Social Issues and

Professional Practice

Department of Computer Science,

University of Cape Town

2017

Contents

1 Introduction		4
1.1	A Framework for Ethical Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .	6
1.2	Aims of the Course . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .	7
1.3	Recommended Texts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .	8

2 Social Context			10
2.1	A Time of Historical Transition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .		11
2.2	Global Networked Financial Market . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .		12
2.3	Work and Employment Transformed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .		13
2.4	Transformation of Communication . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .		14
	2.4.1	Democratic Communication . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .	14
2.5	Digital Divide . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .		15
	2.5.1 Developer Biases, Assumptions, and Values . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .		17
2.6	Worldwide Mobile Revolution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .		18
2.7	Digital Convergence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .		18
2.8	Interactive Media . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .		19
2.9	Mass Self-Communication . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .		19
	2.9.1	Internet Governance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .	21
2.10	Social spaces in the Web . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .		21
2.11	Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .		23
2.12	Revision Questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .		23

3 Analytical tools			25
3.1	Computer Ethics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .		25
3.2	Ethical theory and concepts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .		27
	3.2.1	Theoretical Framework . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .	27
	3.2.2	Exercise . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .	30
	3.2.3	Ubuntu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .	31
3.3	Your own rationale for computer ethics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .		33
	3.3.1	Assumptions and values . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .	33
3.4	Law .	. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .	36
	3.4.1	Moral and Legal Issues: Policy Vacuum . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .	36
3.5	Scenarios to Consider . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .		37
	3.5.1	Anti-Spam or Anti-African? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .	37
	3.5.2	“The Washingtonienne” Blogger . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .	37
	3.5.3	Professional Responsibility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .	38
	3.5.4 Cellular networks blocked in Parliament . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .		40
3.6	Critical Reasoning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .		40
	3.6.1	Logical Arguments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .	41
	3.6.2	Fallacies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .	45
3.7	Critical Reasoning Exercises . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .		47
	3.7.1 The Nature of Arguments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .		48
	3.7.2 Different Types of Arguments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .		48
	3.7.3 Setting out Arguments Logic Book Style . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .		49
	3.7.4	What is a Good Argument? Validity and Truth . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .	49

2

		Contents
	3.7.5	Evaluating Arguments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .	50
	3.7.6	Argument Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .	51
4 Professional ethics			54
4.1	Are Computer Ethical Issues Unique? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .		54
	4.1.1 A Three-step Strategy for Approaching Computer Ethics Issues . . . . . . . . . .		55
4.2	Scenarios . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .		56
	4.2.1 What is it to act as a Professional? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .		57
	4.2.2	Exercises . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .	57
4.3	Characteristics of a Profession . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .		58
	4.3.1	System of Professions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .	58
4.4	Is Computing a Profession? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .		59
4.5	Professional Relationships . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .		59
	4.5.1 Employer – Employee Relationships . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .		59
	4.5.2 Client – Professional Relationships . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .		60
	4.5.3 Society – Professional Relationship . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .		61
	4.5.4 Professional – Professional Relationships . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .		62
4.6	Professional bodies’ codes of conduct and practice . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .		63

4.6.1Code of Conduct: Institute of Information Technology Professionals South Africa 63

	4.6.2 BCS Code of Conduct . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .		64
	4.6.3 Strengths and Weaknesses of Professional Codes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .		66
5 Intellectual Property			67
5.1	Intellectual Property Protection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .		67
5.2	Scenarios . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .		67
	5.2.1 Pirated Software from Abroad . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .		67
	5.2.2	Stealing an Idea . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .	68
	5.2.3	Improving Software . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .	68
	5.2.4	Protecting Software . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .	68
5.3	Copyright . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .		69
5.4	Trade Secrecy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .		69
5.5	Trademarks and Domains . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .		70
	5.5.1	Trademarks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .	70
	5.5.2	Domain Names . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .	70
5.6	Patents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .		70
	5.6.1 Patents in South Africa . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .		70
5.7	Alternatives to Current Intellectual Property Regimes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .		70
6 Privacy and Civil Liberties			71
6.1	Privacy and the law . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .		71
6.2	Privacy and technology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .		73
6.3	Freedom of expression . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .		76
Bibliography			78

3

1 Introduction

A good place to start on this course is to look at the reasons why we should study it at all. To facilitate this, we look at a few scenarios. For each of these scenarios, you should write think about any questionable ethical issues about each scenario. At this point you may not be able to answer them, but you might have your own opinion. Write down any thoughts you may have and revisit them after each relevant section see see if your opinion has been affected. Hopefully these typical ethical questions illustrate to you the diverse character of ethical issues including, property rights, privacy, free speech and professional ethics. Are computer ethics different to those that came before? Partially, the answer is no since all fields have similar problems and issues. Partially, the answer is also yes, since there are issues specific to computers such as software bias, and others.

Scenario 1: Should I copy software?

Rajesh invests small amounts on the stock market. Last year he bought and successfully employed a software package to help him with his investments. Recently, he met Fundiswa who was also interested in using the software. Fundiswa borrowed the package, copied it and then returned it. Both vaguely knew that the software was proprietary but did not read up the details. Did John and Fundiswa do anything wrong, if so what?

•Should software package be lent?

•When is it justifiable to break the law? Bad law, inappropriate law or if the law is easy to break?

Scenario 2: Should a company mine data?

Consider the case where Tisetso sells hardware and software to over 100 000 customers per year. She has 10 years’ experience. As part of the billing process she keeps information on customers.

Data mining

Data mining is a process of exploration and analysis of large quantities of data, by automatic or semi-automatic means. This is done in order to discover meaningful patterns and rules. In many cases, the data was not collected primarily for the purpose of Data Mining.

She buys and uses a data mining tool to derive useful information about her client’s information such as postal codes, credit card numbers, ID numbers, etc. Most of this information identifies groups and not individuals. She can then use the information to market her wares more efficiently. Is this ethical since customers did not give her the information for this purpose?

•Should customer be notified?

•Is there a need for establishment of a policy? What should this policy looks like?

•Professional responsibility (professional Ethics): Do professionals have a responsibility to en- sure computing serves humanity well?

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1 Introduction

Scenario 3: Freedom of Expression

A student, Gert, posts sex fantasies on the Internet called Ling’s Journey. The story was fictional, but Gert named the main character, Ling, after a real student. In the story, he described the rape, torture and murder of Ling. He also exchanged e-mails with other people in newsgroups, discussing sex acts. An alumnus saw this and reported it to the University. Gert was then arrested and held in custody. He was charged with transmitting communication of threat to injure another person. The charges were eventually dropped, but did Gert really do anything wrong?

•Should self-censorship be enforced. Who decides what is acceptable?

•Is there a need for a public policy?

Scenario 4: Professional Responsibility

Khadeejah works for a software development company which develops computer games for children aged 8-14. The latest game that Khadeejah worked on, uses inferential reasoning and allows players to choose different characters, primarily a macho man or a sexy woman. The game is used mainly by boys. Recently, Khadeejah attended a conference on gender and marginalized groups, where she described the above. The conference delegates discussed the issue of lower participation of women in computing and how to make the industry more attractive to women.

Back at work, Khadeejah realized that her production team is mostly male, her being the only female. Should she refuse to work on this team? Should she ask for the team to be reviewed? Will the game sell as well if a different message was given? What is her responsibility?

•Should the message in games be taken into account?

•Should be teams be diverse? It justifiable to refuse to work in a team that is not diverse?

Scenario 5: Large Legacy Databases

Another area that we should be considering is the use of computers in social context. This includes the use of a large database by a governmental agency such as home affairs (to keep records of individual’s birth, death, address etc), police or the judiciary (for criminal records, fine etc). These agencies have always kept records in paper form long before computers came along.

•What is the implication of keeping large databases by government agencies, ethical or other- wise?

•Does introduction of these database affect free speech? If so how?

•Consider the rights of the individual. Should they be given rights of access to their own data or the ability to change incorrect data? Also consider the impact of incorrect data even if they are changed but not propagated in a timely fashion

5

1Introduction

1.1A Framework for Ethical Analysis

Much of this course is concerned with how one decides what to do in situations such as those outlined above. Firstly we must understand the context within which such decisions have to be made. This includes some understanding of our culture and this time and place, that is the concern of Chapter 2. In order to proceed with an analysis of the situations you need a basic theoretical knowledge of ethical arguments and a set of techniques for making logical deductions, this is what we tackle in Chapter 3. We then refine the knowledge to apply to the professions surrounding computing in Chapter 4.

Clearly the first task in an ethical analysis is to list all the relevant facts. The stating of facts is, as suggested by Kallman and Grillo[46] “As much as possible, a neutral, logical exercise”. Although interpretation is involved in selecting pertinent facts, they are not judged in this step.

The second task is to list the stakeholders in the case to determine who is affected by the action being analysed. A judgement must be made as to whether a stakeholder is important enough to be listed. There may also be a number of secondary stakeholders, and including them and their claims might not improve the depth of the case analysis.

Finally, it is necessary to consider the course of action the stakeholders have or are considering taking. This is achieved by asking whether they were or are under an obligation or duty to have done or not have done something. In addition, it is important to evaluate all the reasons that individuals give or may give to justify their actions, that is, failing to fulfil their duty. One way to do this is to ask the question “Does it matter . . . ?” and then consider each of the reasons given in turn to determine which failings are significant and which are trivial.

We shall return to this in Chapter 4 and especially in Section 4.1.1.

6

1 Introduction

1.2 Aims of the Course

While technical issues are central to the computing curriculum, they do not constitute a complete educational program in the field. Students must also be exposed to the larger societal context of com- puting to develop an understanding of the relevant social, ethical, legal and professional issues. This need to incorporate the study of these non-technical issues into the ACM curriculum was formally recognized in 1991, as can be seen from the following excerpt [87]:

Undergraduates also need to understand the basic cultural, social, legal, and ethical issues inherent in the discipline of computing. They should understand where the dis- cipline has been, where it is, and where it is heading. They should also understand their individual roles in this process, as well as appreciate the philosophical questions, tech- nical problems, and aesthetic values that play an important part in the development of the discipline.

Students also need to develop the ability to ask serious questions about the social impact of computing and to evaluate proposed answers to those questions. Future practitioners must be able to anticipate the impact of introducing a given product into a given environ- ment. Will that product enhance or degrade the quality of life? What will the impact be upon individuals, groups, and institutions?

Finally, students need to be aware of the basic legal rights of software and hardware vendors and users, and they also need to appreciate the ethical values that are the basis for those rights. Future practitioners must understand the responsibility that they will bear, and the possible consequences of failure. They must understand their own limitations as well as the limitations of their tools. All practitioners must make a long-term commitment to remaining current in their chosen specialties and in the discipline of computing as a whole.

As technological advances continue to significantly impact the way we live and work, the critical importance of social issues and professional practice continues to increase; new computer-based products and venues pose ever more challenging problems each year. It is our students who must enter the workforce and academia with intentional regard for the identification and resolution of these problems.

The topics to be addressed include:

Social Context Computers and the Internet, perhaps more than any other technologies, have trans- formed society over the past 75 years, with dramatic increases in human productivity; an explo- sion of options for news, entertainment, and communication; and fundamental breakthroughs in almost every branch of science and engineering. Social Context provides the foundation for all other knowledge units, especially Professional Ethics.

Analytical tools Ethical theories and principles are the foundations of ethical analysis because they are the viewpoints from which guidance can be obtained along the pathway to a decision. Each theory emphasizes different points such as predicting the outcome and following one’s duties to others in order to reach an ethically guided decision. However, in order for an ethical theory to be useful, the theory must be directed towards a common set of goals. Ethical principles are the common goals that each theory tries to achieve in order to be successful. In order to make decisions a basic ability in ethical argumentation is required.

Professional ethics Computer ethics is a branch of practical philosophy that deals with how com- puting professionals should make decisions regarding professional and social conduct. There are three primary influences: 1) an individual’s own personal code; 2) any informal code of ethical behaviour existing in the work place; and 3) exposure to formal codes of ethics.

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1 Introduction

Intellectual Property Intellectual property refers to a range of intangible rights of ownership in an asset such as a software program. Each intellectual property “right” is itself an asset. The law provides different methods for protecting these rights of ownership based on their type. There are essentially four types of intellectual property rights relevant to software: patents, copyrights, trade secrets and trademarks. Each affords a different type of legal protection.

Privacy and Civil Liberties Electronic information sharing highlights the need to balance privacy protections with information access. The ease of digital access to many types of data makes pri- vacy rights and civil liberties more complex, differing among the variety of cultures worldwide.

1.3 Recommended Texts

Manuel Castells preface to the 2010 edition of his “The rise of the network society: The information Age” [15] and in particular pages xvii to xxxi (that is up to and including Section 3 of the preface). This is available online as cited and on Vula.

Herman T. Tavani Ethics and Technology: Controversies, Questions, and Strategies for Ethical Com- puting [84]. A fifth edition is now avialable. All page numbers refer to the fourth edition. The UCT library has a copy of the 1st edition: 174.9004 TAVA

Table of contents:
Chapter	Title	Page
1	Introduction to Cyberethics: Concepts, Perspectives, and Method-	1
	ological Frameworks
2	Ethical Concepts and Ethical Theories: Establishing and Justifying	33
	A Moral System
3	Critical Reasoning Skills For Evaluating Disputes in Cyberethics	74
4	Professional Ethics, Codes of Conduct, and Moral Responsibility	101
5	Privacy and Cyberspace	131
6	Security in Cyberspace	174
7	Cybercrime and Cyber-Related Crimes	201
8	intellectual Property Disputes in Cyberspace	230
9	Regulating Commerce and Speech in Cyberspace	269
10	The Digital Divide, Democracy, and Work	303
11	Online Communities, Cyber Identities, and Social Networks	337
12	Ethical Aspects of Emerging and Converging Technologies	368

Marianne Talbot Critical Reasoning for Beginners. A series of podcasts making up a six-part course, where you will learn all about arguments, how to identify them, how to evaluate them, and how not to mistake bad arguments for good. Such skills are invaluable if you are concerned about the truth of your beliefs, and the cogency of your arguments [83].

8

		1 Introduction
	Episodes
1.	The Nature of Arguments.	The first of six lectures dealing with critical reasoning. In
		this lecture you will learn how to recognise arguments
		and what the nature of an argument is.
2.	Different Types of Argu-	The second of six lectures dealing with critical reasoning.
	ments.	In this lecture you will learn about the different types of
		arguments, in particular deductive and inductive argu-
		ments.

3.Setting out Arguments Lo- Part three of a six-part series on critical reasoning. In this

gic Book Style	lecture we will focus on how to identify and analyse ar-
	guments, and how to set arguments out logic book-style
	to make them easier to evaluate.

4.What is a Good Argument? Part four of a six-part series on critical reasoning. In this

	Validity and Truth			lecture we will learn how to evaluate arguments and how
				to tell whether an argument is good or bad, focusing spe-
				cifically on inductive arguments.
5.	Evaluating	Arguments	Part	Part five of a six-part series on critical reasoning. In this
	One			lecture we will continue with the evaluation of arguments
				- this time deductive arguments - focusing in particular
				on the notion of validity.
6.	Evaluating	Arguments	Part	Part six of a six-part series on critical reasoning. In this
	Two			final lecture we will look at fallacies. These are bad argu-
				ments that can easily be mistaken for good arguments.

7.Further reading and more. . . So you’ve finished this series of podcasts. Find out where to go from here. . .

9

2 Social Context

It was during the Second World War, and in its aftermath, that major technological breakthroughs in electronics took place: the first programmable computer and the transistor. Yet it was not until the 1970s that new information technologies became widely diffused, accelerating their synergistic development and converging into a new paradigm. These occurred in several stages of innovation in the three main technological fields: micro-electronics, computers, and telecommunications.

•The transistor made the fast processing of electric impulses in a binary mode possible. This enabled the coding of logic and communication between machines. Semiconductor processing devices — integrated circuits or ‘chips’ — are now made of millions of transistors.

•The giant leap forward occurred in 1971 when Intel introduced 4-bit 4004 microprocessor, that is the computer on a chip, and information-processing power could thus be installed everywhere.

•The observation that the number of transistors in an integrated circuit doubles approximately every two years is referred to as Moore’s law (named after Gordon Moore). This led to a con- sequential doubling of computer processing power every 18–24 months. This will not continue indefinitely due to physical constraints, but combined with developments in parallel processing, computing capacity is still increasing.

•Furthermore, greater miniaturization, further specialization, and the decreasing price of in- creasingly powerful chips made it possible to place them in every machine in our every day life, from dishwashers and microwave ovens to automobiles.

