Management Information Systems

Chapter

:The Digital Firm

Ethical, Social & Policy

Issues
Kenneth C. Laudon & Jane P. Laudon 6002 9th edition PEARSON - Prentice Hall www.prenhall.com/laudon

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The Digital Firm:

Ethical Social Political Issues

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Objectives After completing this chapter, you will be able to:

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1. Analyze the relationship among ethical, social, and political issues that are raised by information systems. 2. Identify the main moral dimensions of an information society and specific principles for conduct that can be used to guide ethical decisions. 3. Evaluate the impact of contemporary information systems and the Internet on the protection of individual privacy and intellectual property. 4. Assess how information systems have affected everyday life. 5. Identify the principal management challenges posed by the ethical and social impact of information systems and management solutions. Discussion Questions: 1. Write a computer usage policy for your school or workplace incorporating the moral and ethical guidelines discussed in this chapter. 2. Briefly describe your Internet Service Provider's e-mail usage policy. If you are on campus, your school should have a usage policy. 3. Describe how your quality of life has improved or declined with the technological advances in the last five years. 4. How do you think our government should handle the political issue of Internet decency and access limitations? 5. To what extent should Internet Service Providers be held liable and accountable for the use of their equipment?

Ethical and Social Issues in the Digital Firm

It probably goes without saying that the security and ethical issues raised by the Information Age, and specifically the Internet, are the most explosive to face our society in decades. It will be many years and many court battles before socially acceptable policies and practices are in place.

5.1 Understanding Ethical and Social Issues Related to Systems

Ethic refers to the principles of right and wrong that individuals use to make choices to guide their behaviors. IT can be used to achieve social progress, but it can also be used to commit crimes and threaten cherished social values. Development of IT will produce benefits for many and costs for others. You may love the idea that a gardening Web site or a mail order catalog gives you information about what grows best in your backyard (literally your backyard). You might even love the idea that you can sign on to Amazon.com, have the Web site greet you by name, and supply you with information about a book or CD by your favorite author or artist. If you're not especially interested in Stephen King or Frank Sinatra, don't worry; Amazon.com knows that and won't bother you with products from those artists. You are 22 years old, drive a Mazda, like hip-hop music, shop at Macy's at least once a month around the 15th, wear a size 10 dress, live in a small two-bedroom apartment, have friends or relatives who live in Texas, like eating at Red Lobster, go on a skiing trip to Colorado every Spring Break, missed one semester of school last year due to medical problems, and spend lots of time at the ivillage.com Web site chatting with other females your age. Would it surprise you to know that this information and more can all be gleaned from various computer records? On average, each American is listed in about 60 government and 80 private sector databases. On a typical day, each person's name is passed between computers ten times. A lot of personal information about us has always been available, just not as easily and as readily as today. Massive databases maintained by commercial companies and governments at all levels now allow profiling like that above to be accomplished easier and faster than ever before. Even though the Internet is over 30 years old and the World Wide Web is over 10 years old, our society is just beginning to address the ethical issues and dilemmas raised by these technological advances. It's difficult to measure one person's ethics against another person's desire to make money or cause chaos that's made much easier by the Internet. The U.S. government is just beginning to pass laws against cybercrimes but it's difficult to stay one step ahead of the cybercriminals.

A Model for Thinking about Ethical, Social, and Political Issues

Many of these issues not only touch our society as a whole, but also raise lots of questions for organizations, companies, and the workplace in general. We hear arguments for free speech, personal responsibility, and corporate responsibility.

There are discussions about the government's role in all this. At the
beginning of Chapter 5, Laudon says: "Suddenly individual actors are confronted with new situations often not covered by the old rules. Social institutions cannot respond overnight to these ripples... Political institutions also require time before developing new laws and often require the demonstration of real harm before they act. In the meantime, you may have to act. You may be forced to act in a legal 'gray area.' " How you act, individually and as groups, in this gray area may well define the future of our society. Though that may sound a bit dramatic, you must understand that you are part of the development of "acceptable usage" of this new medium and will help define the direction in which it goes.

