Questions and Answers of Ethics Information Age

Should parents implant microchips in their children to make them easier to identify in case they are lost or kidnapped? Why or why not?
Enhanced 911 service allows cell phone companies to track the locations of active cell phone users within 100 meters.a. Who should have access to location information collected by cell phone
TiVo keeps detailed information about the television viewing habits of customers who subscribe to its service.a. Should your television viewing habits be private information?b. Do you care if anyone
If you voluntarily have your body scanned at a department store, who should own that information, you or the store? Should the store have the right to sell your body measurements to other businesses?
Some consumers give phony personal information when they apply for rewards or loyalty cards at stores. Others take it a step further by regularly exchanging their cards with those held by other
Critics of grocery club cards give examples of card-member prices being equal to the regular product price at stores without customer loyalty programs. In other words, customers who want to get food
Do you agree with the author that it is more difficult to know whom to trust in modern society than it was in a small village of a few centuries ago? Why or why not?
What is the difference between privacy and anonymity?
Warren and Brandeis argued that it is a violation of a person’s privacy to take their photograph without their consent.a. Do you agree with their position? Why or why not?b. If someone takes your
Should mobile apps be allowed to collect information about your location and transmit this information to data brokers?
MIT computer science professor Harold Abelson has said, “In today’s online world, what your mother told you is true, only more so: people really can judge you by your friends”. Have you ever
If people value privacy so much, why do they put so much personal information on their Facebook pages and in their blogs?
Do you agree with Scott McNealy’s statement that people have “zero privacy” and should just get over it?
Research your university’s policy on bandwidth abuse and file sharing. What kinds of activities are explicitly forbidden? Is the policy sensible?
Survey 10 of your peers with these questions. How many tracks do they have in their digital music collection? How many of these tracks did they download for free? How many of these tracks did they
A plane makes an emergency crash landing on a deserted tropical island. Two dozen survivors must fend for themselves until help arrives. All of them are from large cities, and none of them has
Is it hopeless to try to protect intellectual property in digital media?
Should copyright laws protect musical compositions? Should copyright laws protect recordings of musical performances?
The current legal system allows both proprietary software and open-source software to be distributed. What are the pros and cons of maintaining the status quo?
What does the US Supreme Court decision in MGM v. Grokstermean for the development of future peer-to-peer network technologies?
Is the concept of digital rights management doomed to failure?
How does the debate over digital music illuminate the differences between ethics, morality, and law?
Do you support the aims of the Google Books project? Does this initiative give Google too much power?
Any original piece of intellectual property you have created, such as a poem, term paper, or photograph, is automatically copyrighted, even if you did not label it with a copyright notice. Think
Benjamin Franklin created many useful inventions without any desire to receive financial reward. Is intellectual property protection needed in order to promote innovation?
Martin Dula has suggested that parents should not provide their children with phones capable of taking photos and videos because these phones tempt children to participate in sexting. Debate the
How do you determine the credibility of information you get from the Web? How would you rank the reliability of information provided by each of the following sources of Web pages? Does the type of
In 2000 the Estonian parliament passed a law declaring Internet access to be a fundamental human right of its citizens. Divide the class into two groups (pro and con) to debate the following
Ad-blocking software attachments to Web browsers enable a Web surfer to visit Web sites without having to view the pop-up advertisements associated with these Web pages. Debate this proposition:
A company uses popup advertising to market its software product, which blocks popups from appearing when someone is surfing the Web. Debate the morality of the company’s marketing strategy.
Divide the class into teams representing each of the following groups:• Small, struggling business• Large, established corporation• Internet service provider• ConsumerDiscuss the value of
Divide the class into groups. Each group should come up with a variant of the case study “Kate’s Blog,” in which the analysis from the perspective of social contract theory would conclude Kate
Divide the class into groups. Each group should come up with a variant of the case study “Ann the Acme Accountant,” in which both a Kantian evaluation and an act utilitarian evaluation would
Should the US government follow the lead of China and South Korea and legislate daily limits to online game playing by children under the age of 18?
What role do online reviews play in your life as a consumer? Do you find online reviews to be more reliable or less reliable than reviews from friends and family members?