•In the last two decades of the twentieth century and the first decade of the twenty-first in- creasing chip power resulted in a dramatic enhancement of micro-computing power. Since the mid-1980s, microcomputers could no longer be conceived of in isolation: they performed in net- works, with increasing mobility, on the basis of portable computers (and later mobile phones). This, along with the capacity to add memory and processing capacity by sharing computing power in an electronic network, decisively shifted the computer age in the 1990s from cent- ralized data storage and processing to networked, interactive computer power-sharing. This change did not only affect the whole technological system, but its social and organizational interactions as well.

This networking capability only became possible because of major developments both in telecom- munication and computer networking technologies during the 1970s. But, at the same time, such changes were only made possible by new micro-electronic devices and stepped-up computing capa- city. Telecommunications have been further revolutionized by the combination of “node” technolo- gies (electronic switches and routers) and new linkages (transmission technologies). Major advances in opto-electronics (fiber optics and laser transmission) and digital packet transmission technology dramatically broadened the capacity of transmission lines. This opto-electronics-based transmission capacity, together with advanced switching and routing architectures, such as Transmission Control Protocol/Interconnection Protocol (TCP/IP), are the foundation of the Internet.

Further still, different forms of utilization of the radio spectrum (traditional broadcasting, direct satellite broadcasting, microwaves, digital cellular telephony), as well as coaxial cable and fiber optics, offer a diversity and versatility of transmission technologies, which are being adapted to a whole range of uses, and make possible ubiquitous communication between mobile users. Thus, cellular telephony diffused with force all over the world in the 1990s. In 2000, technologies were available for

10

2 Social Context

a universal-coverage, personal communication device, only waiting for a number of technical, legal, and business issues to be sorted out before reaching the market. Each leap and bound in a specific technological field amplifies the effects of related information technologies. The convergence of all these electronic technologies into the field of interactive communication led to the creation of the Internet, perhaps the most revolutionary technological medium of the Information Age.

In the 1960’s there was a call to investigate how computers could be ‘connected’ to each other in order to create an environment to enhance computer research [66]. The US DoD, through the Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA), created the first large computer network in 1969. This resulted in ARPANET, which connected numerous US universities to each other, and which employed the internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) from 1983. In 1988 South Africa’s pioneering email connection to the US (and later an internet node) was set up at Rhodes University [50].

The social power and expansion of the internet awaited the invention of the World Wide Web by Tim Berners-Lee at CERN [16] in 1989. He also decided that the technology should not be proprietary, and this was instrumental in its spread after its release in 1991. It soon superseded the other forms of internet communication (e.g., ftp, Usenet and gopher: which charged licensing fees for the original server implementation). From the late 1980s there was a growth of commercial providers of networks [100].

Castells’ work [14] which discusses the information age is recommended for additional reading. For this section you are required to read Manuel Castells’ preface to the 2010 edition of his “The rise of the network society: The information Age” [15] and in particular pages xvii to xxxi (that is up to and including Section 3 of the preface). This is available online as cited and on Vula.

(a) Manuel Castells	(b) The Rise of the Network Society, Volume 1

Figure 2.1: Manuel Castells

2.1 A Time of Historical Transition

We are confused because the categories that we use to understand the world no longer apply. A new form of society has arisen through a number of major concurrent social, technological, economic,

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and cultural transformations. This change is global but not everyone is participating equally: many segments of the population of the planet are excluded from the global networks that accumulate knowledge, wealth, and power.

A particular feature of the transformation has, lately, been the radical changes in the ways people communicate. The top-down mass media mode has been replaced by horizontal digital communica- tion between peers. Digital media are multimodal: anything that can be digitized and transmitted, is. In addition wireless communication can now reach us wherever we are. The divide is generational: those born in the internet age (Castells says after 1969, we would say those born after 1980) and those from before.

Castells’ builds his arguments about this new society around the concept of the Network Society because in all key dimensions of social organization and social practice it is made up of networks. Now networks are an old form of understanding human experience but digital networking techno- logies overcome traditional limitations on the size and complexity of the network. The new network society is not bound by national boundaries and has turned into a global system. He is quick to point out that while this new social structure affects everyone on the planet, the exclusion of some from its benefits has produced a new source of global inequality.

Globalization

Globalizationa is a process of interaction and integration among the people, com- panies, and governments of different nations, a process driven by international trade and investment and aided by information technology. This process has ef- fects on the environment, on culture, on political systems, on economic develop- ment and prosperity, and on human physical well-being in societies around the world.

ahttp://www.globalization101.org/what-is-globalization/

2.2 Global Networked Financial Market

Castells assumes that everyone is aware of the financial crisis which started in 2008 that was the worst setback to the global economy since the great depressions of the 1930s (if you need more information consult Wikipedia). He traces the underlying causes to six factors, two of which were:

1.Technological transformation of finance that provided the basis for creating a global financial market based on global computer networks. It also provided financial institutions with com- putational capacity to operate advanced mathematical models. Consequently globally interde- pendent financial markets operate through electronic transactions effected at lightning speed.

2.Liberalization and deregulation of financial markets and financial institutions, allowing the quasi-free flow of capital across the world, and overwhelming the regulatory capacity of na- tional regulators.

The paradox was that the new economy reflects a substantial surge in productivity of almost 30% in the period 1998 to 2008 as the result of technological innovation, networking, and higher education levels in the work force. However real wages increased only 2% and the earnings of college educated workers fell by 6% between 2003 and 2008. The benefits did not trickle down to the workers, instead financial services industry’s share of profits increased from 10% in the 1980s to 40% in 2007 and value of shares rose from 6% to 23% while the industry accounts for 5% of private-sector employment.

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Clearly the very real benefits of the new economy were appropriated in the securities market. No one could do much because the global financial market had escaped the control of any investor, government, or regulatory agency. This dramatically ended the myth of the self-regulated market.

Unless we find a new conceptual framework we shall be at a loss in the dark world resulting from the failure to regulate a new kind of economy under new technological conditions. This is why investigating the networked structure of our global, networked economy may help to design strategies and policies adapted to the realities of our time.

2.3 Work and Employment Transformed

In globalizing the process of production of goods and services, thousands of jobs, particularly in manufacturing, have been eliminated in advanced economies either by automation or by relocation to newly industrialized countries. Job creation and the increased education of the labour force has not resulted in a sustained improvement of living standards in the industrialized world. This is because the level of compensation for the majority of workers has not followed the growth of productivity and profits. The provision of social services, and particularly of health, has been hampered by skyrocketing costs in health care and limitation of social benefits in the private sector.

Figure 2.2: IHub Nairobi

Only the massive entry of women in the labour force has prevented a decline in the standards of living for the majority of households. This feminization of the labour force has substantially affected the economic foundations of patriarchalism and has opened the way for a new wave of feminism.

Immigration plays a significant role in economies and societies around the world as labour tries to follow global job opportunities. Increased migration is driven the uneven development of an interdependent world and the networks of connectivity between societies. This leads to a social dynamic concerning multiculturalism and xenophobia as was seen in the xenophobic riots in South Africa in May 2008 and at present with the refugee crisis in Europe.

Xenophobia

Xenophobiaa a strong feeling of dislike or fear of people from other countries.

aOxford Dictionary: www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/definition/english/xenophobia

The new job market has seen a parallel growth of highly educated occupations and low-skill jobs, with very different bargaining power in the labour market. This dual structure of the labour market is related to the structural conditions of a knowledge economy growing within the context of a large economy of low-skill services, and it is at the source of the growing inequality observed in most societies.

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The existence of online jobs may seem to give the individual more control over who to work for and when to work. However, it also replicates the existing patterns we see in the manufacturing sector where the opportunities available to certain individuals are limited. In the manufacturing sector, it is known that proletarians, especially in developing countries, are likely to work for low salaries in sweatshops producing material for large companies.However inequalities are replicated, such as the rise of click farms [3] and ‘gold farming’ [43] [92]. The Internet also opens gullible people to exploitation. The Finnish government closed down a service which charged people 1.20e to receive regular SMS texts which it claimed came from Jesus [48].

Entrepreneurship and innovation continue to thrive on the margins of the corporate sectors of the economy, increasing the numbers of self-employed as technology allows self-reliance in the control of the means of production of knowledge-based services.

2.4 Transformation of Communication

Conscious communication is the distinctive feature of humans and the revolution in communication technologies has intensified in recent years. It is no surprise then that this is where society has been most profoundly modified.

The Internet is old (having started 1969) but only diffused on a large scale twenty years later, because of several factors:

•regulatory changes & privatization in the 1990s;

•open source software & open protocols;

•greater bandwidth in telecommunications and switching capacity;

•diffusion of personal computers and local networks;

•user-friendly software programs that made it easy to upload, access, and communicate content: beginning with the World Wide Web server and browser designed by Tim Berners-Lee at CERN in 1990;

•rapidly growing social demand for the networking of everything, arising from both the needs of the business world and the public’s desire to build its own communication networks. The number of Internet users on the planet grew from under 40 million in 1995 to about 1.5 billion in 2009.

2.4.1 Democratic Communication

It is not only social media users who understand the power of Internet with respect to voicing com- munity issues and engaging citizens. Democratic governments throughout the world have been using ICTs for improving their services. We all know that democratic countries function well when their government officials understand the needs of their constituents and are able to communicate with them easily. Governments which make use of ICT are referred to as digital governments. There are three basic areas where ICT is used, and these are access to information, transaction services, and citizen participation [57]. For instance, (1) Statistics South Africa (SSA) provides census data through their website, (2) the South African Revenue Services (SARS) allows the submission of tax returns (among other services) through their eFiling service, and (3) Johannesburg Road Agency (JRA) de- veloped a mobile application that empowers citizens with the ability to be able to report potholes quickly. These three are examples of the 3 categories of benefits of a digital government.

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Repressive governments are also aware of the power of the Internet in mobilizing community sup- port, especially for a political issue. The Cameroonian government, for instance, shut down the Internet after the English-speaking section of the population, which has long felt politically alien- ated, went on strike [2] [8]. The government had previously tried to shutdown a twitter service that was provided by MTN Cameroon after it was used by citizens to distribute text messages which op- posed the president’s leadership [12]. Shutdowns of this nature also have an impact on the country’s economy [13]. Social media tends to be used in countries which are characterized by strongman leadership to voice the population’s discontent with their leaders. Unfortunately, it is often blocked for the very same reason. For instance, Yoweri Museveni (President of Uganda since 1986), blocked social media as a “security measure to avert lies . . . intended to incite violence and illegal declaration of election results”[25] during the country’s last elections.

Unfortunately, dependence of the Internet to express dissent in repressive governments is not the best approach. This is because that governments (alongside private companies) control the infrastruc- ture as shown in Table 2.2. This means that governments can prevent people from using the Internet as a medium. There are cases where people have successfully used social media and other Internet services in repressive regimes, as in the case of the Green Movement in Iran [33]. Unfortunately, these successes are also accompanied by the improvement of the government’s ability to use the Internet against its’ own citizens. The first benefit that was enjoyed by the Green Movement from social media was that it allowed ordinary citizens to circulate information, thus breaking the regime’s monopoly on news distribution [33]. It was also used to mobilize support from expatriates thus bringing the country’s issues to the international stage. This is particularly important because international journ- alists had been expelled [33]. Unfortunately, the government has countered by placing all ISPs under the control of the state, deploying website blocking technology, limiting Internet speeds, regulating blog writers, using the Internet for the distribution of propaganda, and the formation of an office whose responsibility is to root out and arrest dissenters on Internet [33].

2.5 Digital Divide

The adoption of the Internet, and other ICTs, has not been uniform throughout the world. This inequality is often referred to as the digital divide. By 2009 rates of penetration reached more than 60% in most developed countries and were increasing at a fast pace in developing countries. Global Internet penetration in 2008 was still at around one-fifth of the world’s population and fewer than 10% of Internet users had access to broadband. However, since 2000, the digital divide, measured in terms of access, has been shrinking.

Digital Divide

Digital Divide refers to the disparities in the penetration of the Information Society in terms of access and use of Information and Communications Technologies. It is the gap between those who have access to the Information Society and those who are deprived of such access.

It mirrors and exacerbates existing disparities in society:

•gaps in education (for example, illiteracy)

•disability

•location (rural-urban)

•gender

•race

•income level

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The South African Digital Divide grows out of our history of division and histor- ical backlogs for large groups of people.

The ratio between Internet access in OECD and developing countries fell from 80.6:1 in 1997 to 5.8:1 in 2007. In 2005, almost twice as many new Internet users were added in developing countries as in OECD countries. The field of computer science that is most directly concerned with addressing issues such as the digital divide is called Information and Communications Technology for Development (ICT4D, ICTD).

OECD

OECDa: The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development is an in- ternational economic organization of 34 countries, founded in 1961 to stimulate economic progress and world trade. It is a forum of countries describing them- selves as committed to democracy and the market economy, providing a platform to compare policy experiences, seeking answers to common problems, identify good practices and coordinate domestic and international policies of its members.

ahttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Organisation_for_Economic_Co-operation_and_

Development

If we consider ‘access’ as binary then we run the risk of seeing a “bipolar societal split”[98, p.6]. This disallows us from seeing the spectrum of with respect to access. For instance, consider the three individuals (a) a University of Cape Town lecturer who has a personal computer and a reliable Internet connect, (b) a student from a township, like Khayelitsha, who has access to an Internet café, (c) and a student who lives in rural area such as Cofimvaba who depends on a parent to print information at work. These three individuals have access to ICT in varying degrees.

This is especially dangerous in the context of rich and poor countries as it creates the notion that rich countries have reached the final destination of information utopia. Furthermore, it may lead to rich countries using poor countries as dumping sites for their old infrastructure. These countries may do this to avoid the costs associated with responsible disposal of the infrastructure. As highlighted, the simplistic definition of the digital divide has the potential to imply that there are two distinct groups with a gap between them [89]. In such a scenario, one group is motivated to bridge the divide because ICTs may give people the ability to compete economically [89]. Unfortunately, the continued exclusion of disabled individuals, and possibly poor countries, may be seen as useful by some to the functioning of current societies. This is because in a “capitalist economy, access needs are determined by the state and extent of the market - the market of production, exchange, consumption, and labor” [89, p.165]. A question that needs to be addressed is whether one believes there should be “equal distribution of resources and opportunities or life chances”[89, p.165] for all individuals, irrespective of country of origin or disability.

China is the country with the fastest growth of Internet users, even though the penetration rate remained under 20% of the population in 2008. As of July 2008, the number of Internet users in China totalled 253 million, surpassing the United States, with about 223 million users. The OECD countries as a whole had a rate of penetration of around 65% of their populations in 2007.

Furthermore, given the huge disparity of Internet use between people over 60 years of age and under 30 years of age, the proportion of Internet users will undoubtedly reach near saturation point in developed countries and increase substantially throughout the world as the older generation fades away.

There are times where people are not able to directly use ICTs. The barrier is not caused by only financial constraints but rather one’s physical abilities. This is the case for individuals who have physical disabilities. Generally, ICTs have been reportedly been beneficial to individuals living with

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disabilities. These benefits range from the ability to get more information about their disability, and improving an individual’s communication with others [22]. Unfortunately, the hardware for certain functions such as Braille interface can be expensive [22]. Companies may not consider such individuals as part of their ‘intended’ audience for their products. This means that there could be a number of websites, machines, etc which may not be suitable for individuals with certain disabilities. In cases such as this, governments tend to intervene. The Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 can be used, in America, in forcing a company to offer an accessible website [22].

2.5.1 Developer Biases, Assumptions, and Values

The designers of software tend to have certain preconceptions about the users of their software. Likewise, developers tend to come with their own expectations about the audience for which they are building software. This phenomena has been studied by Huff and Cooper [40]; the authors studied the impact of a designer’s views on educational software for children. They found that designers tend to create gamified tools for boys and learning tools for girls. It is likely that the difference came from an assumption that the educators/designers made based on their experience with teaching children. Fortunately, it was a valid assumption as it has been shown that children have those preferences [40, p.529]. Unfortunately, there was no difference in the software that designers build for ‘general students’ and boys whereas there was a difference in the software they designed for girls compared to ‘general students’. Thus girls may be disadvantaged when using generic educational software [40].

Sometimes, the problems with our software are not a result of the biases held by the developers. At times, the computer may use biases and behaviors that are prevalent in society. This is especially important since machine learning is growing and is using real world data for training. For instance, Microsoft’s chatbot, They, learned to tweet racist and anti-semitic remarks within hours of it’s deploy- ment on Twitter, and Google’s image tagging system once tagged images of black people as gorillas [68].