Figure 5-1 shows the relationship between ethical, social, and political issues in an information society. You could change this diagram somewhat to avoid the impression that the five dimensions are separate. You'd show significant overlap of each area, and most of the diagram would be in shades of gray. The five dimensions we'll discuss are:

1. information rights and obligations, 2. property rights and obligations, 3. accountability and control, 4

4. system quality, and the 5. quality of life.

Five Moral Dimensions of the Information Age

Laudon and Laudon outline five moral dimensions that apply in today's business environment. While these dilemmas have existed in some form or another for years, they are made more important with the technological advances we've seen in the last ten years.

Key Technology Trends that Raise Ethical Issues

Information technologies pose problems and threats to established societal rules, and technological advances pose new situations and possible threats to privacy and ethics.

In addition to the technologies described in Table 5-2, you need to understand the most recent technological threats to your privacy in cyberspace: 1. DoubleClick, a major Internet advertising broker, announced in early 2000 that it would use data gathered from Web sites in conjunction with data collected from sources other than the Internet to identify people by name. It intended to sell the data to marketers who would be able to target advertising campaigns more efficiently. Public outcry about privacy issues forced DoubleClick to cancel its plans. If it's any consolation, DoubleClick went up for sale in late 2004 but there are others waiting to take its place. 2. The American Civil Liberties Union charges that because the suggested chip for the new U.S. Passport design would be capable of holding as much information as the first personal computers it will be a significant threat to privacy. The new RFID chip would contain all of the information currently displayed on a passport, including a template for an automated facial recognition identification system that has yet to be proven. The information on the chip is not protected by encryption and is reported to be readable from up to 30 feet away. (Passport chips raise privacy concerns, CNN Online, January 6, 2005) 3. New handheld Web appliances will allow businesses to track your physical whereabouts and offer you discounts and special offers depending on your geographic location. As you walk down a city street, you'll be notified that the restaurant two blocks away has an open table waiting just for you. 4. A new data category indicates that 60 percent of wiretaps authorized in 2000 were for wireless devices such as cellular phones and pagers. (EPIC Web site, May 2001)

The last item in the list above came from a Web site maintained by the Electronic Privacy Information Center, an organization devoted to privacy issues associated with the use of new technologies tied to networks in general, and the Internet specifically. It is one of the premier organizations dedicated to preserving the privacy of the American citizen. If you haven't visited the Web site you should. You say to yourself, "Hey I don't really care. Nobody will ever care about what I do or where I go on the Internet." Well, you might want to think twice about that. There have been reported instances of companies accessing databases from various sources as part of the screening process to determine what chatrooms and Web sites prospective employees have visited. How can that be, you ask? The technological trends Laudon and Laudon discuss, such as advances in data storage, give you one clue. The scenario at the beginning of this section about profiling is possible through the technique called datamining. Add to that the capabilities of nonobvious relationship awareness (NORA) data analysis technology, as shown in Figure 5-2, and complete strangers might know just as much about you as you do. It can and has been done. So you should be concerned and you should care.

Bottom Line: Technological trends are posing new situations and questions we haven't had to deal with before. As it's your world and your future, you should be concerned and become involved in their resolution.

5.2 Ethics in an Information Society

Did you ever hear the old warning: "Just because you can, doesn't mean you should?" Well, a lot of things are possible on the Internet nowadays, but that doesn't mean you should do them. Ethics is easily managed in small groups because the group itself tends to control the individual's behavior. It's referred to as "self-policing." The larger the group, the harder it is to manage the actions of individuals. Now stretch that to a huge number of people with many frames of reference and experiences. Responsibility to the group becomes harder to police and accountability for an individual's actions is harder to enforce.

Basic Concepts: Responsibility, Accountability, and Liability

Every action causes a reaction. When you're using the Internet, computers on campus, or your employer's computer, you should be aware of the following: Responsibility: Accepting potential costs, duties, and obligations for your decisions. Accountability: Determining who should take responsibility for decisions and actions. Liability: Legally placing responsibility with a person or group. Due Process: ensuring the laws are applied fairly and correctly.

