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Chapter 4 Ethical and Social Issues in Information Systems 185

Review Questions

1. What ethical, social, and political issues are • Explain how the Internet challenges the
raised by information systems? protection of individual privacy and
intellectual property.
• Explain how ethical, social, and political
issues are connected and give some examples. • Explain how informed consent, legislation,
industry self-regulation, and technology tools
• List and describe the key technological trends
help protect the individual privacy of Internet
that heighten ethical concerns.
users.
• Differentiate between responsibility, account-
• List and define the three different regimes
ability, and liability.
that protect intellectual property rights.
2. What specific principles for conduct can be used 4. How have information systems affected
to guide ethical decisions? everyday life?
• List and describe the five steps in an ethical • Explain why it is so difficult to hold software
analysis. services liable for failure or injury.
• Identify and describe six ethical principles. • List and describe the principal causes of
system quality problems.
3. Why do contemporary information systems
• Name and describe four quality-of-life impacts
technology and the Internet pose challenges to
of computers and information systems.
the protection of individual privacy and
• Define and describe technostress and RSI and
intellectual property?
explain their relationship to information
• Define privacy and fair information practices. technology.

Discussion Questions

1. Should producers of software-based services, 3. Discuss the pros and cons of allowing companies
such as ATMs, be held liable for economic injuries to amass personal data for behavioral targeting.
suffered when their systems fail?
2. Should companies be responsible for unemploy-
ment caused by their information systems? Why
or why not?

Hands-On MIS Projects

The projects in this section give you hands-on experience in analyzing the privacy implications of using
online data brokers, developing a corporate policy for employee Web usage, using blog creation tools to
create a simple blog, and using Internet newsgroups for market research.
Management Decision Problems

1. USAData’s Web site is linked to massive databases that consolidate personal data on millions of people.
Anyone with a credit card can purchase marketing lists of consumers broken down by location, age, income
level, and interests. If you click on Consumer Lists to order a consumer mailing list, you can find the names,
addresses, and sometimes phone numbers of potential sales leads residing in a specific location and
purchase the list of those names. One could use this capability to obtain a list, for example, of everyone in
Peekskill, New York, making $150,000 or more per year. Do data brokers such as USAData raise privacy
issues? Why or why not? If your name and other personal information were in this database, what
limitations on access would you want in order to preserve your privacy? Consider the following data users:
government agencies, your employer, private business firms, other individuals.

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