Some biases are due to a company’s intended market for a certain product. For instance, the Eastman Kodak Company, producer of photography products, used Shirley cards to balance skin- tone in still photograph for a long time. The card are named after Shirley, a model who worked for Kodak, and was pictured on the cards [20]. This meant that photos of people who did not have fair skin were not properly balanced. This is the reason that Jean-Luc Godard (circa 1978) did not want to use Kodak film when he was working in Mozambique [20]. Kodak addressed this assumption when two of its biggest clients required the ability in order to photograph dark furniture [78]. The balancing problem had already been solving by Polaroid, however. Its customers, the South African Apartheid government, required the ability to take photographs of individuals who had a dark skin tone. The government used Polaroid’s vintage ID-2 cameras for the creation of identity documents as part of its ‘dompas’ system [78].

There are certain biases which create problems which could be easily to identified and fixed in the event that the creators were diverse. For instance, there were reported incidents of the Nikon Coolpix S630 digital camera displaying “Did someone blink?” messages when individuals whose eyes have the epicanthic fold were being photographed [71]. This meant that the message was shown for mostly individuals of Asian heritage even though they were not blinking. A bug of this nature could have been possibly identified in the development process if the creators also included individuals of Asian heritage. It is worth noting that including all groups in the development chain does not guarantee that the resulting products do not suffer from certain biases.

The underrepresentation of certain groups within computer science also has an impact on the industrial culture. Uber1, the transportation company, is an example of technology company that is struggling with sexism and harassment [51] [52]. Unfortunately, the company is not the only company

1https://www.uber.com

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with such problems. An industry culture of this nature may lead to women who are already working in field to change areas. This means that a significant portion of the population may be prevented from participating in computer science.

2.6 Worldwide Mobile Revolution

Since the 1990s there has been an explosion of increasing capacity of connectivity and bandwidth in successive generations of mobile phones. This has been the fastest diffusing technology in the history of communication. In 1991 there were about 16 million wireless phone subscriptions in the world. By July 2008, subscriptions had surpassed 3.4 billion, or about 52% of the world population.

Using a conservative user-multiplier factor we can safely calculate that over 60 percent of the people on this planet have access to wireless communication in 2009, even if this is highly constrained by income and the uneven deployment of communication infrastructure.

Studies in China, Latin America, and Africa have shown that poor people give high priority to their communication needs and use a substantial proportion of their meagre budget to fulfill them.

In developed countries, the rate of penetration of wireless subscriptions ranges between 82.4% (the US) to 113% (Italy or Spain) and is moving toward saturation point. In countries such as Argentina there are more mobile phone subscriptions than people.

2.7 Digital Convergence

Digital Convergence

Digital Convergence refers to the fact that we no longer need separate communic- ations channels for different media (such as voice, video, text, etc.) because they are all digitized and can share the same connections and platforms.

In the 2000s we have witnessed increasing technological convergence between the Internet, wire- less communication and multiple applications for communicating over wireless networks. This has multiplied the points of access to the Internet. This communication network can exchange anything that can be digitized: texts, audios, videos, software.

There has also been a price reduction in the production of certain electronics thus leading to the ubiquity of certain sensors. This has resulted in what is called the Internet of things. This the ability to have devices such fridges, stoves, etc and traditional machines such as computer to be able to share data. This means that individuals are able to have ‘smart’ houses where one can remotely turn their lights on and off, check whether they turned off the stove, etc.

This is particularly important for the developing world because the growth rate of Internet penetra- tion has slowed due to the scarcity of wired telephone lines. In the new model of tele-communications, wireless communication has become the predominant form of communication everywhere, especially in developing countries. Thus, the ability to connect to the Internet from a wireless device is now the critical factor for a new wave of Internet diffusion on the planet. This depends on the building of wireless infrastructure, on new protocols for wireless Internet, and on the spread of advanced broadband capacity.

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2.8 Interactive Media

Internet or World Wide Web are means of interactive communication: the boundaries between mass media communication and all other forms of communication are blurring. With its diverse range of applications, it is the communication fabric of our lives, for work, for personal connection, for information, for entertainment, for public services, for politics, and for religion.

Used to access mass media (television, radio, newspapers), and digitized culture or information: films, music, books, and journal articles. It has already transformed television as its reception be- comes individualized. There has been a similar consequence with print media: users under 30 years of age primarily read on-line. Music listening has been transformed by streaming services (Spotify). In many cases there is still no clear business model for these.

2.9 Mass Self-Communication

The developments outlined above have now resulted in a different form of communication: mass self-communication (so-called Web 2.0). As people have appropriated new forms of communication, they have built their own systems of mass communication, via SMS, blogs, vlogs, podcasts, wikis, and the like. File sharing and peer-to-peer (p2p) networks make the circulation, mixing, and reformatting of any digitized content possible. For example YouTube, is a video-sharing website where individual users, organizations, companies, and governments can upload their own video content.

Web 2.0 & 3.0

Web 2.0 describes World Wide Web sites that emphasize user-generated content, usability, and interoperability. It is not a technical update but rather refers to an emerging way in which the web is used.

The Semantic Web (Web 3.0) is an extension of the web standards by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) and refers to W3C’s vision of the Web of linked data. Semantic Web technologies enable people to create data stores on the Web, build vocabularies, and write rules for handling data.

This is mass communication but user-generated content is a very different means of mass commu- nication to what was ever seen before. Unlike broadcast media anyone can post a video in YouTube, with few restrictions. In most countries everyone is a publisher and there is equal freedom in what is chosen for viewing. A user selects the video she wants to watch and comment on from a huge listing of possibilities. Pressures are of course exercised on free expression on YouTube, particularly legal threats for copyright infringements. There can also be government censorship of content. China blocks access to many foreign websites (they are not “banned”), see Table 2.1. China has its own equivalents for many social sites but these are censored.

Table 2.1: Table of high-ranking websites blocked in mainland China, August 2017 (Wikipedia [101])

Alexa	Website	Category	Language	Duration of blockage					Current
Rank									Status
1	Gmail	Email	English	2014,	Sept	(or	earlier)	to	Block
				present
1	Google	Search	English	2014,	May	(or	earlier)	to	Block
				present

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Table 2.1: Table of high-ranking websites blocked in mainland China, August 2017 (Wikipedia [101])

Alexa	Website	Category	Language	Duration of blockage					Current
Rank									Status
1	Google Maps	Maps	English	2014,	May	(or	earlier)	to	Block
				present
1	Google Docs	Sharing	English	2011,	May	(or	earlier)	to	Block
				present
1	Google Encrypted	Search	English	2011, March (or earlier) to					Block
				present
5	Google APIs	Search	English	2014,	Sept	(or	earlier)	to	Block
				present
1	Google Plus	Social	English	2011, July to present					Block
1	Google Sites	Web	English	2011, March (or earlier) to					Block
		Hosting		present
1	Picasa	Sharing	English	2009, July to present					Block
2	Facebook	Social	English	2008, July to present					Block
3	YouTube	Sharing	English	2009, March to present					Block
4	Yahoo! Taiwan	Portal	Chinese	2011, May (or earlier) to 2014,					Unblock
				Jan
4	Yahoo! Hong Kong	Portal	Chinese	2011, March (or earlier) to					Unblock
				2014, Jan
6	Mobile Wikipedia	Other	English	2011, May (or earlier) to 2012					Unblock
6	Chinese Wikipedia	Other	Chinese	2015, May 19 to present					Block
8	Twitter	Social	English	2009, June to present					Block
11	Blogspot	Blog	English	2009, May to present					Block
16	Yahoo! Japan	Portal	Japanese	2012, 15–17 June					Unblock
20	T.co	Other	English	2011, May (or earlier) to 2012					Block
21	Google Japan	Search	Japanese	2012, 15–17 June					Block
32	Instagram	Social	English	Sept 19, 2014 to present					Block
51	XVideos	Porno-	English	2011, March (or earlier) to					Block
		graphy		present
52	FC2	Blog	Japanese	2011, March (or earlier) to					Block
				2012
54	xHamster	Porno-	English	2011, March (or earlier) to					Block
		graphy		2012
55	GitHub	Sharing	English	2016, Aug (or earlier) to 2016,					Unblock
				Nov (or earlier)
62	Pinterest	Image		2017, March to present					Block
		sharing
64	Pornhub	Porno-	English	2012, May to 2016, April					Block
		graphy
71	The Pirate Bay	Sharing	English	2012, Feb (or earlier)					Block
75	Rakuten Market	Shopping	Japanese	2012, 15–17 June, Sept ??				to	Unblock
				19?
87	Dailymotion	Sharing	English	Unknown to Present					Block
94	Amazon Japan	Shopping	Japanese	2012, 15–17 June					Unblock
108	The New York	Publica-	English	2012 to present					Block
	Times	tion
110	Dropbox	Sharing	English	2014,	June	(or	earlier)	to	Block
				present

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Table 2.1: Table of high-ranking websites blocked in mainland China, August 2017 (Wikipedia [101])

Alexa	Website	Category	Language	Duration of blockage	Current
Rank					Status
112	Vimeo	Sharing	English	2009, Oct	Block
188	SoundCloud	Audio	English	Sept 2013 to present	Block
219	Nico Video	Sharing	Japanese	Unknown to Unknown	Unblock
223	Archive.org (Inter-	Web	English	2011, April (or earlier) to 2012	Block
	net Archive)	archiving
225	Scribd	Sharing	English	2011, Feb (or earlier) to un-	Block
				known

These new media are self-generated in content, self-directed in emission, and self-selected in recep- tion by many who communicate with many. This is a new communication realm, and ultimately a new medium, whose backbone is made of computer networks, whose language is digital, and whose senders are globally distributed and globally interactive.

Horizontal networks of communication built around peoples’ initiatives, interests, and desires are multimodal and incorporate many kinds of documents. For example:

•Large-scale cooperative projects such as Wikipedia (the open source encyclopaedia)

•Music and films (p2p networks)

The Internet also allows people to share their self-produced content through services such as peer- to-peer services such the DC++, BitTorrent, and others. This means that individuals have greater artistic freedom as they easily distribute their content to their potential audience. There has also been an increase in online streaming services such netflix2, showmax3, etc. Individuals, through these services, can now access any show even when the aforementioned show is no longer in season. Furthermore, the users of such services have greater control as what to to watch, and when to watch it unlike traditional television programming.

2.9.1 Internet Governance

The Internet is governed by a number of organizations to allow a ‘decentralized network’. The overall structure of the governance of the Internet is given in Table 2.2. The groups which are responsible for the protocols used in the Internet include the ICANN, Internet Engineering Task Force, Internet Society, etc. There are number of telecoms companies which operate in South Africa, these are the mobile providers Telkom Mobile/8ta, MTN, Vodacom, Cell C and Virgin Mobile. Telkom is the largest company (partially owned by the South African government) which provides infrastructure for the Internet.

2.10 Social spaces in the Web

On-line communities have become a fundamental dimension of everyday life and they are growing everywhere, including China and developing countries. In countries with good broadband connec- tions there has been an explosion of interactive computer and video games, today a multi-billion- dollar global industry. The largest on-line game community, World of Warcraft (WOW), which ac-

2https://www.netflix.com/

3https://www.showmax.com/eng/welcome/za

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Table 2.2: Summary of Internet governance bodies. (Adapted from [23, p.19])
Internet Layer		Layer Function					Governing Body
Infrastructure		It enables the actual con-					National governments, private telecoms firms
		nection between network
		devices
Protocols		These are the languages					International engineering consortium groups
		used by devices to com-
		municate over network
Applications		These are the tools which					Private commercial software firms, Open-source
		allow people to make use					software developers
		of the network
Content		This is the actual ma-					Private Internet service providers, Hosting com-
		terial	that people	see,			panies, Website operators, National and Local gov-
		read, listen to, download,					ernments, Private companies
		watch, and interact with
		while	connected to	the
		network

counts for just over half of the Massively Multiplayer Online Game (MMOG) industry, reached over 10 million active members (over half of which reside in the Asian continent) in 2008.

Social media usage statistics for South Africa are hard to get hold of and publicly available numbers are contested[91]. Commercial surveys are very expensive (over R18K for a report). Table 2.3 has some numbers from 2015. The number of WhatsApp users is not included but likely to be the highest of all.

Table 2.3: Social Media in South Africa, 2015 [91]

Social platform	% Active	Millions of users
Facebook	22%	11.8
YouTube	13%	7.2
Twitter	12%	6.6
WeChat	9%	5
Mxit	9%	4.9
LinkedIn	7%	3.8
Instagram	2%	1.1
Pinterest	2%	0.84

We can take the South African population in 2016 as 55.91 million people [80]. According to a press release of World Wide Worx[31] we obtain the Table 2.4. They also note that “One of the most significant trends uncovered is that Facebook, with 14-million users, now has 10-million, or 85% of its users, using mobile devices”. In another report World Wide Worx[32] estimate that 40% of South Africans use the internet in 2017. The most common use is for communication via social media. Their study also reveals the “stark reality” of the digital divide in South Africa:

The clearest divide is revealed in income disparity. Among adult South Africans earning more than R30 000 a month, Internet penetration is at 82.4 per cent, on a par with overall penetration in many industrialised countries. However, penetration declines rapidly as income declines, falling to 61.3 per cent for those earning between R14 000 and R18 000, 42 per cent for those earning between R3 000 and R6 000, and below 30 per cent for those earning below R2 500 a month.

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Furthermore Arthur Goldstuck notes “The research shows that a third of adult Internet users rely on their cellphones as their primary means of access. For low-income users, Internet access requires data costs to be taken off airtime, and those costs remain among the highest in the world”.

Table 2.4: Social Media in South Africa, 2016 [31]

Social platform	% Active	Millions of users
Facebook	25%	14
You Tube	16%	8.74
Twitter	14%	7.7
LinkedIn	10%	5.5
Instagram	6%	3.5

The organization “we are social”[49] publishes world wide data on social media use. Their latest report is dated January 2017. They report, for example, that of a total population of 1 231 million people there are 362 internet users (29%) and 170 million (14%) social media users. The number of mobile subscriptions stand at 995 million (81%).

Privacy on the communication channels that we use is not guaranteed. Most importantly, even when anonymity is guaranteed with respect to the content of our conversations, the meta-data of the communications could tell malicious actors significant information about us. This is evidenced by the former national security agency (NSA) director’s statement, General Michael Hayden, who once said “We kill people based on metadata”[19]. This is important because people tend to share sensitive information in online communications due to their assumption that their conversations are protected [67].

For Castells the facts is that we no longer distinguish between the virtual online world of our avatars and the real world of our physical existence. He calls this increasingly hybridized everyday life a “real virtuality”.

2.11 Conclusion

The technological revolution, with its two major and interrelated fields, in micro-electronics-based communication technologies and genetic engineering, has continued to accelerate, transforming the material basis of our lives. Networks have become the predominant organizational form of every do- main of human activity. Globalization has intensified and diversified. Communication technologies have constructed virtuality as a fundamental dimension of our reality.

2.12 Revision Questions

1.What is meant by the term “Globalization”?

2.Is globalization affecting all peoples equally?

3.Discuss the impact of the trend of globalization that is being driven by information technology.

4.In what aspect of our lives has the information technology driven revolution had the most impact recently?

5.Castells speaks of a “paradox” of the new economy (with the global networked financial mar- ket). What is he referring to?

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2Social Context

6.How can the phenomenon of xenophobia be related to globalization?

7.In which sector does innovation and entrepreneurship still thrive? Why?

8.What technical factor was largely responsible for the sudden and immense growth of the inter- net? Who was the person who made the essential designs?

9.Which technology has become the preferred platform for bridging the digital divide in the developing world? Why is this?

10.What is meant by convergence?

11.Contrast the terms “Web 2.0” and “Semantic Web” (or Web 3.0).

12.Castells uses the term “Mass Self-Communication”. What does he mean by this? How is it different from earlier forms of mass communication?

13.What is meant by the “Digital Divide”?

14.Distinguish between two aspects of the Digital Divide.

15.Discuss the consequences of the digital divide for people in developing countries.

16.What do we mean when we speak of leap-frogging in the context of technological advances and the needs of the developing world? Provide an example.

17.What is meant by “Universal Access”?

18.Explain why we might prefer to talk of “Effective Use” rather than “Universal Access”?

19.What sorts of ICTs are appropriate in the developing world, give two examples and justify by saying why you think it is the right technology?