Responsibility, accountability, and liability are all yours when it comes to your actions in cyberspace. Every Internet Service Provider has a "usage policy," even the so-called anonymous e-mailers that hide your real identity. Hotmail is a popular Internet e-mail service that allows you to mask your real identity. You could send out all the, shall we say unethical, threatening, nasty, aberrant, e-mail you like. You think: "Hey, no one will really know who I am. This is cool." And then here comes the message from Hotmail to cease and desist. Your free e-mail account is cancelled because you violated Hotmail's usage policy. Then your local Internet Service Provider contacts you and tells you you're terminated, baby! You violated its usage policy by your actions. By now you're really mad, not to mention embarrassed (at least we hope so). It's true. It happens.

Just because you think you can, doesn't mean you should. Would you
stand in the middle of campus and shout insults? Laudon and Laudon point out, "Using information technology in a socially responsible manner means that you can and will be held accountable for the consequences of your actions." Just as you are subject to rules, whether you like them or not, on Main Street, USA, in public, you are subject to societal rules in cyberspace. Anonymity isn't a license for socially unacceptable behavior. Some people seem to absolve themselves of responsibility by putting the responsibility on the computer - "Hey, the computer screwed up," or "Since it was an anonymous username I didn't think I'd get caught." It just doesn't work that way in society face-to-face or on the Internet. No one can hide behind the technology. Humans control the computers, not the other way around. And if you have received threatening, aberrant e-mails or flames in chatroom or discussion groups, and haven't reported them according to the usage policies, you may be as much a part of the problem as the perpetrator!

Ethical Analysis
It's safe to say you'll find yourself in situations where your ethics are challenged. What should you do? Try the following: Separate fact from fiction. Remember, no matter how thin you slice it, there's always two sides. Determine who's really involved. Compromise; it doesn't always have to be an "either-or" outcome. Anticipate the outcome; it will help you devise better solutions.

You should study the ethical principles outlined in the text, as we'll be incorporating them into the discussions throughout the remainder of this chapter. In the early days of the Internet, just about anything was acceptable. The phrase "Wild Wild Web" was an appropriate clich. But as the technology becomes more mainstream, the less wild it becomes. The principles listed in the text are deeply rooted in cultures around the world. We seriously doubt the authors had the Internet in mind when they developed these guidelines. But, when you think about it, they work nicely, even in cyberspace!

Professional Codes of Conduct

Most professional organizations have a code of conduct by which they expect their members to abide. The Association of Computing Machinery (ACM) has an excellent set of standards that apply to all of us, whether we belong to ACM or not.

Some Real-World Ethical Dilemmas

Individuals, companies, and corporations are being forced to deal with these new ethical and social issues in ways never before imagined. Employ the ethical analysis we just discussed to the real-world situations presented here and in the text. No issue has been harder for organizations to deal with than that of e-mail. Should companies be allowed to read employees' e-mails, especially if they are personal? Should employees be allowed to send personal e-mails to begin with? Should e-mails be used against a person or company in a court of law. If so, how? A recent example of this issue is the Microsoft versus Department of Justice antitrust trial. Many e-mails written by Microsoft's executives have been used against them. E-mails are not as anonymous as people think "Sending an e-mail message is more like sending a postcard than sending a sealed envelope."(CNN Headline News, April 28, 1996) So in your opinion, what is right? Is it okay for an employee to download the latest picture from Playgirl's Web site and use it as a screensaver? Is it okay to run a personal commercial Web site from your workplace computer using the company's computer resources? Is it okay to e-mail discriminatory jokes over the company's network that wouldn't be allowed over the water cooler? Is it okay to send e-mail telling everyone that the boss is a jerk, then get mad when the company fires you? Is it okay for the company to use technology to monitor your computer usage every minute you're on the job? Is it okay for the company to use technology to monitor your keystrokes so

