Doing Ethics Technique: Question 1Q1. What’s going on?
In December 1999, IBM GSA was a tendered for an IT outsourcing contract for the Department of Health, Aged Case and Health Insurance Commission along with the CSC and EDS. While the tendering process was on, the IBM GSA was supplied with a computer disk that contained critical information associated with the detailed information of the final pricing of the rival tenderers who were CSC and EDS. However, this was described as an inadvertent error and the minister later dismissed the opposition’s call of halting the tendering process.
Q2. What are the facts?
There are a number of facts that are associated with the situation which are as follows-
Q3. What are the issues (non-ethical)?
The main issue is that IBM-GSA had a clear advantage in the entire process. Furthermore, IBM-GSA had revised the tender after due date, which is another significant issue.
Q4. Who is affected?
In this entire tendering process, mainly the rivals, who are CSC and EDS are mostly affected as they lost to IBM-GSA, who had a clear advantage in winning the tender.
Q5. What are the ethical issues and implications?
The ethical issue is that the tendering process was carried on even after knowing the fact that IBM-GSA had a clear advantage in winning the tender. Furthermore, IBM-GSA was given the benefit of revising the tender after the due deadline.
Q6. What can be done about it?
In this situation, the tendering should not have happened. The tendering process could be delayed. The three bidders should have got a chance to resubmit the tender.
Q7. What are the options?
The options are-
Q8. Which option is best – and why?
The third option was best as it is clear that IBM-GSA revised their tender after getting the information of the other two bidders. IBM-GSA had revised their tender after the deadline which was unethical and illegal as well. If IBM-GSA was not given the chance to revise their tender, a fair competition could have been held and therefore it is the best option.
Q1. What’s going on?
Anna is a young and ambitious computer programmer who is working for a small company. The company works for developing software for web based services in healthcare and focuses on supporting the remote aboriginal communities. Anna further undertakes additional tertiary study with support from the manager Brian. Anna as a part of their current project develops a new interface that has a strong focus on the accessibility for the remote communities. In this project, she pays special attention on the use of cultural images interface to avoid any content that might be offensive for the aboriginal users. The new system became a great success, however, Brian takes all the credit.
Q2. What are the facts?
The facts in this case are as follows-
Q3.What are the issues (non-ethical)?
The main issue is that, Brian took the credit of someone else’s hard work. Although Brian helped Anna in her studies, it was Anna who thought out of context to make this project a success.
Q4. Who is affected?
In this case, Anna is mostly affected as her hard work although recognized was taken away by Brian.
Q5. What are the ethical issues and implications?
The main ethical issue associated with this situation is that, taking away the credit of Anna’s hard work was completely unethical. Although Brain helped Anna with her tertiary studies, it was the hard work of Anna that made the project successful. So the situation is unethical.
Q6. What can be done about it?
In this situation, Anna should be given her due credit as the project was successful only because of the innovative idea of Anna. Brian should not be allowed to take the credit. Anna should be given a promotion for her contribution.
Q7. What are the options?
The options are-
Q8. Which option is best – and why?
The option that Anna has is to ask for her due credit and recognition. Since it was Anna’s original idea and hard work that made this project a success, Anna has the right to ask for her due credit and recognition. Brian although provided her support, he should not take away the due credit and recognition that Anna deserves.
Q1. What’s going on?
Andrew is an experienced and a highly qualified software developer who has started to work with a government health department. He is in charge of a project that has been underway for about 9 months. The current system although is incomplete has been used for live data. Andrew discovered certain bugs in the system as the system is poorly designed. This is mainly because of the lack of expertise of the previous developer. The choice of technologies was found to be incompatible with infrastructure of the organization that is resulting in corruptions and loss of data. Andrew spent a lot of time to recover some previously corrupted data. He found out that the system is very unstable and can lead to subsequent data loss. Therefore he recommends that the system is needed to be redeveloped that will take less than six weeks.
Q2. What are the facts?
The facts associated with the case are as follows-
Q3. What are the issues (non-ethical)?
The main issue is that with the continuous use of the flawed system, the data of the organization will be lost beyond recovery.
Q4. Who is affected?
In this case, the organization will be affected the most followed by Andrew, as he is in charge of the project.
Q5. What are the ethical issues and implications?
The use of the flawed system even after knowing the consequences is unethical and therefore should be avoided. Andrew’s proposal of system redesigning is however rejected.
Q6. What can be done about it?
Andrew could pressurise the reform. Andrew can further raise the issue to the higher management. If none works, Andrew should take the initiative of making the necessary changes in the existing system
Q7. What are the options?