In July 2011, activists shut down a San Francisco subway station as a way of protesting the death of a drunk man shot by a Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) police officer A month later, the subway
After popular uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt in 2011, the US government said it would spend $30 million to fund the development of new services and technologies designed to allow activists in other
According to some commentators, Facebook and Twitter played a vital role in the Arab Spring uprising because they made it possible for activists to organize large protests in a short amount of time.
A school district forbids students from using their cell phones on school buses, but many students ignore this rule. A frustrated bus driver installs a cell phone jammer on his bus. When the jammer
The governments of South Korea and China have taken action to restrict the number of hours per day children can access online games. Should the United States government take similar action?
The income of companies providing persistent online games depends on the number of subscribers they attract. Since consumers have a choice of many products, each company is motivated to create the
In the United States television commercials for cigarettes are banned. Should there be a ban on commercials for violent video games?
Should Grand Theft Auto or Call of Duty be pulled off store shelves and not marketed to children?
What is the longest amount of time you have ever spent in a single game session on a smartphone, tablet, or computer? Have you ever been so engrossed in a game that you ignored bodily needs, such as
Discuss the morality of Google’s page-ranking algorithm. Does it systematically exclude Web pages containing opinions held only by a small segment of the population? Should every opinion on the Web
Review the exchange in Section 3.8.7 between Hunter Moore, creator of a Web site featuring revenge porn, and one of the women whose image had appeared on the site without her permission. Who has the
What is the age at which a parent or guardian should provide a child with a cell phone? Should younger children be provided with cell phones having fewer features?
Are there any circumstances under which sexting is morally acceptable?
Should children be prevented from accessing some Web sites? Who should be responsible for the actions of children surfing the Web?
Should bloggers be given the same rights as newspaper, magazine, or television journalists?
The convenience of Wikipedia makes it a popular reference for students. After several in-stances in which students cited incorrect information, however, the history department at Middlebury College
Discuss similarities and differences between the Web and each of these other ways that we communicate: the telephone system, physical mail, bookstores, movie theaters, newspapers, broadcast and cable
In September 2012, Joseph Aziz, a graduate student at Montclair State University in New Jersey, posted a YouTube video in which he said that a fellow student’s legs look like “a pair of bleached
Should a college or university have the right to suspend students who brag about breaking its rules on their Facebook pages?
Should people publishing accusations against others on their blogs or Facebook pages be held responsible if they disseminate false information?
Should the tax dollars of citizens of democratic nations be used to help people in authoritarian nations get around the Web censorship of their repressive governments?
What are the benefits and harms of Internet censorship?
There is a thriving “real-world” market for gold, artifacts, and avatars from virtual worlds such as World of Warcraft. In effect, rich Westerners are offshoring game playing to China. Do you
Stockbrokers are now required to save all their instant messaging communications. Is having a record of everything you type good or bad? Do you think this requirement will change the behavior of
Internet service providers monitor their chat rooms and expel users who violate their codes of conduct. For example, users can be kicked off for insulting a person or a group of people based on their
Why is “cold calling” considered to be an acceptable sales practice, but spamming isn’t?
Why is instant messaging or texting more popular among young adults than making phone calls?
Divide the class into two groups (pro and con) to debate this proposition: The moral guidelines for individuals should apply to interactions among nation-states.
Divide the class into two groups (pro and con) to debate this proposition: The citizens of a representative democracy are morally responsible for the actions of their government.
Is the right to life a negative right or a positive right? In other words, when we say someone has the right to life, are we simply saying we have an obligation not to harm that person, or are we
For one of the following issues divide the class into two groups (pro and con) to argue whether the right should be considered a legitimate positive right by our society:a. The right to a higher
In Plato’s dialogue The Republic, Glaucon argues that people do not voluntarily do what is right. According to Glaucon, anyone who has the means to do something unjust and get away with it will do
Suppose a society holds that it is wrong for one individual to eavesdrop on the telephone conversations of another citizen. Should that society also prohibit the government from listening in on its
Students in a history class are asked to take a quiz posted on the course Web site. The instructor has explained the following rules to the students: First, they are supposed to do their own work.