they can determine how much work you're doing? Is it okay for you to use the company's computers and networks to surf Macy's Web site and order the latest fashions during your lunch break? Should a company be allowed to remove Solitaire from employee computers? (Oh, that last one would kill me!) What if Susie is using her computer to surf gardening Web sites three hours a day while you have to do her work? What if Joe and Sam play the newest Internet game during their coffee break every morning and afternoon, which bogs down the entire company's network? What is the best way for companies and employees to handle these situations? What is the right thing to do? Bottom Line: Ethics in an information society holds each person responsible for his or her actions. Each person is accountable for everything he or she does, no matter how anonymous the action may seem. Each person is liable for the consequences his or her actions may inflict on other people and society as a whole.

5.3 The Moral Dimensions of Information Systems

This section examines the five moral dimensions (information rights; property rights; accountability, liability, and control; system quality; and the quality of life) by asking you to examine them from a personal standpoint.

Information Rights: Privacy and Freedom in the Internet Age

Many of us take our privacy and freedom for granted. You should be aware of how technology is changing and challenging our basic assumptions about these issues. Video rental records are more protected from misuse and prying than are some of your financial records. We all assume that the Constitution guarantees our personal privacy and freedom from surveillance. If someone set up a video camera inside your dorm room or on your front porch to monitor your every movement, what would you do? In some cases, that's similar to what happens when you access some Web sites. So how do we protect our privacy and freedom from surveillance in a high-tech world? The text provides some information regarding privacy rights protected by law and established practices. But before you jump up and say, "Hey, the Privacy Act of 1974 says you can't spy on me," remember that law only applies to the federal government's actions. If Macy's or Playboy or Buy.com wants to collect information about your surfing habits and sell it to other companies, there is nothing to stop them. Absolutely nothing! This whole issue doesn't bother some people at all. In fact, they don't even think about it. The issue doesn't bother others until the intrusions are used against them. Think about this: If information is supposedly collected for one purpose, is it ethical for that information to be used for a totally different purpose without you knowing it? Is it fair to require you to provide medical information that is primarily intended to be used to pay your insurance bills and then have that same information used against you when the insurance company deems you too expensive and cancels your policy? Is it fair to have that same information used against you in denying you employment because you're too expensive to hire?

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The federal government is taking steps to help protect individual privacy in the United States by passing laws as you can see in Table 5-3. However, the wheels of government turn slowly and the first line of defense should be yours.

The Federal Trade Commission has stepped up their efforts to protect consumers' personal information on the Internet. An excerpt from their Web site explains their mission. Advances in computer technology have made it possible for detailed information about people to be compiled and shared more easily and cheaply than ever. That's good for society as a whole and individual consumers. For example, it is easier for law enforcement to track down criminals, for banks to prevent fraud, and for consumers to learn about new products and services, allowing them to make better-informed purchasing decisions. At the same time, as personal information becomes more accessible, each of us - companies, associations, government agencies, and consumers - must take precautions to protect against the misuse of that information. The Federal Trade Commission is educating consumers and businesses about the importance of personal information privacy. Read more about our efforts, what we've learned, and what you can do to protect the privacy of your personal information.

The European Directive on Data Protection

European countries have much stricter restrictions on gathering data about private individuals, on the Internet or elsewhere. European citizens have the right to deny the initial collection of information. They have the right to know and deny the use of data for purposes

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other than its original intention. They have the right to inspect and correct any data gathered on them. By way of comparison, Europeans practice opt-in whereas Americans practice optout. So far, American citizens have none of these rights. American businesses physically operating in European countries or transacting business with European citizens via the Internet must abide by these laws. You have to ask the question, "If it's good enough for the Europeans, why isn't it good enough for the Americans?" Here's a Web site dealing with global privacy issues sponsored by the Privacy Exchange.