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In this chapter we cover the important ethical tools we require, namely a theoretical grounding (starting in Section 3.1) and an ability to weigh up arguments (from Section 3.6 onward).

Determining what is ‘right’ is not easy. Declarations like Google’s ‘Don’t be evil’ motto are ap- pealing due to their simplicity, however, they are vague. In particular, we often find ourselves in scenarios where our actions need to be guided by principles. Consider the trolley problem, as given in Example 3.1. What is considered a good (or bad) decision in situations such as this is different across people. The definition of good and bad is dependent on humans. We live in a world which we share with others and therefore it important that we understand other views and defend our own.

Example 3.1: A version of the trolley problem [26, 9]

A man is standing by the side of a track when he sees a runaway trolley hurtling toward him: clearly the brakes have failed. Ahead are five people, tied to the track. If the man does nothing, the five will be run over and killed. Luckily he is next to a signal switch: turning this switch will send the out-of-control train down a side track, a spur, just ahead of him. Alas, there’s one snag : on the spur he spots one person tied to the track : changing direction will inevitably result n this person being killed. What should he do?

3.1 Computer Ethics

As we saw in the previous chapter (see Chapter 2) Information and Communications Technology (ICT) has had a profound impact on our society. Has this transformation also brought about new and unique moral issues? We shall consider this in Section 4.1.

We shall use the term “Computer Ethics” to describe the field that examines moral issues pertaining to computing and information technology. In this chapter we discuss the basic ideas and tehcniques that we need to address professional issues in computing. In the next Chapter (4) we shall return to a more detailed consideration of the ethics of the profession.

We could also talk of1:

Information ethics to refer to a cluster of ethical concerns regarding the flow of information that is either enhanced or restricted by computer technology.

Internet ethics concerns about ethical issues involving the Internet in particular.

Cyberethics to broaden the scope beyond individual machines or the concerns of computer profes- sionals.

1There is also a broader field known as “technoethics”which is concerned with the ethical implications of science and tech- nology.

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We shall use computer ethics because computer science is well established term that is not restricted to individual machines nor are its concerns only those of computer professionals.

Morality

Morality:[84, p. 5] The etymology (i.e., roots) of morality refers to manners and habits. In this sense, morality is a collection of codes of conduct that are created by the conscience, society or religion. But morality has also a second meaning which emerges from philosophical tradition. According to this tradition, morality is not particular (i.e., specific) but instead is universal. Hence, it provides a sort of ideal code of conduct which has to cope with good and evil. According to this second meaning, which we will retain here, morality is transcendent, and it is inherent to all human beings despite the particular situation. The source of its norms is therefore human reason. It is human reason which is able to exceed the particular, contextual circumstances in order to reveal the spectrum of right and wrong. To act morally is then to act in consideration of this universal spectrum.

Ethics

Ethics[84, p. 5] is the branch of philosophy which studies morality. It is important to understand that the idea that the objects of the study of ethics are therefore the moral rules, the ways in which they are created and justified, and the ways in which they are applied or should be applied. The essential feature of ethics remains in the concept that, besides having to cope with the spectrum of what is right and wrong, it must also deal with the issue of the good life and the search for happiness. This last feature is fundamental because it places ethics inside those particular contexts and concrete dilemmas that are directly experienced by the moral actors who are involved. According to our conception, therefore, ethics is a matter of greater reflection than is morality, in the sense that it tries to analyse the general context of application of the moral code of conduct and to justify its legitimacy.

James Moor defines computer ethics as: “. . . The analysis of the nature and the social impact of computer technology and the corresponding formulation and justification of policies for the ethical use of such technology.”

He uses the phrase ‘computer technology’ so as to take the subject matter of the field broadly to include computers and associated technology: including concerns about software as well as hardware and concerns about networks connecting computers as well as computers themselves [62].

Deborah Johnson defines computer ethics as:

The study of the ethical questions that arise as a consequence of the development and deploy- ment of computers and computing technologies. It involves two activities. One is identifying and bringing into focus the issues and problems that fall within its scope, raising awareness of the ethical dimension of a particular situation. The second is providing an approach to these issues, a means of advancing our understanding of, and suggesting ways of reaching wise solu- tions to these problems. [45]

We shall return to further consideration of issue that affect computer ethics in particular in the Chapter on Professional ethics and in particular in Section 4.1.

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3.2Ethical theory and concepts

Computer Ethics is applied ethics and applied ethics, unlike theoretical ethics, examines “practical” ethical issues. It analyzes moral issues from the vantage-point of one or more ethical theories. Ethi- cists working in fields of applied ethics are more interested in applying ethical theories to the analysis of specific moral problems than in debating the ethical theories themselves [84, p. 14–15].

Descriptive & Normative claims

Descriptive statements: Describe something as a fact (the sky is blue). They can mostly be tested objectively to verify them.

Normative statements: Explores what people ought to do Evaluates arguments, reasons, theories. They are prescriptive and they try to provide an account of why certain behaviours are good/bad or right/wrong

Our approach is that of professionals seeking ethical guidance. We do however see ourselves as engaged members of our society and as such, for us, Tavani’s distinction between professional and philosophical ethics [84, p. 14 ff] is not worth making. It is also clear that we are less interested in descriptive ethics (which report or describe what is the case) than in normative inquiries that can tell us what ought to be the case.

Dialectic

Tavani [84] avoids any discussion of the dialectical method (or simply dialectic) as a way of establishing the truth of a philosophical question through rational argument (this is not debate). However it has been a standard technique in western, Indian and Buddhist philosophy, since ancient times, for discovering truth through reason and logic in discussion. Contradictory ideas are weighed up and a resolution sought. Such rational analysis consists in:

•establish one or more issues to be analysed.

•for each issue the law and principles presented in agreed guidelines are applied.

•one or more alternative options are presented to be examined rationally and a correct version identified.

•The analysis will disqualify some options to the ethical issue in favour of others.

Inclusive decision-making and participatory meetings are key traditions in rural African communit- ies. Francophone Africans use the term palaver to describe how such traditions efficiently institution- alize “communicative action.” For instance, Congolese theologian Bénézet Bujo explains [10]: “In seeking a solution for a problem, they share experiences, refer to the entire history of the clan com- munity, and consider the interests of both the living and the dead. The procedure can be time consuming as it is carried on until consensus is achieved”. He refers to this as ‘spiral thinking’ which closely reflects the progress made to resolution in dialectical traditions.

3.2.1 Theoretical Framework

In Figure 3.1 we show three basic approaches to ethics. Virtue ethics deals with character: what would a moral or virtuous person do. Duty based ethics deals with ones’ duty based on a system of obligations, the earliest of which have been duty to God. Consequential ethics focusses on outcomes rather than motives. Good outcomes mean the actions leading to them were good.

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Figure 3.1: Three General Approaches to Ethics: Consequential ethics, Deontological ethics and Virtue ethics.

Action-based theories focus entirely upon the actions which a person performs, either by their consequences or on how well they accord with obligations.

Consequence-based ethical theories

When actions are judged morally right based upon their consequences, we have teleological or con- sequentialist ethical theory. The Greek telos, means “end” or “goal”. Consequentialism is a family of theories in which the morally right decision or action is the one with the very best results for people [84, pp. 53–56][76]. This is often summarized as “the ends justify the means”. The definition of best with respect to results is defined by the underlying social rules. Correct actions are those that pro- duce the most good or optimise the consequences of choices, whereas wrong actions are those that do not contribute to the good. Three examples of a teleological approach to ethics are Utilitarianism, Egoism and Altruism.

Utilitarianism The most popular consequential theory is Utilitarianism2. The principle of Utilitari- anism embodies the notion of operating in the public interest rather than for personal benefit. The principle extracted from this theory determines an action to be right if it maximizes benefits over costs for all involved, everyone counting equal.

Ethical Egoism Egoism focuses on self-interest. This ethical principle is used as justification when something is done to further an individual’s own (long-term) welfare. Asking the following question can best sum up the principle: “Does the action benefit me, as an individual, in any way?” In the Nichomachaean Ethics Aristotle argues that a man must befriend himself before he can befriend others.

Altruism French philosopher Auguste Comte coined the word altruisme3. Altruists see the principle “A decision results in benefit for others, even at a cost to some” as having a justification in evolutionary theory. An action is ethically right if it brings good consequences to others (even at the cost to yourself) Altruists choose to align their well-being with others — so they are happy when others thrive, sad when others are suffering.

2https://www.utilitarianism.com/

3http://www.altruists.org/

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Duty-based ethical theories

When actions are judged morally right based upon how well they conform to some set of rules, we have a deontological (duty- or obligations-based) ethical theory [84, pp. 56–61]. Greek deont, “that which is binding” expresses duty, that is, actions are essentially right or wrong, without regard to their consequences. Some actions are never justified (ends cannot justify means).

Deontological ethics advocate that there are certain actions which are not morally permissible, irrespective of conditions or context. ‘Forbidden’ actions often include things such as the killing, rape, and torture of innocent people [76, p.521]. Immanuel Kant (1724–1804) argued that morality must ultimately be grounded in the concept of duty, or obligations that humans have to one another, and never in the: ethics is based on duty or the obligations owed to people, not the promotion of happiness nor the achievement of desirable consequences. He formulated several versions of a principle he called the “Categorical Imperative”4:

1st Principle (1785): “act only in accordance with that maxim through which you can at the same time will that it become a universal law.”) ) “For an action to be morally valid, the agent – or person performing the act – must not carry out the action unless they believe that, in the same situation, all people should act in the same way.”

2nd Principle (1797): “So act that you treat humanity, both in your own person and in the person of every other human being, never merely as a means, but always at the same time as an end” ) killing always wrong, slavery is wrong5, . . .

Unfortunately, these ethics are faced with the so-called paradox of deontology. This paradox states that these ethics suffer from the problem of not considering context. For instance, consider the case of the individual who has to kill to prevent more killings. Kant seems to imply that “ it would be a crime to lie to a murderer who has asked whether our friend who is pursued by him had taken refuge in our house.”[47] since it is our duty to tell the truth always.

Rights-based Ethics

Human rights are the basic entitlements that all people have simply because they are people. The South African constitution[79, Chapter 2] declares:

This Bill of Rights is a cornerstone of democracy in South Africa. It enshrines the rights of all people in our country and affirms the democratic values of human dignity, equality and freedom.

In Information Technology the rights may be:

•The right to know

•The right to privacy

•The right to property

It seems obvious that every right implies corresponding duties6 in order to see that right respected, protected, or fulfilled [64]. It seems that these duties are much less emphasized. In the late 1940’s when the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was being formulated Mahatma Gandhi [88, p. 3] said:

4Imperative ￿ command, Categorical ￿ no alternative but to adopt (simply because we are rational) ) “Do not act on any principle that cannot be universalized”

5Note that a utilitarian justification of slavery could be that the practice of having slaves might result in greater social utility for the majority (e.g., being able to purchase consumer products at a lower price).

6Of course human rights could be given a utilitarian justification as well.

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I learnt from my illiterate but wise mother that all rights to be deserved and preserved came from duty well done. Thus the very right to live accrues to us only when we do the duty of citizenship of the world. From this one fundamental statement, perhaps it is easy enough to define the duties of Man and Woman and correlate every right to some corresponding duty to be first performed. Every other right can be shown to be a usurpation hardly worth fighting for.

Samuel Moyn rather sarcastically observes (about the USA) that “from their president on down, few Americans seem to believe that a right to be free from torture might translate into a duty to prevent and punish torture.” [64].

3.2.2 Exercise

What is the essential difference between Utilitarianism and a duty or rights based ethical approach?

Points for an answer

•In utilitarianism what makes an action right/wrong

–is outside the action

–It’s the consequences that make it right/wrong

•For deontologists

–It’s the principle inherent in the action If the action done from a sense of duty &

–If the principle can be universalized

•Then the action is right

Character-based ethical theories

The third major category of ethical theories are virtue ethics (or character ethics) [84, pp. 64–66]. It is unlike the categories we have already discussed that focus on duties and results of one’s actions. It focuses on the character development of individuals and good character traits. The fundamental principles of virtue ethics were introduced in the writings of Plato and Aristotle nearly 2,500 years ago.

Virtue

A virtue is defined by Hursthouse and Pettigrove [41] as follows:

A virtue is an excellent trait of character. It is a disposition, well entrenched in its possessor —. . . unlike a habit . . . — to notice, expect, value, feel, desire, choose, act, and react in certain characteristic ways. To possess a virtue is to be a cer- tain sort of person with a certain complex mindset. A significant aspect of this mindset is the wholehearted acceptance of a distinctive range of considerations as reasons for action. An honest person cannot be identified simply as one who, for example, practices honest dealing and does not cheat. If such actions are done merely because the agent thinks that honesty is the best policy, or because they fear being caught out, rather than through recognising “To do otherwise would be dishonest” as the relevant reason, they are not the actions of an honest person. An honest person cannot be identified simply as one who, for example, tells the

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truth because it is the truth, for one can have the virtue of honesty without being tactless or indiscreet. The honest person recognises “That would be a lie” as a strong (though perhaps not overriding) reason for not making certain statements in certain circumstances, and gives due, but not overriding, weight to “That would be the truth” as a reason for making them.

Virtue ethics does not need to rely on a system of rules. If you ask teleologists or deontologists what to do in a given situation they will try to apply rules. For teleologists the answer depends on the anticipated outcomes, while for deontologists the answer can be determined by using a formal rule to determine your duty. Virtue ethicists ask, “What kind of person should I be?” So the emphasis is on being a moral person, and not simply on understanding how to apply moral rules. The emphasis shifts from learning rules to improving one’s character.

Aristotle believed that ethics was something to be lived and practiced, not simply studied. James Moor (in a paper entitled “If Aristotle were a Computing Professional”)[63] suggests that virtue ethics can address the lag between ethics and technology. Rule based systems in both ethics and policy will inevitably suffer from not keeping up with the progress and sprawl (in the sense of spreading in every direction) of computer technology. “If we confront new and perplexing policy vacuums with a good character, i.e., a set of dispositions to act virtuously, then we are more likely to fill the vacuums properly than not.”[63, p. 16]

3.2.3 Ubuntu

A specially relevant category of virtue ethics is that of ubuntu. Ubuntu (from the Zulu7), An African philosophy, emphasizes principles of humanness, connectedness and consciousness in human ac- tions and interactions, thereby directly influencing ICT design endeavours. It leads to value-based approaches have heightened awareness of the need to explicitly redefine who is making the design decisions and to explicate what design processes say about users.

Proverb

“umuntu ngumuntu ngabantu” in Zulu

“Motho ke motho ka batho babang” in Sotho-Tswana

“A person is a person through other persons.”

The phrase “A person is a person through other persons” might sound merely descriptive, however for many Africans the phrase also carries an important normative connotation. Personhood, identity and humanness are value-laden concepts. That is, one can be more or less of a person, self or human being, and the more one is, the better [61].

This sense of connectedness is encompassed in the concept of “Ubuntu,” which variously means “humanity”, “humanness,” or “humaneness.” It is related to words, aphorisms, and proverbs in many other African languages. Mbiti, one of the first writers in English on African philosophy, never used the term Ubuntu but explains that a cardinal point in the African view of humanity involves understanding that “I am, because we are; and since we are, therefore I am.”[58, p. 141] By including all participants’ voices in building consensus, Ubuntu reflects a critical discourse. It

7Cognate terms exist in many sub-saharan Bantu languages, e.g., South Africa: “Ubuntu” isiZulu, “Botho” Sesotho, “Vhuthu” tshiVenda, “Umtu” isiXhosa, “Vumunhu” xiTsonga. Elsewhere we have “Vumuntu” shiTsonga and shiTswa (Mozambique); “Unhu” Shona (Zimbabwe); “Ujamaa” Kiswahili (Tanzania); “Bumuntu” kiSukuma and kiHaya, “Utu” Swahili, “Umundu” Kikuyu, “Umuntu” Kimeru (Kenya); “Abantu” (Uganda), “Bomoto” Bobangi, “Gimumtu” kiKongo (DRC), “Gimuntu” giKwese (Angola) and more.

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introduces dimensions that Western discourses do not often associate with community—including a temporality beyond an individual’s own life and an accountability to ancestors and descendants. As Mbiti explains: “In traditional life, the individual does not and cannot exist alone except corporately. He owes his existence to other people, including those of past generations and his contemporaries. He is simply part of the whole. The community must therefore make, create, or produce the individual; for the individual depends on the corporate group.”[58, p. 106]

Ubuntu as an Ethical Principle

Thaddeus Metz[60] sets himself the task, withing African ethics, of stating and justification a com- prehensive, basic norm that is intended to account for what all permissible acts have in common as distinct from impermissible ones. He eventually formulates this as:

An action is right just insofar as it promotes shared identity among people grounded on good-will; an act is wrong to the extent that it fails to do so and tends to encourage the opposites of division and ill-will [60, p. 338].

