[Informatics] Ethical dilemmas

[Mark]

Hi, ethicists

We all know how badly students do with ethical dilemma questions.
I've been trying to compile a list of sample case studies for...

ITI U402 KK04 - ethical dilemmas arising from information management
practices

Some thoughts were...

- A media distributor (e.g. Netflix, BBC) restricts access to their media
to specific countries. Is it immoral for people in other countries - who
would pay for the media, if they could - to use a VPN to gain access to the
material?

- A network manager discovers illegal activity by the owner of her company.
Her employment contract has strict "non-disclosure" conditions that forbid
her to tell anyone of her discovery. What should she do?

- A person discovers a website promoting illegal or immoral activities. The
person knows of several easy ways to take the site down, such as raining
down a DDOS attack upon it, or imploding the site with a well-placed
zero-day exploit. Should the person attack the site?

- Anu has been looking for a good domain name. He thought up a good name,
but it turned out to be registered by MrX in Belgium. Anu emailed MrX,
asking whether the domain name might be for sale. MrX said it might be, but
the price quoted was far too high for Anu. Nevertheless, MrX and Anu struck
up a friendship and corresponded and collaborated for a couple of years on
various projects they had in common. In one email, MrX mentions that he
needs to renew his domain name really soon because it has just expired. Anu
could register the domain name. What is Anu's dilemma?

- Sue works in IT. Her employer is notoriously greedy, and often expects
staff to work beyond their normal work hours and on weekends, saying "Well,
if you're not willing to do some extra unpaid work, there are a lot of
other people who would be happy to take your job."  Sue suffers in silence
because she needs the money. One day, she discovers a bug in the company's
accounting software that would let her give herself secret bonuses and pay
rises that would never be discovered. She could reimburse herself for the
hundreds of hours of unpaid work she has been forced to give her employer.
What should she do?

- Naz works for a company whose terms of employment forbid the use of
company computers for entertainment, time-wasting behaviour, or seeking
alternative employment. Naz's pay is so low that he cannot afford an
internet connection at home. He learns of a good job at another company,
but he would have to use his work computer to apply for the job. What is
Naz's dilemma, and what should he do?

- Arnold's company forbids the use of the LAN for non-work purposes. One
day, Arnold has a brilliant idea and finishes a project several hours
early. He has nothing to do for the rest of the day. He thinks he might
bend the rules, since he's been so clever and productive, and play an
online game. Is he being unethical?

Can you suggest scenarios that test a grey moral decision rather than a
black/white lawful one?

Regards,
Mark
-- 

Mark Kelly

mark at vceit.com
http://vceit.com
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