Internet Challenges to Privacy

Under pressure from privacy advocates, government agencies, and the general public, many Web sites now post privacy policies. Some sites make their policies obvious and others don't. Some sites actually abide by their policies and others don't. You need to be careful about the terminology used. Review Altavista.com's privacy policy and note it distinguishes between personally identifiable information and anonymous information. Now review DoubleClick's privacy policy. It too distinguishes between personally identifiable information and anonymous information. However, it does state that it can match the two types of information to further identify you. How do these organizations gather the information? By using cookies, a part of every browser program. If you have Internet access and have ever visited a Web site, you can bet you have a cookie file on your computer. Here's what a typical cookie file will look like:

Most of the data in the file are unintelligible to you. However, they give information to Web sites about how you prefer the Web site to be configured, who you are, which Web site you came from, what you do while on a site, and other information pertinent to the Web site. You can turn off the cookie option in your browser, but many sites won't let you access their features if you do. Because the corporate world is demanding better results for the dollars spent on Internet advertising, some Web sites have developed Web bugs to help track users and determine what they do and don't do on the Internet. Web bugs are tiny, indistinguishable files embedded within a Web page or within an e-mail message. The bug monitors behavior of those using the page and combines the information with other data collected to get a more robust picture of how people are using the Web site and how effective the advertising is. Increasingly, Web sites are using spyware in an attempt to gather marketing information about visitors and customers. This type of software is installed directly onto your computer

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and sends data to the company about your surfing habits. Unfortunately, this software can also cause problems with your computer and send information that can be used in identity theft. If you haven't yet installed spyware detection software on your computer you should consider doing so. Most e-commerce merchants are pushing for self-regulation and the practice of requiring individuals to "opt-out" of data gathering. Opting out allows individuals to tell an organization not to share personal information with any third party. The government initially agreed with that position, but has since realized it isn't working very well for individuals. In mid 2000, the Federal Trade Commission started seeking government regulation of information gathering and advocates the right of individuals to "opt-in." Opting in requires individuals to expressly give an organization the right to gather information before any information can be collected. Visit the FTC Web site for the latest information on this subject.

Technical Solutions
According to the law you must inform someone if you are taping a telephone conversation with them. On the other hand, you can legally record that person's Internet transmissions without any need to inform them you are doing so. This type of disparity exists because our laws have not kept up with emerging technologies. There are some tools that can help you block someone from tracing your Internet activities as the text discusses. However, if you use your company's computers for most of your Web-browsing or e-mail activities, you may want to check with your Information Technology department before you install the tools. PGP (Pretty Good Privacy) is one of the most popular encryption software programs for email. It does have its limitations though, because both the sender and recipient must have the program installed in order for it to work. It's a freeware program you can download from various Internet sites. Network Associates, who owns the program, announced in March 2002 that it will no longer support the program because they couldn't make any money from the product. "They've come to the conclusion that they're not going to be making any money on it," said Richard Hunter, vice president of security research at GartnerG2, a division of research firm Gartner. "It's not a good sign for secure e-mail demand, despite consumers' concern for online privacy. There's certainly some demand for encryption technology in certain industries such as financial services, but it appears that there's not enough that giving the product away is an attractive means of selling something else." (BusinessWeek Online, March 11, 2002) The World Wide Web consortium has developed standards for how privacy policies can be embedded into Web pages and subsequently be compared to a user's privacy wishes through the user's Web browser. The Platform for Privacy Practices (P3P) is included in Internet Explorer version 6.0 and allows the user to determine what sites can collect information behind the scenes through the user's cookie files. Because the P3P standards are "machinereadable" the user doesn't have to search each Web site for its privacy policy. The user can let the computers do the comparison and automatically block any site not conforming to the user's wishes.

Property Rights: Intellectual Property

Intellectual property issues have been around for hundreds of years. Some of the laws and policies in place to settle disputes about copyrights, patents, and trade secrets, have to be rewritten to apply to the Internet. Intellectual property is a result of someone's effort at creating a product of value based on their experiences, knowledge, and education. In short, intellectual property is brain power.