People give a variety of reasons for copying a music CD from a friend instead of buying it [30]. Refute each of the reasons given below, using one of the viable theories described in this chapter.
What are some examples of contemporary information technology issues for which our society’s moral guidelines seem to be nonexistent or unclear?
Can moral decisions be made on a completely codified, algorithmic basis, or are there fundamental weaknesses to this approach to moral decision making?
How well does Moor’s theory of just consequentialism (described in the interview at the end of this chapter) solve the problems associated with Kantianism and rule utilitarian-ism?
Are there any ethical theories described in this chapter that would allow someone to use the argument, “Everybody is doing it,” to show that an activity is not wrong?
According to the Golden Rule, you should do unto others as you would want them to do unto you. Which of the five workable ethical theories is closest to the Golden Rule?
The Silver Rule states, “Do not do unto others what you do not want them to do unto you.” Which of the five workable ethical theories is closest to the Silver Rule?
Suppose a spaceship lands in your neighborhood. Friendly aliens emerge and invite humans to enter the galactic community. You learn that this race of aliens has colonized virtually the entire galaxy;
Most ethical theories agree on a large number of moral guidelines. For example, it is nearly universally held that it is wrong to steal. What difference, then, does it make whether someone subscribes
If you had to choose only one of the ethical theories presented in this chapter and use it for all of your personal ethical decision making, which theory would you choose? Why? How would you respond
If everyone agreed to take the ethical point of view by respecting others and their core values, would there be any need for a rigorous study of ethics?
Read about “Star Wars Kid” and “The Bus Uncle” on Wikipedia, then debate the following proposition: “It is wrong to post a photo or video of someone else on the Internet without their
Ford, Honda, Mercedes-Benz, Subaru, Toyota, Volvo, and other automobile manufacturers are currently offering collision mitigation systems on some of their vehicles. A collision mitigation system uses
In the 1984 presidential election, all the major television networks used computers to predict that Republican Ronald Reagan would defeat Democrat Walter Mondale, even before the polls closed on the
Managers of health clubs are concerned that people in locker rooms may be secretly photographed by other members carrying smartphones. Debate the following proposition: “Health clubs should ban all
Martin Carnoy writes, “Thanks to a communications and software revolution, we are more ‘connected’ than ever before—by cell phone, email, and video conferencing—yet more disconnected than
Think about the last piece of consumer electronics you purchased. How did you first learn about it? What factors (features, price, ease of use, etc.) did you weigh before you purchased it? Which of
Use four different search engines (www.altavista.com, www.bing.com, www.google.com, www.yahoo.com) to perform a search on the phrase “Information Technology.” Create a table that compares the top
Angelo says, “When I’m trying to have a face-to-face conversation with someone, and that person repeatedly interrupts the conversation to answer their cell phone or exchange text messages, they
More than 90 percent of personal computers run a version of the Microsoft Windows operating system. In what ways is this situation beneficial to computer users? In what ways does this situation harm
The story of Altair BASIC highlights a clash between those who see software as some-thing to be developed and freely shared among computer enthusiasts and those who see software development as an
Was it wrong for Altair 8800 owners to use Altair BASIC on their computers without paying Micro-Soft?
Is the cell phone changing our views about polite and impolite behavior? For example, is it polite for someone to be talking on their cell phone while ordering a drink at Starbucks?
The telephone eroded traditional social hierarchies. Has email had the same effect within colleges and universities? Do students send emails to people they would be uncomfortable talking with
Some say that no technology is inherently good or evil; rather, any technology can be used for either good or evil purposes. Do you share this view?
Are there any information technologies that you wish had never been adopted? If so, which ones?
Have you ever gone camping or had another experience where you went for at least a few days without access to a phone, radio, television, or computer? (In other words, there was no communication
Do you tend to acquire new technological devices before or after the majority of your friends? What are the advantages of being an early adopter of a new technology? What are the advantages of being
Identify five clauses in the Software Engineering Code of Ethics and Professional Practice that reflect a Kantian viewpoint.
Elements of information technology, such as the alphabet and the abacus, are more than 2,000 years old. What about the present era distinguishes it as the Information Age?
How did the popularity of mathematical tables stimulate the development of autonomous calculating machines?

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