analytics
Chapter 14

Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. All rights reserved.

Six Technology Trends Transforming Business
Chapter 14

Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. All rights reserved.

Six Technology Trends Transforming Business
Crowdsourcing
Access or leverage of talent and/or resource pools located anywhere and everywhere through cloud, social, and collaboration technologies (Wikipedia).
Crowdfunding
Using crowdsourcing to monetize a project or idea (Kickstarter).
Accenture developed initial models that show that crowdsourcing can lead to higher profits for producers.
Chapter 14

Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. All rights reserved.

Six Technology Trends Transforming Business
Data Supply Chain
Treating data like a supply chain, flowing easily through the entire organization.
Requires data storage, IT infrastructure, big data platforms, and APIs.
Hyperscale
The supersized, scalable, and resilient data centers pioneered by data-dependent and social media companies.
Chapter 14

Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. All rights reserved.

Six Technology Trends Transforming Business
Apps Drive Business?
54% of the highest performing IT teams deployed enterprise app stores.
Adopting apps create better operational agility.
Apps make life simpler for employees and accelerate business growth.
Isolation
Failure in one component cannot bring down the entire edifice.
Redundancy
every component is backed up by an alternative in case it fails.
Chapter 14

Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. All rights reserved.

Six Technology Trends Transforming Business
Next…More Disruptive Disruption
High-performing business leaders now accept that their organizations’ future success is tied to their ability to keep pace with technology.
Technology is more important than ever to their business success.
The flexibility of new technologies and architectures will naturally change how IT makes it easier for organizations to innovate.
Chapter 14

Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. All rights reserved.

Six Technology Trends Transforming Business
What technologies are blurring the boundary between the physical and digital worlds?
What are the benefits of crowdsourcing?
Referring to trend 3, how should companies treat their data?
What is hyperscale?
What do business apps improve?
Why is resilience necessary?
Chapter 14

Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. All rights reserved.

Suggested Answers:
1. The convergence of several technologies is blurring the digital and physical worlds.
These converging technologies are:
The explosion of connected M2M (machine-to-machine) devices and IoT (Internet of Things)
Greater bandwidth
Advanced robotics, including expanding human–robot collaboration in industries beyond manufacturing
Increased use of real time analytics
 
2. Crowdsourcing can give every business access to an agile workforce that is not only better suited to solving some of the problems that organizations struggle with today but in many cases will do it for free.
 
3. Accenture recommends that companies start treating data like a supply chain. Data need to flow easily through the entire organization—and eventually throughout the data systems of their business partners.
 
4. Hyperscale computing systems are the supersized, scalable, and resilient data centers pioneered by data-dependent and social media companies.
 
5. Enterprises are adopting apps to create better operational agility. They makes life simpler for employees and accelerates business growth.
 
6. Business runs on networks and digital technology. Technology failures are business failures.
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