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What if you wrote the next great American novel hoping to cash in big time? Maybe you could retire to the Bahamas and drink lemonade on the beach all day. But then you find out that someone posted your next great American novel to the Internet and everyone is reading it free of charge. Now you're back in your hometown drinking lemonade at the local mall while you decide whether to look for a job at McDonald's or Burger King. The good news is everyone loves your book! Unfortunately, that sort of thing happens too often in the cyberworld. You're pretty excited to get that free copy of the newest game software, while the poor guy who spent hours of his time and effort writing it is not so excited to realize he's not getting any compensation. Everything on the Web is considered to be protected under copyright and intellectual property laws unless the Web site specifically states that the content is public domain. The Web site doesn't need to carry the copyright symbol in order for it to be protected. President Clinton signed the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) in January 1998 making it a federal offense to violate copyright laws on the Internet, punishable with a fine up to $250,000. Copyright laws and intellectual property rights cannot be violated on the Internet any more than they can in other mediums. While this isn't a law class, you should be aware of the fine line between acceptable and legal usage of materials and the illegal theft of materials. When it comes to copyright material, the underlying ideas are not protected, just the publication of the material. On the other hand, a patent grants a monopoly on the underlying concepts and ideas. Before you use anything, especially any material on the World Wide Web, make sure you are using it legally and ethically. Get past the idea that because everything on the Web is free, easy, and available 24-hours a day, it must therefore be okay to use it however you want. The question you should be asking yourself is, "Is it ethically right and legal?" The Business Software Alliance is an organization working to prevent software piracy and the illegal use of copyrighted material around the world. And don't think the problem is limited to the 17-year old computer geek locked in his bedroom. This crime can be committed by anyone, as this newsclip shows: Seventeen high-tech professionals were indicted on federal charges for participating in an Internet piracy ring that hijacked software worth more than $1 million. The government said 12 of those indicted are members of an underground organization while the five others are employees of Intel Corp. The individuals indicted were charged with conspiracy to infringe on copyrights, which carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison, a $250,000 fine, and restitution. (AP Newswire, May 5, 2000) Perhaps the most notorious copyright infringement and intellectual property case in 2000 and 2001 involved the music industry. MP3, one of the most popular methods of illegally downloading music from Web sites, lost a court battle waged by the music industry. MP3 was forced to pay millions of dollars to the industry for lost revenues. The rock group Metallic sued Napster.com because it was allowing people to trade copyrighted material illegally. Napster.com lost that battle and is now trying to help the music industry devise a method of charging for downloaded music. So before you copy your favorite sound clip, remember you're actually stealing someone else's property as surely as if you walked into that person's home and took the CD. The music industry and the film industry are now suing individuals who continually download copies of song and movies from free Web sites.

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Accountability, Liability, and Control

Many of our laws and court decisions establishing precedents in the area of accountability, liability, and control, were firmly in place long before computers were invented. Many of them date back to the early 1900s, and some simply don't make sense in this day and age. That's what we were referring to in the opening paragraphs of this lecture when we talked about new questions for organizations, companies, and the workplace in general. No issue makes this subject more important than the Internet laws our government has tried, and still tries, to pass. One tenet of the Communications Decency Act (struck down by the courts) and the Child Online Protection Act (currently in the courts) is that the Internet Service Providers should somehow be liable for content placed on the Internet through their users. Ask yourself these questions: "If you receive an obscene phone call, is the telephone company responsible and liable for the problem? If you receive a threatening letter in the mail, is the U.S. Post Office responsible for reading every piece of mail on the chance that there might be a problem in one of the letters?" The text gives several examples of recent liability problems and the difficulties companies face as networks, computers, and data increasingly become common strategic tools.

