Computer Ethics

Computer Ethics covers the area of moral guidelines that govern the use of computers. Consider each of the following situations and decide whether you believe the company made an ethical decision.

1. Your company digitally manipulated photos in their brochure.
2. Your company has a department to handle customers who feel that data that you hold in your database of customers is incorrect.
3. Your web designer copied the html of a competitor's web site, modified it and used it for your company web site.
4. A song created specifically for commercials for your company has been swapped on bit torrent.
5. Someone posted your company's commerical on YouTube.
6. A clever employee has used data collected from an online form at your web site to identify customers who are unlikely to pay their debts to you.
7. An employee lost a laptop with 200 employees data on it including names, phone numbers, tax file numbers, other payroll information.
8. Another enterprising employee wants to sell customer data including names and addresses to a marketer.
9. Your company web site uses cookies to track user preferences and passwords.
10. Your company provides free software to customers to facilitate online purchases. However, hidden in that software is a program that tells you what other web sites they visit.
11. Your company sends out email to customers advising them of new products.
12. Your company puts RFID tags in your name tag to allow them to track your whereabouts at all times.
13. Installed on your company computer is software that allows your boss to view your desktop at any time to see what you are doing.
14. Your company uses a proxy server that filters incoming web traffic allowing employees to view only certain web sites.