To illustrate the implications of Ubuntu for ICT design, we rethink the relative identities of the community members and the computer professionals from outside participating in design. Time and again we encounter people in rural African communities explicating the need to act together “as one person” generally, and in relation to ICT projects. Consequently when we start a new joint design activity we must emphasize facilitation of groups that have already established themselves, rather than focusing on bringing individuals together for the undertaking. Furthermore we need to identify ourselves (as designers from outside) as part of a wider community that encompasses designers from inside and outside. Together we derive a communal existence, and we need to acknowledge that it is within this communal existence that “I am” a software designer. In this situations decisions are arrived at jointly by consensus (see Bujo above, Section 3.2).

The values embedded in Western modes of information exchange, such as “efficiency” and indi- viduals’ freedom to express themselves are shaped by media traditions, including writing systems. In contrast, African rural communities often preserve strong oral traditions, which intertwine with certain values and logics in their local knowledge systems. For instance, speakers frequently per- sonalize and control access to information according to their knowledge about the listener, and this approach contributes to constructing both the speaker’s and listener’s identities.

Ubuntu and Computer Ethics

As we saw in the previous section ubuntu seems to argue for greater communal responsibility: this is clearly a guiding principle in the use of Information and Communications Technology for Devel- opment (ICT4D — see Section 2.5).

At this stage we make some remarks on the apparent conflict between communitarian values of ubuntu and the individual values of privacy. Ubuntu propagates openness, transparency and sur- veillance in human interrelationships. A full discussion of such privacy issues is left to Chapter 6 where we touch on the panopticon effect, something that also arises with the internet.

One area in which a tension becomes apparent is in the practice of sharing mobile phones.

Mobile Phone Sharing in Khayelitsha

In a study of young mobile phone users in Khayelitsha, South Africa, Walton et. al [96] found that phones were extensively shared to the extent that many forms of sharing was not even mentioned since it was unremarkable. A hypothetical

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scenario where a friend refused to share media on a phone was met with disbelief. A refusal to share phones or media apparently proved that the friendship was faulty and revealed a serious lack of trust. Other interpretations were that the person had something shameful to hide on the phone, was jealous of the friend, or was excessively selfish.

Sharing was not absolute but dynamically changing depending on the relation- ship to others, allowing secrets (for example, via hidden folders, or trust that a friend would not look at messages) but discreet enough to allow the maintenance of ukuhlonipha (“respect”), a concept which encompasses respectful reciprocal rela- tionships towards elders, involving deference, politeness and non-confrontational disagreement.

Exercise: Does Ubuntu have different normative outcomes?

Consider what is morally justified in the following[60]:

•to make policy decisions in the face of dissent, as opposed to seeking consensus;

•to make retribution a fundamental and central aim of criminal justice, as opposed to seeking reconciliation;

•to create wealth largely on a competitive basis, as opposed to a cooperative one;

•to distribute wealth largely on the basis of individual rights, as opposed to need.

3.3 Your own rationale for computer ethics

Robert Barger [6] suggested that computer ethics can be grounded in one of four basic philosophies: Idealism, Realism, Pragmatism, or Existentialism (see Figure /reflfig:ethicsSpace. Each person can place themselves in such an ethics space and he devleoped a questionnaire to uncover your own position, try it [7]!

Idealists believe that reality is ideas and that ethics therefore involves conforming to ideals. Realists believe that reality is nature and that ethics therefore involves acting according to what is natural. Pragmatists believe that reality is not fixed but rather is in process and that ethics therefore is practical (that is, concerned with what will produce socially-desirable results). Existentialists believe reality is self-defined and that ethics therefore is individual (that is, concerned chiefly with forming one’s own conscience). Idealism and Realism can be considered absolutist philosophies because they are based on something fixed (that is, ideas or nature, respectively). Pragmatism and Existentialism can be considered relativist philosophies because they are based or something relational (that is, society or the individual, respectively).

3.3.1 Assumptions and values

Individuals on a data to day basis make decisions, consciously and unconsciously, based on a set of values. These values are derived from an individual’s deeply held moral beliefs. These decision could be answering question such as the following (adapted from [77])

1.Should Katlego and I live together before marriage?

2.UCT seems tough and irrelevant. Why not drop out and get a better education on my own?

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Existentialism

Influence of

Social Norms Pragmatism

relativist philosophies

Figure 3.2: Your Ethics Space.

3. What can I do to help improve race relations in Cape Town?

Individuals may provide different answers to the above questions for different reasons. The values continuum strategy presented by Simon et al [77] is great at clarifying diverse views on the values that individuals may have and may effect a certain decision. The exercise works by mapping each ‘view’ about a singular issue on a continuum in order the diversity. The work by Simon et al [77] is recommended for strategies of clarifying a group’s values which may influence people’s decisions. Values is the common term, which has roots in sociology, that refers to the individual’s desire to cherish, treasure, and prize certain things [29, p.205]. These values have the following characteristics according to Gaus [29] ; (1) Valuing, judgements of valuableness, and values provide reasons for actions and choice. They guide choices and enter into deliberation by providing at least a partial ordering of persons, acts, rules, institutions, experiences, objects, etc. (2) We argue about values, judgements of valuableness, and whether certain valuings are correct. We often charge another’s values, value judgements, and valuings as wrong, ill-founded, or inappropriate in some way. (3) We often agree to differ about values, their judgements, and valuings. Furthermore, we can also believe that people can disagree and differ on question surrounding value and be able to correctly maintain that neither person is mistaken. (4) Values are often considered to be chosen. Finally, (5) valuing is a result of one’s emotions and/or also comes from one’s desire and volition.

An individual may subscribe to a principle of justice or fairness. In other words, they may believe that if there are goods to be shared then they should be shared justly. If an individual works de- veloping magazines for a computer science audience, for instance. An individual may represent all members of the population in an attempt to attract all of them into the field in which they consider to be a ‘good’ to be shared. Unfortunately, this view is not shared by every individual as evidenced by the work done by Ware and Stuck [97]. It is rare that individuals interrogate the values that lead them to making to such decisions, especially when making decisions about their daily com- puter related job. This is analogous to the analogy that was presented by David Foster Wallace [94]

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(given in Example 3.2). There are aspects of human life which are crucial but go unnoticed. Our moral judgements are also influenced by the information we have access to in addition to our values

[93].Techniques such as assumption-based planning are effective methods in understanding your assumptions, be they moral or otherwise.

Example 3.2: Analogy depicting that some crucial aspects of life may go unnoticed. (Presented by Wallace [94])

There are these two young fish swimming along, and they happen to meet an older fish swimming the other way, who nods at them and says, “Morning, boys. How’s the water?" And the two young fish swim on for a bit, and then eventually one of them looks over at the other and goes, “What the hell is water?"

Values: Non-maleficence

The concept of non-maleficence is embodied by the phrase, “above all do no harm”. The concept (although not the exact words) first appeared in the Hippocratic Oath for doctors (from the 5th century BCE). We should act in ways that do not inflict evil or cause harm to others. “Don’t be evil” was the motto of Google’s corporate code of conduct, introduced around 2000 but seemingly dropped subsequently [34].

Values: Informed Consent

Someone must give their agreement freely to do something and they must understand what it is they are agreeing to. This is commonly the requirement for participants in scientific research. For such an assent to have significance, it should be informed, that is, based on accurate information and an understanding of the issues at hand. See for example: “What is informed consent?” from the Department of Health www.sanctr.gov.za/Whatisinformedconsent/tabid/191/Default.aspx

Values: Ethical Relativism

Ethics is relative: What is right for me might not be right for you. There is (always has been) a good deal of diversity regarding right and wrong. Moral beliefs change over time and in a given society. The social environment plays an important role in shaping moral ideals. All the above are true individually but don’t prove (or disprove) that there is a Universal right or wrong.

Values: Golden Rule (ethic of reciprocity)

The Golden Rule is the principle of treating others as you would wish to be treated yourself. It is a maxim of altruism seen in many human religions and human cultures.

For example:

Confucius said in The Analects XV.24 in reply to the question of what would be one word to serve as a rule for ones life “"Is not reciprocity such a word? What you do not want done to yourself, do not do to others.”8

8Translation by the Chinese Text Project: http://ctext.org/analects/wei-ling-gong#n1504

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Christianity: “So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets.” Matthew 7:12

Similarly in many other religious and ethical systems (see www.religioustolerance.org/reciproc.

htm)

3.4 Law

When a law tells us to do or not to do something, it implies that a recognised, established authority has decided that the action the law permits or prohibits is of some benefit to society in some way. It often happens that an ethical principle was the basis for any decision regarding this issue before the law was constructed. The fact that the law is often (but not always — consider apartheid laws) grounded in ethical principles makes law a good point for ethical decision making. You can say: “That when we are confronted with an ethical decision, we should first research the law”[46].

Table 3.1: Legality versus Ethicality

	Legal	Not Legal
Ethical	An act that is ethical and legal: e.g., Buy-	An act that is ethical but not legal:
	ing a spreadsheet program and using it	e.g., Copying copyrighted software to
	to do accounting for clients	use only as a backup, even when the
		copyright agreement specifically prohib-
		its copying for that purpose
Not Ethical	An act that is not ethical but is legal: e.g.,	An act that is neither ethical nor legal:
	Increasing the price of scarce drugs dur-	e.g., Writing and spreading ransom-
	ing a disaster situation	ware.

In some instances, the law will clearly apply and lead directly to the appropriate ethical conclusion. However, to rely solely on law as a moral guideline is clearly dangerous because four possible states exist in the relationship between ethics and law. The four possible states which depend on whether a specific act is ethical or not ethical, and legal or not legal. The table 3.1 presents these states. This implies that in certain circumstances bad laws exist. Bad laws may bind rules on society that fail to provide moral guidance. Such laws may in some instances excuse a society from fulfilling certain obligations and duties, or allow a society to justify their unethical behaviour. However, beyond any doubt, law and morality do have in common certain key principles and obligations.

Exercise

Think of another scenario (which need not be related to computing) that best illustrates each state that exists in the relationship between law and ethics

3.4.1 Moral and Legal Issues: Policy Vacuum

There are often many points of view to consider when it comes to dealing ethical issues during periods of rapid change (see also Section 4.1). A good solution walks a fine line in balancing all these factors. However, often another factor against policymakers is time. Often there is a policy vacuum because ethical frameworks and laws are lagging behind the innovation. Sometime it takes a considerable time for the ethical framework to be developed for an innovation as the technology itself evolves so quickly. A policy vacuum is most effectively filled by introduction of appropriate laws,

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but this takes time. Company or personal policies or social conventions can often filled effectively filled the gap, while at the same time provide a starting point to framework creation and eventually laws.

As we noted before character-based ethics (such as ubuntu) might be a good fall back to help us in situations where action-based ethical theories fall short.

3.5 Scenarios to Consider

Given your background in ethical theory you should now attempt to apply this to the following scenarios.

3.5.1 Anti-Spam or Anti-African?

An organization dedicated to reducing spam tries to get Internet Service Providers (ISPs) in a South- ern African country to stop the spammers by protecting their mail servers9. When this effort is unsuccessful, the anti-spam organization puts the addresses of these ISPs onto its “black list.” Many ISPs in the US consult the black list and refuse to accept email from the blacklisted ISPs. This action has two results:

First, the amount of spam received by the typical email user in the United States drops by 5 percent.

Second, tens of thousands of innocent computer users in the Southern African country are unable to send email to friends and business associates in the US.

In the following analyze the anti-spam organization from a utilitarian perspective and from a Kantian perspective.

•Who benefits from the anti-spam organization’s actions?

•Who is hurt by those actions?

•Did the anti-spam organization do anything wrong?

•Did the ISPs that refused to accept email from the blacklisted ISPs do anything wrong?

•Did the ISP in the Southern African country do anything wrong?

•Could the anti-spam organization have achieved its goals through a better course of action? What additional information, if any, would help you answer this question?

•Would it make any difference if the amount of spam in the US dropped by 90% as a result of this action?

3.5.2 “The Washingtonienne” Blogger

Jessica Cutler, an assistant to a U.S. Senator, authored a blog under the pseudonym “The Washing- tonienne.” In May 2004, she was fired when her diary was discovered and published. Up till then she assumed that it had been viewed by only a few of her fellow “staffers”10 who were interested in reading about the details of her romantic and sexual life.[84, p. 2].

In her diary, Cutler disclosed that she earned an only $25,000 p.a. as a staffer and that most of her living expenses were “thankfully subsidized by a few generous older gentlemen.” She also described some details of her sexual relationships with these men, one of whom was married and an official

9This scenario is (adapted) from “Ethics for the Information Age”, page 50, by Michael J. Quinn, Pearson/Addison Wesley, 2005

10“staffers” = Washington D.C. staff assistants (GIYF for more details)

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in the George W. Bush administration. She did not use real names but initials that could easily be identified.

In response to the political fallout and the media attention resulting from the publication of her diary:

•Cutler was offered a book contract with a major publisher;

•She was also subsequently sued by one of the men implicated in her blog.

This scenario raises several interesting ethical issues – from anonymity expectations to privacy concerns to free speech, etc. For example, in June 2005, Robert Steinbuch, who says that he is the person Cutler referred to as “RS” on her blog, filed a lawsuit against her, seeking over $75,000 in damages. Steinbuch’s complaint describes the case as for “defamation,” “invasion of privacy for public revelation of private facts,” the “intentional infliction of emotional distress.” On May 30, 2007, Cutler filed for bankruptcy in an attempt to protect herself from potential debts.

•Are any ethical issues raised in this scenario, or in blogging cases in general, ethical issues that are unique to computing?

3.5.3 Professional Responsibility

Imagine a software designer, lets call him Wolfgang, who works for Volkswagen in the Diesel Engine design division. His bosses have set very ambitious sales goals for diesel-engined car sales in the US. They realise that their somewhat dated engine cannot meet both US pollution control requirements and customer performance expectations at the same time. So they ask him if he can come up with a fix [17, 39].

He regards this as a fascinating design challenge and eventually comes up with a design that detects: 1. if the car is being subject to a test it then runs such that emissions are legal 2. If the car is on the road it increases performance at the expense of causing illegal pollution.

•Should he have done this?

•What alternatives did he have?

•Are programmers responsible for the social, environmental, moral, . . . , consequences of the code they produce?

Now imagine a programmer at VW who is given Wolfgang’s design to implement (see Figure 3.3). Lets call her Inge.

•Should she do this?

•If this is wrong, how complicit is she?

This scandal broke in September 2015. In the US it involved ½ million diesel engines and 11 million worldwide. They were clean when tested but once on the road, the cars would pump out as much as 40 times the allowed level of nitrogen oxides. About a third of the company’s market value has been wiped out. They were exposed by an NGO “International Council on Clean Transportation”11.

11http://www.theicct.org/news/epas-notice-violation-clean-air-act-volkswagen-press-statement , http://www. theicct.org/news/press-release-new-icct-study-shows-real-world-exhaust-emissions-modern-diesel-cars-seven-times , http://www.theicct.org/real-world-exhaust-emissions-modern-diesel-cars

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Figure 3.3: Volkswagen’s ‘defeat device’.

Source: US evironmental protection agency, J. Wang, 22/9/2015 Reuters. https://www.

theautomaticearth.com/tag/defeat-device/

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3.5.4Cellular networks blocked in Parliament

In 12 February 2015 cell phone signals were blocked for Jacob Zuma’s state of the nation address (SONA). Signals were being jammed at Parliament in an attempt to prevent negative press, partic- ularly around the disruptions to expected from the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF). ICT experts have described the proceedings as a “sad day in the country’s democracy”. Using a signal jammer is illegal in South Africa[90].

“The blocking of the mobile network signals and the use of police officers in the National Assembly were not only illegal but sure signs that the ANC is determined to hold power by force,” said ICT expert Adrian Schofield[86].

Africa Analysis MD Dobek Pater said that whilst the blocking of mobile network signals could be construed as an infringement of rights to access information, it is important to remember that this was a specific event at a specific time and there are unlikely to be broader implications for the ICT market or sector[86].

This went to the Western Cape Division of the High Court

• Was such jamming justified?