System Quality: Data Quality and System Errors

As we rely on information systems more, data quality issues are gaining importance. These issues affect you as a consumer and as a user. When the credit reporting agencies screw up your credit record and you can't get a car loan, who's fault is it? What if you're driving down the road, the computer chip controlling your brake system fails, and you have a rather nasty crash. Who's at fault? You, the car company, or the company that made the computer chip? Who is responsible for system downtime when a popular e-mail program has holes allowing viruses to spread and multiply; the software manufacturer or the company that licenses the software? Most of us use software that the manufacturer knows has bugs. They usually are nothing more than an aggravation and a frustration. But once in a while, they will affect our use of the computer. Our natural tendency is to let the marketplace control the balance by letting the customer punish or reward the producer. But will that be enough, or will the issue end up in the courts? When a network server crashes and day-traders miss an important trade, who is responsible for the lost income? The ISP? The financial service company? No one? As more and more companies do business on the Internet, will Internet Service Providers or the companies doing business on the Internet be held accountable for equipment outages that render those businesses unable to process transactions?

Quality of Life: Equity, Access, and Boundaries

Invariably, when discussing online technology, some students mention their concern about losing the face-to-face contact with other human beings. We hear stories about children who haven't developed normal social skills because they spend all their time in front of a computer. No discussion about the quality of life issues would be complete without mentioning the tales of "online love affairs." Of course, many people lose their jobs and their way of life because of technology. These are all very valid concerns.

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What, in your opinion, is the impact of all this wired stuff on children? How should we protect them against the threats, real or perceived? The Communications Decency Act of 1996 was ultimately ruled unconstitutional by the Supreme Court. Did you realize it's back? This time it's called the Child Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) and it went into effect in April 2000. The Electronic Frontier Foundation an organization dedicated to "protecting rights and preserving freedom in the electronic frontier," has lots of information about protecting free speech on the Internet. One quality of life issue that affects more and more people personally is the ability to work from home. Most telecommuters had a "regular day job" 9-5, five days a week, in a typical office setting. If they didn't get their work done today, they would usually wait until they were back in the office tomorrow or Monday. Now because of technology they can work seven days a week, all hours of the day, at home. And sometimes they do. The impact on personal and family life can be considerable. In many regards, this problem extends not just to telecommuters but to many employees who spend their normal 40-50 hours a week in the office and then stay "wired" in the evenings, on weekends, and even during vacations. There is an upside to the jobs issue, though. Many parents like telecommuting because they can stay home with, or at least be nearer, their children. More and more people are leaving the big cities and moving to small towns for the quality of life, yet they can still keep their well-paying jobs. Many small companies are able to expand their customer base because of technology, which in turns helps the employees immensely. Completely new businesses are born because of technology. Some people think we've reached the limit when they learn that we can now buy groceries online. Hungry Moose Groceries in Big Sky, Montana, offers the service for people coming in for vacation. After all, when you have everything loaded into the car, trying to find your way around a strange town, anxious to get on the ski slopes, have three screaming kids in the back seat, and everyone is stressed out from the travel, the last thing you want to do is hunt down a grocery store. Why not e-mail ahead and have your food and treats waiting for you when you check into your accommodations? What a terrific idea. Computer crime is one area that has been extremely hard for our society and our governments to keep up with the rapid change. Many laws have to be rewritten and many new laws must be implemented to accommodate the changes. Computer crime and abuse extends to any wrongdoing involving equipment and Internet usage. We spoke earlier about anonymity not being a license for socially unacceptable behavior. You should remember that everything you do on a network or the Internet is recorded and can be tracked. Many people committing computer crimes and abuse have been caught and prosecuted. Spamming (unsolicited e-mail) has been challenged in the courts by Internet Service Providers (ISP) as an unfair practice. The ISPs say thousands of these e-mails clog their systems, and no one wants them anyway. The spammers argue their right to freedom of speech is violated if they can't send e-mails to anyone they want. Congress passed a new law in late 2003 to clamp down on spamming. While we may not see an immediate effect by reduced numbers of spam email messages hitting our mailboxes, the law does seem to be producing some result: "Texas attorney gen. sues student spammerBy Brandi Grissom, Associated PressAUSTIN, TexasThe state attorney general filed a lawsuit against a 22-year-old college student and his business partner, accusing them of illegally sending hundreds of thousands of unsolicited, misleading e-mails.

