My Analysis of IS 201 Computer Issues Survey

Each of us may have our own perspective in life. Moreover, what is moral to you may not be moral to me. It happens that since each and every one of us has gone through different experiences in life with: the kind of upbringing that our guardians do to us, the school education we had, and the type of friends we are associated with.

It is interesting that our class has finally come up with a result based on the survey conducted, classifying the morality of various issues in computing. Here, we can see how those socially relevant issues are being seen by the different age-groups in our society, as well as how those issues are being perceived by each gender. Age-bracket 20-29 comprised the largest percentage among the respondents with 49 % or 176 respondents, followed by 30-39 with 25 % or 97 respondents. It is interesting that we have an almost equal no. of male and female respondents in the survey, with 197 and 198 respondents respectively. Let me now interpret the result of the surveys as I incorporate my own personal opinion with regards to the following issues in computing:

SOFTWARE PIRACY
It is evident that the cost of licensed software in the market is beyond what the ordinary Filipino can afford today. With this, some resort to buying pirated software without thinking that what they are actually doing is against the law. Some 81 percent of the respondents in the survey consider this practice as morally bad. But in spite of massive campaign by the government against piracy, some consider buying pirated software, including myself, reasonable especially when one does not have a big amount of money to purchase its licenses. It is also worth noted in the result that the latter perception about software piracy is being accepted mostly by men.

AUDIO AND/OR VIDEO PIRACY
Similar to software piracy, audio and/or video piracy is another problem that involves intellectual property rights issues and considered as a threat to the recording/movie industry. Thus, more than half of the respondents (209 out of 395) believe that it is morally bad. However, some of the respondents (146 out of 395) tolerate this kind of piracy depending on some situations. Only 10 percent believe that it is morally good under all circumstances. I personally believe that the degree of negative effect of audio and/or video piracy is higher than software piracy. Thus, I implicitly consider audio/video piracy as morally bad since it causes damaging effect not only on the company who produces these music/video cds, but also on our economy.

PORNOGRAPHY ON THE INTERNET
One of the controversial issues in computing is pornography. Majority of the respondents (319 out of 395), 56 percent of it are women, believe that it is morally bad under all circumstances. Pornography has already penetrated the Internet and it is easily accessible to anyone. But no matter what form it is, pornography still corrupts the minds of people who have a chance of accessing it.

CIO (Chief Information Officer) READING EMPLOYEES EMAILS WITHOUT PERMISSION
Primarily, emails have been the source of viruses that have pestered a lot of companies around the world. Incidentally, although some measures and guidelines may have been already implemented to stop the spread of viruses throughout the network of a certain company, some employees are still reckless in using their email as they open their mails from unknown senders without checking for a possible presence of viruses. Because of this, some companies secretly check emails of their employees to make sure that their employees are using their account properly without any threat of viruses coming from suspected sources. Thirty-one percent of the respondents (MG = 20 and MGB = 101) may be in favor of checking employeess' emails because of the previous mentioned situation, but 83 % still think that it is morally good or bad depending on certain circumstances. But innocent employees may be affected with the mentioned email policy. Thus, majority of the respondents (274 out of 395) including myself still find this morally bad. Reading emails that are not yours is a clear invasion of one’s privacy and it applies here the idea why we have the illegal wiretapping act.

SPAMMING (mass unsolicited emailing) TO PROMOTE A LEGITIMATE PRODUCT
Receiving emails from various companies promoting their products/services has become annoying not only to me but also to majority of the respondents in the survey. About 50 percent of the respondents (199 out of 395) agree that spamming is morally bad while only less than 10 percent consider it morally good. For the 42 percent of the respondents, they consider it as morally good or bad depending on some instances. Some say that it is legitimate for them to receive unsolicited emails if it only contains valid products/services.

SENDING A CHAIN LETTER BY EMAIL TO ENCOURAGE PEOPLE TO PRAY A NOVENA
Majority of both male and female respondents (185 out of 395) agree that encouraging people to pray a novena through email is either good or bad in one way or another. Good, because it is practices church teaching; however, some people including myself, are disappointed when there is a threat of some sort that goes with the email. Moreover, some 25 percent of the respondents find this practice inappropriate to do. They reason that email is not the proper medium to encourage people to pray.

CYBERSEX
Nowadays, people can have sex without actually engaging themselves in the physical act and that is through cybersex. The result of the survey shows that majority of the female (174 out of 198) consider it morally bad in the strict sense of the word. It only shows that Filipino women are still conservative since they are not yet open to such activity. For them, cybersex, just like doing the actual sex itself, is still a taboo and can not be done out of wedlock. It is also worth noted that almost all of the respondents who belong to age-bracket 50-59 agree that cybersex is morally bad under all circumstances. However, 13 percent of the respondents believe that it is morally good or bad depending on certain situations. According to some, there is nothing wrong with engaging sex online for as long as it is done with their significant other. Only 77 percent of men think that cybersex is morally bad as compared to 88 percent of women and only four out of 198 men consider it as morally good under all circumstances. Among the guys, 15 percent think that cybersex is morally good or bad depending on some situations. They say that cybersex has given them the opportunity to do “it” online rather than acquiring the services of prostitutes, and thus, protecting themselves from getting STD. Incidentally, I belong to the eight percent of men who believe that cybersex is morally good. Aside from the advantage of having a cybersex as I stated previously, I personally think that such activity is just normal for as long as you do it at the right time and place.