Majority Verdict

Judges Dlodlo and Henney believe the use of a jamming device ahead of the SONA was justified and lawful because signal disruptors are used legitimately to protect officials and dignitaries at such events. They also accept that the use of a signal disruptor for longer than necessary was an only an “unfortunate error” after the individual tasked with switching it off forgot to do so. The separation of powers doctrine is why Parliament should be given the freedom to decide how and what is broadcast “because it clearly affects its functioning and dignity”[56].

Minority Verdict

Judge Savage’s differing view is that in terms of the Constitution Parliament holds no right to dignity because that right is not afforded to institutions of government and that the restrictions on broadcast cannot be justified. Restrictions on broadcast are illogical as members of the public and the media who are present can see and record what happens in the house. Her finding is that the State Security Agency’s accidental use of signal jamming as well as Parliament’s policy on filming and broadcasting are unconstitutional, unlawful and invalid[56].

3.6 Critical Reasoning

An opinion is a claim made by an individual. Opinions also not equal, there are some that are based on evidence and judgment. However, there are also opinions which are based on nothing but feelings. These should be distinguished from arguments. An argument is a collection of claims (or statements or sentences), which are referred to as the premises, that are offered as reasons for another claim. The claim being supported is called the conclusion. Critical reasoning is a branch of informal logic. Informal logic is an attempt to develop a logic that can assess and analyze the arguments that occur in natural language (“everyday,” “ordinary language”) discourse12. Critical reasoning tools,

12http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/logic-informal/

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especially argument analysis, can help us to resolve many of the disputes in computer ethics[84, Chapter 3][83].

Examples of arguments are given in Example 3.3.

Example 3.3: Two examples of bad arguments. The bold sections are the conclusions.

I am not employed. I have no money. I also want to watch movies. Websites such as The Pirate Bay (TPB) should be allowed to distribute copyright protected movies.

(1) An argument against copyright protection for movies.

Software patents block users who have no access to large sums of money for li- censing from reusing certain technologies to their problems. This stifles innova- tion. They are open to abuse from patent trolls who sell no products but only make money through suing people who infringe on their patents. There should

be no software patents.

(2) An argument against software patents.

The arguments in Example 1 and Example 2 both share their respective premises and end with con- clusions. Despite the similar structure, these arguments carry different weights. This is due to their respective premises. The strength of an argument can be deduced from its ARG conditions: The ar- gument needs to have Acceptable premises. The person, to which the argument is addressed, should have good reasons to accept them. They need not know whether they are true in order to accept them, they should only not have good to believe that they are false. The premises should also be Relevant to the conclusion, follow a logical order, and support the conclusion. Lastly, the premises should give Good grounds to accept the conclusion as true [36]. Now consider the argument in Randy Glas- bergen’s Cartoon: http://www.glasbergen.com/wp-content/gallery/goldie/goldie39.gif . How would you change the argument to make it valid?

3.6.1 Logical Arguments

A logical argument is a set of statements such that:

•One of them is being said to be true (conclusion)

•The other(s) are being offered as reasons for believing the truth of the one (called premises). Consider the argument:

It is Monday, it always rains on the weekend in Cape Town, so it was raining on the past couple of days.

•List the statements in this argument.

•Which is the conclusion of the argument?

•Identify the premises.

An assertion is a single statement (possibly complex) that is being stated as a fact. Assertions are either true or false. Which of the following sentences are assertions?

1. It is very dry.

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2.Is it very dry?

3.Turn on the water sprinkler!

4.If it is very dry there will be water restrictions.

1 and 4 are assertions (4 is complex but neither its first nor second clause can stand on their own as statements, it is not an argument since the whole sentence is what is being asserted). 2 is interrogative while 3 is imperative[83, Episode 1].

Arguments are neither true nor false, instead arguments are either valid or invalid. A valid argu- ment is one where the conclusion follows from the premises. In addition if the premises are all true then it is sound (or “good”!).

Deductive Arguments

Deductive arguments are such that if their premises are true then the truth of their conclusion is guar- anteed. A deductive argument is either: valid (and gives us certainty) or invalid and says nothing.

For example:

All penguins are black and white,

That is a penguin

Therefore it is black and white.

For a deductive argument to be sound, it must be:

1.valid (i.e., the assumed truth of the premises would guarantee the truth of the argument’s con- clusion);

2.the (valid) argument’s premises must also be true in the actual world.

A deductive argument is sound if and only if it is valid and all its premises are true.

A counterexample is a possible case where the premises in an argument can be imagined to be true while, at the same time, the conclusion could still be false. Note that if a deductive argument is valid, no counterexample is possible. To put it differently: if you can give one counterexample to the argument then it is invalid.

Inductive Arguments

Inductive arguments are such that the truth of their premises makes the conclusion more probably true. Inductive arguments can be either weak or strong (worse or better). Thus their conclusions can be slightly more likely, or much more likely.

Example of a strong inductive argument:

The sun has risen every day for millions and millions of years therefore the sun will rise tomorrow.

Example of a weak inductive argument:

It has been raining for the past couple of days therefore it will rain today.

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Note: Tavani[84, p. 86] is simply wrong to say inductive arguments are invalid. He seems to be basing his argument on Hume: Hume argued that it is impossible to justify inductive reasoning: specifically, that it cannot be justified deductively, so our only option is to justify it inductively. Since this is circular he concluded that our use of induction is unjustifiable. However, Hume then stated that even if induction were proved unreliable, we would still have to rely on it. So Hume advocated a practical scepticism based on common sense, where the inevitability of induction is accepted.

Types of Inductive Arguments

Inductive generalizations: The premise identifies a characteristic of a sample of a population the conclusion and extrapolates that characteristic to the rest of the population.

You evaluate such arguments by considering:

•Is the premise true?

•How large is the sample?

•How representative is the sample?

•Beware of ‘informal’ heuristics (rules of thumb)13.

•Is there a counterexample?

Causal generalizations: The premise identifies a correlation between two types of event and the conclusion states that events of the first type cause events of the second type.

You evaluate such arguments by considering:

•Is the premise true?

•How strong is the correlation?

•Does the causal relation make sense or could it be accidental?

•What causes what?

Arguments from analogy: Arguments from analogy take just one example of something and extra- polate from a character of that example to the character of something similar to that thing.

You evaluate such arguments by considering:

•are the two things similar?

•are they similar in respect of something relevant?

•can we find a disanalogy? That is, where the analogy fails in exactly the feature we need to compare

Arguments from authority: take one person or group of persons who are, or are assumed to be, right about some things . . . and extrapolate to the claim they are right about other things.

You evaluate such arguments by considering:

•who exactly is the source of information?

•is this source qualified in the appropriate area?

•is the source impartial in respect of this claim?

•do other experts make other claims?

Three of Clubs	Ace of Hearts
Nine of Diamonds	Ace of Diamonds
13For example which is a more likely hand of cards? King of Spades	Ace of Spades
Seven of Diamonds	Ace of Clubs
Queen of Hearts	King of Spades

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The Standard Form and Evaluating Arguments

If we write arguments out in a standard form it enables us to add suppressed premises, us to eliminate cross references, irrelevancies and inconsistent terms. In general it makes it much easier to evaluate arguments [84, pp. 76–78][83, Episode 3].

Premise1

. . . optional

. . . optional PremiseN optional Conclusion

A valid argument is valid solely in virtue of its logical form, not its content. An example of a valid logical form is:

Premise1	Every A is a B
Premise2	C is an A
Conclusion	C is a B

No matter which values are substituted for A, B, and C, the argument in this form is always valid.

A common form of valid argument is modus ponens (implication elimination):

Premise1	A implies B
Premise2	A is true
Conclusion	B is true

To start analyzing an argument you first convert it to standard form[83, Episode 3][84, pp. 89–91].

1.identify the conclusion of the argument;

2.identify each of the premises;

3.add suppressed (assumed) premises remove irrelevancies;

4.remove inconsistent terms;

5.remove cross-references.

At this stage do not evaluate the argument.

Now check the reasoning strength.

For a deductive argument, see whether it is valid or invalid. So assume the premises to be true, and ask yourself whether the conclusion must also be true when those premises are assumed true. Once you have done that then see if the argument is sound, that is, are the premises true in the actual world?

For an inductive arguments see if it is weak or strong. See above for: inductive generalisations and causal generalisations; arguments from analogy and authority.

In any of the cases is a counterexample to the argument possible? That is an easy way to disprove an argument.

Now make an overall assessment. Describe the argument’s strength of reasoning in conjunction with the truth conditions of the argument’s premises. For example is the argument:

• deductive and sound?

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•inductive with all true premises?

•inductive with some false premises?

•fallacious with a mixture of true and false premises?

•. . . ?

Remember that an inductive argument with premises that are all true is useful while a valid argu- ment with one or more false premises says nothing.

3.6.2 Fallacies

Figure 3.4: Red Herring: illustrated by a small duck.

This fallacy involves introducing irrelevancies to the issue being discussed. The idea is to divert attention away from the (lack of) points made.

A fallacy is not a false statement but faulty reasoning [84, pp. 91–98][83, Episode 6][53]. We have already seen that it is possible for an argument to contain all true statements (including a true conclu- sion) and still be (logically) fallacious. There are very many kinds of (informal) fallacies (Figure 3.4). In particular we are going to look at fallacies of: 1. relevance; 2. vacuity; 3. clarity.

Fallacies of relevance

Non-sequitur: Citing in support of a conclusion something that is true but irrelevant: 1. Bill lives in a large building, therefore his apartment is large; 2. Every year many people are supported through life by their religious beliefs, so their religious beliefs must be true.

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Ad hominem: Attacking the person making the argument rather than the argument that is made: How can we take seriously a position regarding the future of our national defense that has been opposed by Senator X, who has been arrested for drunken driving and who has been involved in extramarital affairs?

Pointing out someone’s vested interests is an ad hominem attack and it is not the same as an ad hominem fallacy. So if someone’s research is paid for by the tobacco industry then it is legitimate to attack their right to speak (impartially) on the benefits of cigarette smoking. Of course it does not mean that their arguments are necessarily wrong.

Fallacies of vacuity

Circular arguments: Citing in support of a conclusion that very conclusion. In a circular argument the conclusion is one of the premises.

Begging the question: Citing in support of a conclusion a premise that assumes the conclusion.

Some examples of begging the question:

It is always wrong to murder human beings

Capital punishment involves murdering human beings

Capital punishment is wrong

“Murder” is given the implication of wrongful killing, thus saying capital punishment is murder begs the question of whether it is wrong or not.

Object-oriented programming (OOP) languages are superior to non-structured programming lan- guages because OOP languages are structured:

OOP languages are structured languages

Object-oriented programming languages are superior to non-structured programming lan- guages

Clearly this offers no argument to establish the superiority of structured languages.

Fallacies of clarity

Fallacy of the heap: vagueness. For example:

If you have only ten cents you are not rich

If you are not rich and I give you ten cents then you still won’t be rich

It doesn’t matter how many cents I give you, you won’t be rich

Slippery slopes: misusing borderline cases. A slippery slope attempts to discredit a proposition by arguing that its acceptance will undoubtedly lead to a sequence of events, one or more of which are undesirable. Though it may be the case that the sequence of events may happen, each transition occurring with some probability, this type of argument assumes that all transitions are inevitable, all the while providing no evidence in support of that. The fallacy plays on the fears of an audience and is related to a number of other fallacies, such as the appeal to fear, the false dilemma and the argument from consequences. For example: X could possibly be abused; therefore, we should not allow X.

Another example:

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We should not continue to allow computer manufacturers to build computer systems that include CD burners. If we allow them to do so, young users will burn copies of copyrighted music illegally. If the rate of unauthorized copying of music continues, re- cording artists will lose more money. If they lose more money, the entire music industry could be in jeopardy. If the music industry in America declines, the entire US economy will suffer. So, we must prohibit computer manufacturers from providing CD burners as part of the computer systems they build.

Equivocation: trading on ambiguity. For example:

A feather is light

What is light cannot be dark

Therefore, a feather cannot be dark

Straw man: The straw man fallacy is when you misrepresent someone else’s position so that it can be attacked more easily, then knock down that misrepresented position, then conclude that the original position has been demolished. It’s a fallacy because it fails to deal with the actual arguments that have been made.

For example, contrasting of a new idea with some impossibly bad alternative, to put the new idea in a favourable light. Contrasts should be between the new and the current, not the new and the fictitious.

Query languages have changed over the years. For the first database systems there were no query languages and records were retrieved with programs. Before then data was kept in filing cabinets and indexes were printed on paper. Records were retrieved by getting them from the cabinets and queries were verbal, which led to many mistakes being made. Such mistakes are impossible with new query languages like QIL.

Red herring: This fallacy is committed when someone introduces irrelevant material to the issue being discussed, so that everyone else’s attention is diverted away from the points made, towards a different conclusion.

Arguments cannot easily be placed in the described conditions. Furthermore, the way we counter arguments can also be faulty. The problems range from emotive language to the faulty premises. For instance, one can use biased language when stating the premises, defenders of Apartheid in South Africa referred to it as ‘separate development’ when making their arguments, and anti-abortion act- ivists in the United States have referred to abortion as “baby killing” when making their arguments. Individuals can also make so-called witch hunt arguments [95]. These are arguments have the follow- ing ten signs: 1. pressuring social forces; 2. stigmatization; 3. climate of fear; 4. resemblance to a fair trial; 5. use of simulated evidence; 6. simulated expert testimony; 7. non-falsifiability characteristic of evidence; 8. reversal of polarity; 9. non-openness; and 10. use of a loaded question.

The witch hunt, as characterized by these criteria, is shown to function as a negative normative structure for evaluating argumentation used in particular cases.

3.7 Critical Reasoning Exercises

In this section you will be asked to analyse arguments. It is very often best to put the argument in a standard form before attempting further analysis even if you are not explicitly asked to do this.

The exercises from 3.7.1 to 3.7.5 are from “Critical Reasoning for Beginners”[83]. They are actually discussed in class by Ms Talbot. The times are the points in the video where they are discussed. In Section 3.7.6 the questions are from various sources.

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Please practice answering those questions! Answers to Section 3.7.6 will be provided on Vula. Do not even look at answers until you have tried the questions. No practice == no learning.

3.7.1 The Nature of Arguments

Which of these sets of sentences are arguments?

1.Towards lunchtime clouds formed and the sky blackened. Then the storm broke.

2.Since Manchester is north of Oxford and Edinburgh is north of Manchester, Edinburgh is north of Oxford.

3.Witches float because witches are made of wood and wood floats.

4.Since Jesse James left town, taking his gang with him, things have been a lot quieter.

Answers from Video [83, Episode 01: 22:45]

One of these is a good argument, one bad,

Argument One: If it is Monday the lecture will finish at 3.30

It is Monday

Therefore the lecture will finish at 3.30

Argument Two: If it is Monday the lecture will finish at 3.30

The lecture will finish at 3.30

Therefore it is Monday

Answers from Video [83, Episode 01: 1:00:55]

3.7.2 Different Types of Arguments

Can you say which arguments are deductive and which inductive:

1.The sun is coming out so the rain should stop soon.

2.If Jane is at the party John won’t be. Jane is at the party, therefore John won’t be.

3.The house is a mess therefore Lucy must be home

4.Either he’s in the bathroom or the bedroom. He’s not in the bathroom, so he must be in the bedroom.

5.The dog would have barked if it saw a stranger. It didn’t bark, so it didn’t see a stranger.

6.No-one in Paris understands me, so my French must be rotten, or the Parisians are stupid.

Answers from Video [83, Episode 02: 21:03]

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3.7.3Setting out Arguments Logic Book Style

Analyse these arguments:

1.Since Manchester is north of Oxford and Edinburgh is north of Manchester, Edinburgh is north of Oxford

2.Witches float because witches are made of wood and wood floats

Answers from Video [83, Episode 03: 10:14]

Identify all the premises of this argument (don’t forget there might be a suppressed premise):

Socialism did not provide the incentives needed for a prosperous economy.

Conclusion: Socialism was doomed to failure

Answers from Video [83, Episode 03: 21:47]

Since many newly emerging nations do not have the capital resources necessary for sus- tained growth they will continue to need help from industrial nations

Answers from Video [83, Episode 03: 26:15]

3.7.4 What is a Good Argument? Validity and Truth

Analyse if the following is a good argument:

60% of the voters sampled said they would vote for Mr. Many-Promise. Therefore Mr. Many-Promise is likely to win.

Answers from Video [83, Episode 04: 07:45]

You need not consider the issue of all the questions that to be asked in detail.