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Ryan Pitylak, a student at the University of Texas at Austin, heads the fourth-largest spamming operation in the world, Attorney General Gregg Abbott said. The lawsuit filed Thursday alleges that Pitylak and Mark Trotter, his 40-year-old business partner from Encinitas, Calif., have been sending the e-mails since at least Sept. 1, 2003. "We want to make clear that these defendants we are suing today and any other illegal spammers in the state of Texas can't hide behind a computer screen any longer," Abbott said in filing the state's first e-mail spamming lawsuit." USAToday Online, Jan 14, 2005 Other issues affecting our society include job losses and career changes caused by technology. You can argue the positive or negative effects, but one thing is clear: you'll be a part of the evolution of technology for the rest of your life. You will have to continually update your skills and knowledge in order to remain competitive in the job market. As companies continue to embrace new technology and new methods of using it, you'll be responsible for ensuring your skills and education remain current. Our government recognizes the danger of allowing unequal access to technology to fester. It has enlisted the help of private individuals and corporations in the effort to install computers and Internet access in public schools and libraries all across the nation and the world. Most schools are now wired for networks and are learning to incorporate technology into the curriculum. There's even a Web site dedicated to the digital divide situation. The Window on Management: Can the Spamming Monster Be Tamed (see p. 171 of text) discusses the costs to individuals and business of the estimated two trillion spam messages sent in 2003. While some mass emails are legitimate, most are not. User beware. As managers, you should be acutely aware of the health issues caused by computer usage, especially repetitive stress injury (RSI). Why? Because these health issues cost businesses huge amounts of money each year in medical treatment claims and lost productivity. Carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS), a subset of RSI, is the most serious health issue plaguing businesses. Computer vision syndrome (CVS) is increasing as people continually use computer screens and handheld devices that strain eyesight.

It doesn't take much to avoid the problems associated with computer usage. Ergonomics, the study of the relationship between humans and machines, has helped determine that it's cheaper to purchase equipment that reduces the health risks associated with computers, such

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as different keyboards, monitors that reduce eye strain, and desks that allow proper body positions. Too much of a good thing can be bad. You've heard of road rage, the anger people experience when driving. We are now experiencing road rage on the Information Superhighway, and it's called technostress. Managers should encourage their employees to take frequent breaks from their computers and to recognize and understand the dangers of isolation from humans. We may be a wired nation, but we still need the human touch. How has all this technology affected you? Think about it. Ultimately, there is a positive and a negative side to everything. How you handle it determines how it affects you. Bottom Line: If it sounds too good to be true, it is. If it's illegal or immoral or unethical outside the computing arena, it's probably illegal, immoral, and unethical in the computing arena. If you are aware of a problem or are a victim of unethical, illegal actions, and you don't do something about it, you're part of the problem. It's your new world use it wisely.

5.4 Management Opportunities, Challenges, and Solutions

Managers have an obligation to ensure policies are in place to help guide their employees in the ethical and legal use of technology. The challenge is to create policies that are fair and reasonable to both the employer and employee. The material presented in this chapter can be starting point for deciding new policies or revisions to current policies as new technology is introduced to the workplace. Rest assured, it will be a continuous requirement for every manager in every company. Solution Guidelines Many firms have not established a Code of Ethics or Employee Conduct for Computing in today's workplace. Some corporations are confused about what to include and how to approach this new dilemma. Following Laudon and Laudon's five moral dimensions would be a good start! Businesses and their managers should recognize: The The The The The information rights to privacy and freedom property rights to individual ideas and efforts accountability, liability, and control issues involved in using technology system quality requirements of businesses and individuals quality of life impact of technology

Bottom Line: Companies can no longer ignore the necessity of establishing rules for technology usage. The issue won't go away and will only continue to grow. If you work for a company that doesn't have a policy, you should encourage it to establish one immediately. If you're a manager in a company, you should get busy and establish a policy for your employees it's the only fair thing to do.

Visit

WIKIPEDIA, The free Encyclopedia for Repetitive Stress or Strain Injury

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Repetitive_strain_injury

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