The options that Andrew has-
Q8. Which option is best – and why?
The option of making the supervisor understand the need of the reform is best as it will help in taking the necessary action as soon as possible. The other option can delay the project that will result in subsequent time loss for the organization.
Background
Whistle Blowing could be defined as the act of different members of the organization to disclose the vital information based on unethical or illegal practices within the organization. This act is becoming a common matter as many employees are focusing on the ethical based concerns. The act of whistle blowing can bring about a range of problems for the organization as well as the whistleblower. However, this act is an important and effective method in order to control the unethical behavior within the organization.
Ethics Theories applied
The Utilitarian Theory could be applied to the act of whistleblowing. The theory focusses on the fact as to which of the option based on the action would be helpful in producing the greatest amount of happiness and would cause the least harm. From the basic perspective of a whistle blower, the utilitarian theory would suggest a whistle blower to keep silent at the beginning and then report their personal matter to the immediate manager. The whistle blower then should blow the whistle and then report the matter outside of the organisation.
ACS code of ethics
According to the ACS Code of Ethics, it has been defined that this code of ethics is dedicated to help in improving the confidence of the public within the industry.The members within the organization should know the fact that the ACS could be helpful in resolving the dilemmas within the organization. The ethical code could also provide support in order to take proper action that would include the act of whistle blowing. With the help of the ACS code of ethics, the whistle blower should take proper action at times.
Based on the above discussion, it could be concluded that the act of whistle blowing could be considered as an ethical action if it has been performed in the right manner and if they are performed for the right reasons. In many of the organization, the act of the whistleis considered as an unethical activity. Hence based on the above discussion, it should be considered that the act of whistle blowing should be performed in an ethical manner.
The act of penetration testing, which is also known as ethical hacking is defined as the skills that are required for testing the defenses within the organization. Penetration testing is a particular term that would be able to focus on discovering the risks, vulnerabilities and thus maintain a proper control of the system.Hackers are classified as white, grey and black hat hackers. The white hat hackers employ the exact methods as the black hat hackers and they could be sometimes be paid who would work for companies for the role of security specialists who would find loopholes within the security systems. The black hat hackers have a vast knowledge of breaking into the computer networks and thus pass through the protocols of security.The grey hat hackers are a mixture of the white and black hat hackers. They try to penetrate into the networks without the permission of the owner.
The Kantianism theory defines the way in which a person should behave and thus decide the good or bad actions. The consequentialism theorycould be defined as a theory that would deal with the consequences of the action. Based on these theories, the actions should be decided based on these theories.
The ACS code of ethics could be applied to the case of penetration testing that would be helpful for the efficient working within the organization. The security of the information security should follow some code of ethics, which would be helpful in serving the client in a better way and thus would help in avoiding any form of illegal based activities.
Based on the above discussion, it could be concluded that the act of penetration testing or ethical hacking is a serious matter of concern. The white hat hackers have to be paid in order to perform the act of hacking.
Decision-making with the help of algorithms developed by machine learning is increasing over the years. However, there are issues associated with the transparency that contribute to restoring of the accountability of the system. Full opacity of the process is a norm and therefore several objections against full transparency are needed to be examined. The use of such algorithms is associated with the issues which include loss of privacy in situation when data sets become public, issues with the disclosure of the algorithms themselves and potential loss of competitive edge. Therefore it is needed to be evaluated wether the use of algorithms in decision making is ethical or not.
According to the ethical theory of deontology, the rightness and the wrongness of the action is needed to be evaluated. With the use of algorithms developed by machine learning, there are certain issues associated with the loss of competitive edge and loss of privacy. Therefore, the action of making use of algorithms of machine learning is wrong according to the theory of deontology.
According to the theory of utilitarianism, the rightness or wrongness of the consequence determines whether a situation or action is ethically correct. Although the use of such algorithms helps in effective decision making, risking the data privacy is not ethical.
According to the ACS code of ethics, honesty is to be maintained in every action. Any action should consider benefit of the public and therefore risking the privacy of the confidential data is not ethical.
It can be concluded that transparency is certainly useful till the point it does not risk the privacy and the confidentiality of the data. Extending transparency to the public at a large in normally not advised as it will risk the privacy and the confidentiality of the data. The sophisticated algorithms are generally non transparent that therefore might not have any ethical issues associated with them. The use of algorithms in decision making by risking the privacy confidentiality of the data is not ethical and the use of such transparent systems are not recommended.
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