ASSUMING A FALSE IDENTITY IN AN ONLINE CHATROOM
Majority of the respondents (288 out of 395) believe that it is not advisable to just reveal one’s identity to someone you just met online. Several crime stories have been reported in the news which involved innocent victims who were abused and sometimes killed by their chatmates. Surprisingly, 35 percent of women do not agree in giving false identity in an online chatroom, as compared to 24 percent of men. Does it means that women are more honest that men or men are just being wary than women?

PLAYING AN ULTRA-VIOLENT COMPUTER GAME
With the popularity of PC games, teenagers nowadays are being hooked up to computers. They spend most of their leisure time playing in front of the computers and they seem to be enjoying the thrill and excitement that these computer games are giving them. The characters in the games have become more realistic and the action scenes almost mimic the actual events that happen in real life. With this, majority of the respondents (199 out of 395, which are mostly women) think that playing an ultra-violent computer game is morally bad. They think that these kinds of games have bad influences especially to minors and believe that it is sometimes the source of heinous crimes. However, 34 percent of the respondents believe that violent computer game is not at all bad. If a person knows how to draw a line between what is real and what is not, then no matter how violent the game will be, he or she will not be tempted to do similar actions as he or she does in the game. I agree with the remaining 13 percent of the respondents who think that there is nothing wrong in playing online games and see it as only a form of entertainment.

NATIONAL ID SYSTEM
Majority of men (92 out of 197) including myself, are fully in favor of the national ID system while most women (95 out of 198) also support it but with certain reservations. The national ID system will provide each individual with proper identifications which can effectively curb crimes in the country. On the lighter side, having one official ID can be relieving to others since they will have a chance to present only this ID in all of their business or legal transactions. However, one’s privacy is at stake here. Some 10 percent of the respondents feel that people with evil intentions may use their personal information against them.


Reference:

Moral Issues in Computing. http://www.pisayweb.com/is201/.

Egoism and Altruism in the Five Cases

Definition of terms:
Ethical Egosim: the view that one ought to always act in a way that best serves one's self-interest.

Ethical Altruism: the view that one ought to act, or refrain from acting, so that benefit or good is bestowed on other people, if necessary to the exclusion of one's own interest


Case 1: Roger designed a computer program that would make detection of enemy codes easier.

Egoism: Though reasons for decoding of enemy information were not stated in the case, we may say that Roger intended to protect himself from any harm that may be produced by the enemy. By doing so, he wants to be famous in his community or country also.

Altruism: Roger did not selfishly design the program for his own good but for the welfare of the majority.

Case 2: Perla plans to buy licensed software in the U.S. using royalties from the sale of her book on computer ethics, and donate the software to her alma mater.

Egoism: From egoism point-of-view, we may say that Perla only wants to be praised by her former teachers and classmates. Moreover, she also desires to be famous for what she would be doing. Thus, her work, the computer ethics book for instance, would be recognized also and the sales of her book would be increased.

Altruism: Perla initially wants to donate something good for her alma mater and such action is altruistic in nature. However, Perla’s decision to donate would still be based on the sales of her book. She did not fully pledge to buy the software through her own money. With this, we can say that Perla’s motive is not strictly an altruistic act.

Case 3: Marjo wants to create a virus that would affect only laptop operations.

Egoism: Someone once said that being known as a computer hacker or for having created computer viruses is not at all derogatory. Some consider it as a compliment and that it somehow fulfill self-satisfaction. By making a special virus, Marjo thinks that he would be superior and become famous for his creation.

Altruism: When such virus starts attacking laptops only, laptop sales will surely dropdown. With this, personal computers will be more preferred by computer buyers, and therefore, manufacturers of personal computers will be very much happy about it since their profit will increase.

Case 4: Baba debugged a secret code of the NBI that allowed her to access all computer systems of the agency. She plans to sabotage the whole system as a form of revenge for what she considers to be the NBI’s violation of her human rights.

Egoism: Baba committed a computer crime for intruding the computer systems of NBI, which maybe unethical to others. However, on Baba’s personal point-of-view, the reason why he did that was because he wants to get justice for NBI’s violation of her human rights. With the interest of doing a personal vendetta of some sort, Baba’s act is a form of egoism.

Altruism: Part of Baba’s intentions in hacking the computer systems is to teach NBI a “lesson” and hoping that they would not repeat the injustices that he experienced from them in the future. Thus, he protects others by not allowing them to experience what he has gone through.

Case 5: Tikya and John-John were contracted to design and develop a website for government agencies in the Philippines at the cost of P1 million. An added feature of the contract is that they would be contracted as computing consultants of the government.

Egoism: It is obvious that Tikya and John-John will benefit from the services that they will render. For one, they will be P1 M richer. They would also have a consulting job which would give them further compensation for their work.

Altruism: Tikya and John-John will help provide easy access of information for the public. With the developed websites, the public will be easily informed of the various services of the government. However, such purpose is only due to the services that were contracted to them by the government. They are not primarily concerned of helping the government, and so, it is not at all altruistic in nature.

References:

Albacea, E. A., Payongayong, T. T, Pinpin, A. V. (2003). Computer Ethics. UPOU.

Egosim. [Online]. Available:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Egoism.

Altruism. [Online]. Available:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Altruism.