Arguments from analogy

The universe is like a pocket-watch

Pocket watches have designers

Therefore the universe must have a designer

Answers from Video [83, Episode 04: 43:35]

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3.7.5 Evaluating Arguments

Could this argument be valid?

2 + 2 = 5 grass is green

Answers from Video [83, Episode 05: 29:50]

grass is green

2 + 2 = 4

Answers from Video [83, Episode 05: 36:35]

Explain why these are non-sequitur

1.Bill lives in a large building, therefore his apartment is large.

2.Every year many people are supported through life by their religious beliefs, so their religious beliefs must be true.

Answers from Video [83, Episode 06: 13:29]

Explain the circles or the question-begging premises in each of the following arguments:

1.Intoxicating beverages should be banned because they make people drunk

2.We have to accept change because without change there is no progress

3.The voting age should be lowered to 16 because 16 year olds are mature enough to vote

Answers from Video [83, Episode 06: 36:09]

Explain the ambiguities in the following sentences:

1.No-one likes Oxford and Cambridge students

2.Every nice girl loves a sailor

3.Our shoes are guaranteed to give you a fit

4.Irritating children should be banned

5.Why do swallows fly south for winter?

Answers from Video [83, Episode 06: 54:45]

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3.7.6 Argument Analysis

1. Consider the following passage:

The information revolution raises numerous ethical questions. We ourselves are now the resources – our bodies, our genes, our brains, even our attention, and our social world. This resource, ‘human’, will be exploited and depleted, both physically and mentally, in the same way that reckless farmers deplete fertile soil or a heartless cap- italist exploits a labourer. A crucial question is therefore: what should be the leading principle in our efforts to avoid this scenario of exploitation?

Two factors that could be a tentative key to the answer, however vague, could be: human dignity (for example, the right to respect, privacy, and physical and mental integrity) and human sustainability (the right to personal uniqueness: what aspects of humans and humanness are seen as manipulable, and what aspects would we like to keep?).

We are only concerned with the first paragraph. It is an argument. What sort of argument? What are the premises? What is the conclusion?

2.Growing Trees: The chanterelle, a type of wild mushroom, grows beneath host trees such as the Douglas fir tree, which provide it with necessary sugars. The underground filaments of chanterelles, which extract the sugars, in turn provide nutrients and water for their hosts. Because of this mutually beneficial relationship, harvesting the chanterelles growing beneath a Douglas fir seriously endangers the tree. Which of the following, if true, casts the most doubt on the conclusion drawn above? Why?

A.The number of wild mushrooms harvested has increased in recent years.

B.Chanterelles grow not only beneath Douglas firs but also beneath other host trees.

C.Many types of wild mushrooms are found only in forests and cannot easily be grown else- where.

D.The harvesting of wild mushrooms stimulates future growth of those mushrooms.

E.Young Douglas fir seedlings die without the nutrients and water provided by chanterelle filaments.

3.Employee Satisfaction: In a study of factors affecting employee satisfaction, investigators polled staff at eight companies with over $100 million in revenues and benefits including flexible sched- ules and on-site daycare. The investigators found that overall satisfaction levels at the companies were high, that the companies enjoyed profit margins averaging over 20%; over the last five years, and that the rates of employee departures at these companies had varied between 1% and 5% over this period. Which of the following conclusions may be drawn from the information above?

A.Flexible schedules and daycare are important benefits for raising overall levels of employee satisfaction.

B.High profitability levels for companies with revenues over $100 million are most likely the result of high employee-satisfaction levels.

C.Companies without daycare and flexible-schedule benefits have higher rates of employee departures than do those with these benefits.

D.At least 95% of employees will stay for at least one year at some companies with daycare benefits.

E.More companies have recently begun offering daycare and flexible-schedule benefits to at- tract potential employees who are also parents.

4.Vehicle inspection program: The new vehicle inspection programme is needed to protect the quality of the state’s air, for us and for our children. Auto exhausts emission are a leading contributor to pollution and consequently ill-health. The government’s long-term interests in the health of its citizens and in this area as a place to live, work, and conduct business depend

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on clean air. Analyse the argument and say what unstated assumption has been made by the author.

5.Gambling Technology: Gambling experts claim that with a sufficiently advanced computer technology any person with such technology will soon be able to win almost every time he or she bets on horse racing. Yet such a claim could never be evaluated, for losses would simply be blamed on immature technology. Which of the following, if true, would be most useful as a basis for arguing against the author’s claim that the gambling experts’ claims cannot be evaluated? Explain.

A.Some technicians using advanced computers have been able to gamble successfully more than half the time.

B.Gambling experts readily admit that it is not yet possible to produce the necessary computer equipment.

C.There is a direct correlation between the sophistication of computer technology available to a programmer and the gambling success he or she achieves with it.

D.Certain rare configurations of computer data can serve as a basis for precise gambling pre- dictions.

E.Even without computer assistance, skilled gamblers can make a steady living from gambling.

6.Consider the following premises:

a)All computer programmers who specialize in Visual C++ are internet savvy.

b)None of the computer programmers in Charlie Corporation is internet savvy or specializes in Visual Basic.

c)If Anne specializes in Visual C++ then Brian specializes in Visual Basic.

If the statements above are all true, then which of the following must also be true?

A.If Anne specializes in Visual C++, Brian is not internet-savvy.

B.None of the computer programmers in Charlie Corporation specializes in Visual C++.

C.If Anne is internet-savvy, she specializes in Visual C++.

D.If Brian specializes in Visual Basic, Anne is not in the Charlie Corporation.

E.Either Anne or Brian is internet-savvy

7.Providing a Network of Supercomputers: Why should the government, rather than industry or universities, provide the money to put a network of supercomputers in place? Because there is a range of problems that can be attacked only with the massive data-managing capacity of a supercomputer network. No business or university has the resources to purchase by itself enough machines for a whole network, and no business or university wants to invest in a part of a network if no mechanism exists for coordinating establishment of the network as a whole. Which one of the following best identifies a weakness in the argument?

A.It does not furnish a way in which the dilemma concerning the establishment of the network can be resolved.

B.It does not establish the impossibility of creating a supercomputer network as an interna- tional network.

C.It fails to address the question of who would maintain the network if the government, rather than industry or universities, provides the money for establishing it.

D.It takes for granted and without justification that it would enhance national pre-eminence in science for the government to provide the network.

E.It overlooks the possibility that businesses or universities, or both, could cooperate to build the network.

Please provide an explanation of your answer.

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8.Consider the following argument: The growing popularity of computer-based activities was widely expected to result in a decline in television viewing, since it had been assumed that people lack sufficient free time to maintain current television-viewing levels while spending in- creasing amounts of free time on the computer. That assumption, however, is evidently false: in a recent mail survey concerning media use, a very large majority of respondents who report increasing time spent per week using computers report no charge in time spent watching tele- vision. Which of the following still has to be determined to provide a missing premise for the argument?

A.Whether a large majority of the survey respondents reported watching television regularly

B.Whether the amount of time spent watching television is declining among people who report that they rarely or never use computers

C.Whether the type of television programs a person watches tends to change as the amount of time spent per week using computers increases

D.Whether a large majority of the computer owners in the survey reported spending increasing amounts of time per week using computers

E.Whether the survey respondents’ reports of time spent using computers included time spent using computers at work

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We have now seen the basic tools and concepts to consider ethical questions in Information and Communications Technology (ICT), a field we have chosen to call “computer ethics” (Section 3.1). In that Chapter (Section 3.5) we also considered a number of scenarios concerned with property rights, privacy, free speech, development issues, and, professional ethics.

The question that arises then is “are computer ethics different to those that came before?”. That is the first issue examined in this chapter (Section 4.1). After considering some more possible scenarios we then tackle issues around computing as a profession (Sections 4.3, 4.4, 4.5, and, 4.6).

4.1 Are Computer Ethical Issues Unique?

It is clear from Chapter 2 that the Information and Communications Technology (ICT) revolution has had a profound impact on our society, whether we are in a developed country or in a developing country in, say, Southern Africa.

There are two basic answers to the question of whether computer ethics are different [84, pp. 9–14]:

No, since all fields have similar problems and issues. There has always been issues of privacy, property and freedom. The introduction of computers does not necesssary introduce new way of doing things. Often computers increase efficiency but fundamentally, the way of doing the task is still the same.

Yes, since a new technology has been introduced that never existed before and there are issues specific to computers such as the precise nature of programming, autonomous action, etc.

Tavani[84, p12] points out that we would commit a logical fallacy if we concluded that computer ethics issues must be unique simply because certain features or aspects of ICT are unique.

In the standard form (introduced in Section 3.6.1) this argument is:

ICT has some unique technological features.

ICT has generated some ethical concerns.

At least some ethical concerns generated by ICT must be unique ethical concerns.

This reasoning is fallacious because it assumes that characteristics that apply to a certain technology must also apply to ethical issues generated by that technology. So we cannot prove that the issues are unique but we must not rule that out either.

Moor[62] claims that computer ethics is not like any other; it is a new and unique area of ethics. The key differences in his view are:

•the truly revolutionary aspect of computers is their logical malleability — the first universal enabling technology,

•the computer’s transformative impact on society, for example, as robots do more and more factory work, the emerging question will not be merely “How well do computers help us work?” but “What is the nature of this work?” and

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•the invisibility factor — most of the time computer’s actual operations are invisible. A problem- atic example of invisible abuse is the use of computers for surveillance. Another is the invisibility of the calculations: “Computers are used by the military in making decisions about launching nuclear weapons. On the one hand, computers are fallible and there may not be time to confirm their assessment of the situation. On the other hand, making decisions about launching nuclear weapons without using computers may be even more fallible and more dangerous. What should be our policy about trusting invisible calculations?”

Johnson [45] argues that “computers and ethics are connected insofar as computers make it possible for humans to do things they couldn’t do before and to do things they could do before but in new ways. These changes often have moral significance.” She makes the rather provocative statement that, far from computer ethics being part of “normal” ethics we may well reach a stage where, as we become more and more accustomed to acting with and through computer technology, the difference between “ethics” and “computer ethics” may well disappear.

A dissenting voice is that of Donald Gotterbarn [35][84, p. 16] who is not convinced by an argument about ICT being a new technology. For example he argues that we no new ethics called “printing press ethics”1. As for malleability or flexibility he sees that as due to the underlying logic — and we did not develop logic ethics.

The newness leads people to think that computer ethics has not yet found its primary ethical standard and so we cannot make ethical decisions.

He regards claims of ethical uniqueness as dangerous. It leads one to think that not only are the ethical standards undiscovered, but the model of ethical reasoning itself is yet to be discovered.

“We have mistakenly understood computer ethics as different from other professional ethics” The distinguishing characteristics among professional ethics, is the context in which they are applied. Not distinct sets of ethical rules or different kinds of moral reasoning.

4.1.1 A Three-step Strategy for Approaching Computer Ethics Issues

We saw earlier in Section 3.2 that computer ethics is applied ethics. So how do we apply it? We need to make computer ethics relevant to the typical computer professional: A professional has technical skills but also makes ethical decisions. While there may be policy vacuums the ethics for computing professionals is not another kind of ethics: it is ethical values, rules and judgements applied in a computing context based on professional standards and a concern for the user of the computing artefact.

Before we can start we need to establish the context and stakeholders as outlined in Section 1.1.

Tavani then outlines a three-step strategy for approaching computer ethics issues [84, pp. 27–28] as a guide rather than a definitive algorithm of some kind:

Step 1. Identify a practice involving information and communications technology, or a feature of that technology, that is controversial from a moral perspective.

1a. Disclose any hidden (or opaque) features or issues that have moral implications

1b. If the ethical issue is descriptive, assess the sociological implications for relevant social in- stitutions and socio-demographic and populations.

1c. If the ethical issue is also normative, determine whether there are any specific guidelines, that is, professional codes that can help you resolve the issue.

1Although one might consider the ethics of censorship and copyright as originally being necessitated by the invention of the printing press.

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1d. If the normative ethical issue cannot be resolved in this way then go to Step 2. Step 2. Analyse the ethical issue by clarifying concepts and situating it in a context.

2a. If a policy vacuum exists, go to Step 2b; otherwise, go to Step 3.

2b. Clear up any conceptual muddles involving the policy vacuum and go to Step 3. Step 3. Deliberate on the ethical issue. The deliberation process requires two stages.

3a. Apply one or more ethical theories (see Section 3.2) to the analysis of the moral issue, and then go to Step 3b.

3b. Justify the position you reached by evaluating it via the standards and criteria for successful logic argumentation (Section 3.6.

4.2 Scenarios

Scenario 1: How much Security?

Thembi has a computer science degree and three years work experience. She has her own company. One of the current projects involves designing an employee database for a large company. The data- base contains medical records, performance evaluation, salary etc. She must decide on the security required for this system. The question is: how much security?

She believes that the client should have all the necessary information that the client can use to base their decision on. She then presents all available options to the clients, with the level of security proportional to the cost. The client chooses the cheapest and least secure option, which leads Thembi to feel that this is insecure. She explains the risks to the client but they stick with the cheapest option.

•Should Thembi refuse to build the system?

•Was it right to present this option to the client in the first place?

Scenario 2: Conflict of Interest

Juan is a private consultant. His job is to evaluate automation needs and recommend suitable systems. Recently he was hired by a hospital to upgrade their systems. He recommended (with reasons) Tri- Star as a best system to upgrade to. However he failed to mention that he is a partner in Tri-Star and that there is a conflict of interest. Was his behaviour unethical? Should he have:

•Declined the job originally

•Disclosed his ties with Tri-star?

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Scenario 3: Safety Concerns

Carl works for general purpose software and hardware company on a project for the Department of Defence (DoD). The project involves developing a system that monitors radar signals for missiles and launches nuclear missiles when deemed necessary. Carl was initially reluctant but eventually agrees. His thinking was that if he does not do it, someone else will anyway. During his work he develops some reservations concerning the fine distinction between missiles and small planes. He expresses this to his manager who promptly dismisses the claim on the basis that he does not agree with the claim and that the project was already late. Carl feels morally responsible. What should he do? What can he do?

•Ask for re-assignment;

•Go higher up in his company with his worries;

•Go to the contractor, in this case the DoD;

•Go to newspapers (blow the whistle) — this will likely lead to him losing his job.

4.2.1 What is it to act as a Professional?

The three scenarios illustrate difficult situations. To solve them we could use utilitarian or deontolo- gical theories but they are only useful if the contexts of the problem are taken into account:

•Carl is a professional and employee;

•Thembi is a professional, owner of the company and has a contract with a client.

In these situations, we must consider what it means to act as a professional. What responsibilities do:

•Employees have to employers and vice versa;

•Professionals have to a client and vice versa;

•Professionals have to the public.

4.2.2 Exercises

Reflecting on the previous examples:

•If we say the people involved were (or should have been) professional, what do we mean?

•In what way are they distinguished from their clients, employers, the rest of the public?

•Who are they answerable to?

•How can one know, objectively, that someone is a professional?

•What should guide the actions of professionals?

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4.3Characteristics of a Profession

We must recognise that professional role is special because it carries special rights and responsibilities. Some occupational roles are said to be Strongly Differentiated where by professionals are granted powers exceptional to ordinary morality (e.g., consider medical doctors). Most occupational roles are not strongly differentiated. It is claimed by most that the computing profession is not strongly differentiated i.e., that is, computer professionals do not acquire special power/privilege by virtue of being in the profession. However this is not always the case — when hired to do a job, professionals do acquire powers and hence obligations that come with them. For example, Carl has an obligation to his company but also to society: he does not have to do everything his boss asks. Thembi has obligations to the client for the security that they want.

A profession is an occupation one follows in which one professes to be skilled in.

Any profession involves a mastery of expert knowledge (or esoteric body of knowledge). This is usually possible for each individual by acquiring by a higher education degree. Disciplines generally embrace a division between researchers and practitioners.

Members of a profession are autonomous in their work. They make decisions and do not take orders from others, with the exception of work assigned to them by their employers or clients. They need to be able to regulate themselves and set their own admission standards. Moreover, disciplines also have standards of practice.

This is possible because there is often one unifying formal organization which is recognized by the State. The responsibility of such organization is to control admissions to the profession, it accredits educational institutions, sets up and administrates disciplinary procedures, and has the power to expel members.

It also has a code of ethics that sets standards of itself in order to maintain its autonomy. Members must adhere to its code irrespective of their employment contexts.

Furthermore, a professional must been seen to fulfill some useful and important social function.

There are three types of computer professional certification for individuals. In particular, we have vendor-specific, vendor-neutral, and general certification. The first two are used by companies and third parties to certify individuals to prove that they are proficient in servicing certain products. The third one is of particular interest. They are used to admit one to a regional or international body of professionals, who do not necessarily service a specific product. These are individuals who are required to abide by a body’s policies.

4.3.1 System of Professions

Many groups wish to be considered professional. They wish: 1. Self regulation; 2. Status; 3. High salaries. They need a monopoly to achieve this. To achieve this status the group needs to be organized into a formal grouping. They must also demonstrate a domain of activity and that if the group has control over this domain that it will be safer and more effectively run. The group must convince the public that lay people can not adequately judge the group properly and that only the group them- selves are capable of judging themselves. Usually professional monopolies are granted on conditions that they must regulate themselves and that they must further the interests of the public.

This means that a professional group must:

•Convince the public of their special knowledge;

•Show that important social functions are at stake;

•Convince the public to trust the group (usually by means of code of Ethics)

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For success the group needs a formal organisation to give the group a monopoly. Collective autonomy for the group justifies individual autonomy for members. The Information Technology profession is self-regulated. This is unlike statutory bodies such as Health Professions Council (HPCSA) and Engineering Council of South Africa (ECSA).

4.4 Is Computing a Profession?

The computing filed is young and very broad. This is in sharp contrast to the medical and accounting fields. It is also very malleable and it is used in many domains, teaching, engineering, librarians etc. Some of these workers are not seen as computer professionals. So is computing a profession?

We compare computing with the five characteristics of profession.

Mastery of Expert Knowledge: Many do acquire knowledge through higher educational institu- tions. This is more true as time goes on. There also exists a division between researchers and practitioners. There is a large demand as many in the field have inadequate knowledge.

Autonomy: This is not strongly differentiated, i.e., there are no jobs that only professionals can do that others can not.

Formal organization: There are many such organizations in many countries such as IITPSA (Insti- tute of Information Technology Professionals South Africa) and the BCS (The Chartered Institute for IT — was British Computing society).

Code of conduct: There is no single code worldwide but they do exist. BCS has a comprehensive code2, and IITPSA also has a code of conduct3

Fulfilment of a social function: Computing is a crucial part of society, and it does fulfil a need. It supports a variety of social functions but is not one in itself, in other words it is a (universal) enabling technology.

Software engineering (development of a computer system) might seem like a good area of comput- ing for professionalism. Its activities involved unique knowledge, education, licensing of members and code of ethics.

4.5 Professional Relationships

A computer professional may find themselves in a number of relationships within a society. In particular, they can participate in employer–employee, client–professional, society–professional and professional–professional relationships.

4.5.1 Employer – Employee Relationships

The first relationship involves a number of conditions, and these are often explicit in the contracts (e.g responsibilities and salary) but many important issues are left out or unclear (e.g., overtime). There also also some conditions which are specified by a country’s laws such as sick and annual leaves, while some are negotiated by unions (e.g., retrenchment rules). The moral foundation for this relationship is contractual. Individuals should be treated with respect and not merely as a means.

2http://www.bcs.org/category/6030

3https://www.iitpsa.org.za/codes-of-conduct/ & https://www.iitpsa.org.za/codes-of-behaviour/

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Neither party should take advantage of the other. All things being equal, an employee should be loyal to his or her employer and vice versa.

The employee should be honest with their experience and qualifications. The employer should not exploit the employee (they should provide a decent wage, safe and healthy working environment, etc.). In working for an employer an employee may acquire Trade Secrets or specific knowledge in a field. Such information may be governed by a non-disclosure agreement such as a contract not to reveal these or not to work in this area for period. In general it is unethical to sell specific knowledge but generic knowledge and experience gained in a field helps employee get a better job Fine to use generic knowledge progress in their career.

A dispute of this kind recently arose between Uber and Waymo, the self-driving car unit of Al- phabet (Google). At the heart of the issue is Anthony Levandowski a former engineer in Google’s autonomous vehicles division. When he left Google Mr Levandowski started his own firm, Otto, which Uber then bought six months later. Waymo alleged that Uber stole trade secrets from it. A key piece of evidence is that Mr Levandowski downloaded 14,000 documents from Waymo shortly before leaving4.

4.5.2 Client – Professional Relationships

Recall Scenario 3 above (Section 4.2 where Carl expressed concerns about safety. His company should have told the DoD that the project was late. In this respect, his company was not acting well. Ad- ditionally Carl tried to work through his company but failed. The client (the DoD) depends on professional for the knowledge and expertise in the special area.

There are different models for this kind of relationships:

Agency: Professional is the agent and does exactly what client tells him to do (like telling a stock- broker to buy “Telkom”).

Paternalistic: Professional makes all the decisions and the clinet abrogates all decision making.

Fiduciary: Both parties play a role by working together. The professional offers options while the client decides which one to take. This requires trust on both sides and that the decision process is shared

Fiduciary

Fiduciary = based on trust A fiduciary is a person who holds a legal or ethical rela- tionship of trust with one or more other parties (person or group of persons). This requires the professional to provide the client with options for major decisions, such a process requires trust from both sides. Decision making is shared.

Recall Scenario 2 above (Section 4.2) where Juan recommended a company in which he had an interest. This is breach of the relationship with his client. It is wrong to withhold this information and could be self-serving although if he were to exclude the company in which he has an interest he may give client poor advice.

4https://www.ft.com/content/fe2bb4e8-6a38-3039-abdc-049096bece84 & https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/30/ technology/uber-anthony-levandowski.html

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4.5.3Society – Professional Relationship

This relationship is usually shaped by law, but the law (or people who makes them) can not foresee everything, especially in a rapidly moving field such as IT. If Society licenses a professional society then the professional society must serve the interests of Society in general and must take due care based on the special knowledge it possesses.

Special Obligations to Society

Some computer corporations may have some special moral obligations to society because of their profound societal impact. For example:

Search engine companies have crucial role in the access to information. Issues include: 1. Search engine bias and nontransparency; 2. Privacy, consent, and non-voluntary disclosure of personal information; 3. Monitoring and surveillance; 4. Democracy, censorship, and the threat to liberty and freedom.

Developers of autonomous systems and robots are held responsible for “moral-decision-making soft- ware code” built into them

There may be conflicting responsibilities towards an employer and towards Society. Consider the Carl’s case again – the company needs contracts to survive but Carl’s concern is his responsibilit- ies to society. So when does a professional ‘rock the boat’ when it comes to society versus other relationships? There is no easy answer but generally:

•Professional must be convinced of their position;

•Must consult managers at different levels first;

•If they become whistle-blowers they might loose job.

Whistle-Blowing

Whistle-Blowing refers to revelations meant to call attention to negligence, abuses, or dangers that threaten the public interest.

“Whistle-Blowing is central to . . . constitutional principles. It is key in the fight against corruption and mismanagement, especially of public funds, and to strengthening transparency and accountability within organisations and society more generally.” Adv K Malunga Deputy Public Protector South Africa, 28 Janu- ary 2015[55].

In South Africa there is a concept of Wider Disclosure or General Protected Disclos- ure: whereby an individual may disclose sensitive information to the police, MPs or the media. This only applies if the whistle blower honestly and reasonably be- lieves that the information and any allegations contained within are substantially true, and that the disclosure is not made for personal gain. The South African law recognises four justifiable causes: 1. The concern was raised internally but was not addressed properly; 2. The concern was not raised internally because he/she believes he/she would be victimized; 3. The concern was not raised internally because he/she genuinely believed a cover-up was likely; 4. The concern was/is exceptionally serious.

NB: Standard disclaimer: This is not legal advice! Consult a lawyer or union if

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this situation arises for youa.

aSee for example http://www.labourguide.co.za/discipline-dismissal/ 667-the-protection-of-whistle-blowers or http://www.opendemocracy.org.za/

An example of a whistle-blower is Edward Snowden, an American who worked for the United States of America’s (USA) Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), and a US (United States) government defence contractor. He is well-known for sharing confidential National Security Agency (NSA) docu- ments with the purpose of exposing the USA government’s mass surveillance program. His whistle- blowing resulted in him fleeing the USA and being granted temporary asylum in Russia. He was subsequently charged for his actions by the US’ Justice Department with theft and two counts of the contravening the US’s 1917 Espionage Act [28]. After revealing the information to journalists, he willingly unmasked himself to the public because he “no intention of hiding [himself] because [he knew that he had] done nothing wrong" [37]. Here, we see an individual whose values went against that of his employer, who is sure of his position, and is prepared for the consequences of his actions. Moreover, his actions are in the interest of the public good.

Whistle-blowing can be viewed as being slightly different from anonymous leaks. The main differ- ence are that the identify of the individual who exposes the information is known and it is based on a conviction that their actions serve the public. Whistle-blowers are generally not viewed in a positive light by their institutions.

Society and public policy

A community is a group of people who share social, economic, or political interests. Groups of this nature also tend to share common ‘universal’ values. A value need not be accompanied or enforced by a law. There are individuals who view the law as simply a collection of norms which are mandatory to all members of the society. Moreover, these norms are related to the values held by a society [24]. This relationship need not be affirmative. In particular, there are cases in which laws and values conflict: one simply has to consider the South African apartheid legislation to see this.

An important aspect of a democracy is public participation in crafting public policy. In practice, it is difficult for regular members of the public to participate in these processes in a meaningful way due to overwhelming information (truth and misinformation) directed at them. Furthermore, the language used in this processes is often not suitable for individuals without expert knowledge [99]. Computing professionals, on the hand, are members of the public who have the capability to grasp the language used. A decrease of computing professional participation in the crafting of public policy diminishes the number of parties who are able to engage the government on issues of science and technology. This has the potential to lead to a disengaged citizenry thus leading government to only consult professional bodies. This has the potential of the public not being able to engage lawmakers about potential risks which may be ignored or concealed by professional bodies [72]. Computing professionals agree to a code of ethics which binds them to an obligation of improving the lives of those who use computers. In particular, it is the responsibility of the computing profession to improve the understanding of the public about issues pertaining to computer systems [54]. A professional need not directly contribute in the drafting of legislation. They can contribute in the education of the public about specific policies.

4.5.4 Professional – Professional Relationships

Many believe that this relationship is self-serving. They see members as only having an obligation to other members. This might create a reluctance to criticise another professional. Often such scenarios

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are complex, especially when it is difficult to tell if it’s a genuine errors or incompetence. For a pro- fessional society to flourish there must also be advantages to Society from it: 1. Members to consider what they owe to each other to maintain standards of conduct; 2. There is a need for disciplinary hearing procedure.

4.6 Professional bodies’ codes of conduct and practice

A code of ethics is a statement of collective wisdom of the members of the profession that expresses experience and consensus of many members. Its function is to serve and protect the interests of the public, promotes worthy practices. It is a statement of of shared commitment of members of the profession, agreed values and rules. It sensitizes members to important issues, and a mechanism for educating for those entering the profession, companies and clients. The code also ensures collective responsibility, so that various parties do not only think of individuals in the profession but rather a collective unit of the profession. If a profession speaks out on an issue, it is more effective as a group. Examples of this are issues such as protection of whistle blowers and gender bias. There are professional bodies which are responsible for professional certification.

Common themes for ethical behaviour for computer professionals:

1.Personal integrity / claim of competence;

2.Personal responsibility for work;

3.Responsibility to employer / client;

4.Responsibility to profession;

5.Confidentiality of information / privacy;

6.Conflict of interest;

7.Dignity / worth of people;

8.Public safety, health, and welfare — serving the interests of the Public;

9.Participation in education / professional societies.

;

Apart from the IITPSA (see Section 4.6.1) and BCS (see Section 4.6.2 other computer professional bodies with similar responsibilities are the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM), the Asso- ciation of Information Technology Professionals (AITP), the Systems Administrators Special Interest Group of USENEX and more [54]. Their documents are incomplete by design as it is not possible to compile a document that will list all the possible actions to take in all circumstances. It is for this reason that policy document are written in a general language [54]. In the event that the policies of the workplace are not able to prescribe the appropriate action to take in a certain circumstance, professionals should rely on the policies of professional bodies.

4.6.1Code of Conduct: Institute of Information Technology Professionals South Africa

The IITPSA Code of Conduct5 is summarized as follows:[42]

• Act at all times with integrity;

5https://www.iitpsa.org.za/codes-of-conduct/ & https://www.iitpsa.org.za/codes-of-behaviour/

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•Act with complete loyalty towards a client when entrusted with confidential information;

•Act with impartiality when purporting to give independent advice and must disclose any relev- ant interests;

•Accept full responsibility for any work undertaken and will construct and deliver that which has been agreed upon;

•Not engage in discriminatory practices in professional activities on any basis whatsoever;

•Not seek personal advantage to the detriment of the Institute, and will actively seek to enhance the image of the Institute.

The Institute is ready at all times to give guidance in the application of the Code of Conduct. In cases where resolution of difficulties is not possible informally, the Institute will invoke the disciplin- ary procedures defined in its Memorandum of Incorporation and associated Rules.

IITPSA Code of Practice is directed to all professional members of the Institute. The Code is concerned with professional responsibility. All members have responsibilities – to clients, to users, to the State and to society at large. Those members who are employees also have responsibilities to their employers and employers’ customers and, often, to a Trade Union. Since IITPSA membership covers all occupations relevant to the use of Information and Communications Technology and it is not possible to define the Code in terms directly relevant to each individual member.

4.6.2 BCS Code of Conduct

The BCS, for example, sets the professional standards of competence, conduct, and ethical practice for computing in the United Kingdom. It should be noted that its members need not be UK citizens. The body has a code of conduct of which all its members need to abide. These rules of the conduct can be grouped into the principal duties : the public interest, professional competence and integrity, duty to relevant authority, and duty to the profession.

BCS code deserves special mention since the IITPSA code was originally inspired by it. The UCT Department of Computer Science is accredited by BCS in the absence of such a body in South Africa.

Like the IITPSA the BCS has retired the existing Codes of Good Practice as these did not provide comprehensive coverage. Such codes are not sustainable in a field as diverse as IT where there is such rapid change.

The Public Interest

You shall:

a.have due regard for public health, privacy, security and wellbeing of others and the environment;

b.have due regard for the legitimate rights of Third Parties;

c.conduct your professional activities without discrimination on the grounds of sex, sexual orient- ation, marital status, nationality, colour, race, ethnic origin, religion, age or disability, or of any other condition or requirement ;

d.promote equal access to the benefits of IT and seek to promote the inclusion of all sectors in society wherever opportunities arise.

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Professional Competence and Integrity

You shall:

a.only undertake to do work or provide a service that is within your professional competence;

b.not claim any level of competence that you do not possess;

c.develop your professional knowledge, skills and competence on a continuing basis, maintaining awareness of technological developments, procedures, and standards that are relevant to your field;

d.ensure that you have the knowledge and understanding of Legislation and that you comply with

such Legislation, in carrying out your professional responsibilities;

e.respect and value alternative viewpoints and, seek, accept and offer honest criticisms of work;

f.avoid injuring others, their property, reputation, or employment by false or malicious or negligent action or inaction;

g.reject and will not make any offer of bribery or unethical inducement.

Duty to Relevant Authority

You shall:

a.carry out your professional responsibilities with due care and diligence in accordance with the Relevant Authority’s requirements whilst exercising your professional judgement at all times;

b.seek to avoid any situation that may give rise to a conflict of interest between you and your Relevant Authority;

c.accept professional responsibility for your work and for the work of colleagues who are defined in a given context as working under your supervision;

d.not disclose or authorise to be disclosed, or use for personal gain or to benefit a third party, confidential information except with the permission of your Relevant Authority, or as required by

Legislation;

e.not misrepresent or withhold information on the performance of products, systems or services (unless lawfully bound by a duty of confidentiality not to disclose such information), or take advantage of the lack of relevant knowledge or inexperience of others.

Duty to the Profession

You shall:

a. accept your personal duty to uphold the reputation of the profession and not take any action which could bring the profession into disrepute;

b.seek to improve professional standards through participation in their development, use and en- forcement;

c.uphold the reputation and good standing of BCS, the Chartered Institute for IT;

d. act with integrity and respect in your professional relationships with all members of BCS and with members of other professions with whom you work in a professional capacity;

e. notify BCS if convicted of a criminal offence or upon becoming bankrupt or disqualified as a Company Director and in each case give details of the relevant jurisdiction;

f. encourage and support fellow members in their professional development.

65

4 Professional ethics

4.6.3 Strengths and Weaknesses of Professional Codes

Strengths

Weaknesses

66

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