4 Legal and ethical issues and database systemsOrganizations are increasingly faced with difficult questions about the behavior and character of their employees and how their activities are conducted. At the same time, we need to develop knowledge of what constitutes professional and non-professional behaviour. ©Pearson Education 2009 5 Ethics in the Context of Information TechnologyEthics – A set of principles of right behavior or a theory or system of moral values. May consider ethical behavior to be „doing the right thing“ by societal standards. This, of course, raises the question of „by which society“, since what might be considered ethical behavior in one culture (country, religion, and ethnicity) might not be considered ethical behavior in another. ©Pearson Education 2009 21 Intellectual Property Rights (IPR)Why is it important to note this? understand your own right or the right of your organization as a producer of original ideas and works; Recognize the value of original works; understand the procedures for protecting and using these works; knowledge of the legal measures that can be taken to defend against the illegal use of these works; Be fair and reasonable about the lawful use of your work for charitable purposes. ©Pearson Education 2009 16 Building a culture of legal and ethical data management Executives such as board members, chairmen, chief information officers (CIOs) and data custodians are increasingly responsible for violations of these laws. The steps to consider are: Develop an organization-wide policy for legal and ethical behavior. Professional associations and codes of ethics. ©Pearson Education 2009 6 The Difference Between Ethical and Legal BehaviourLaws can be seen as a simple application of certain ethical behaviours. This leads to two well-known ideas: what is ethical is legal and what is unethical is illegal. Consider – Is any unethical behavior illegal? Is all ethical behavior legal? Codes of ethics help determine whether certain laws should be passed. Ethics bridges the gap between when technology creates new problems and when laws are introduced.
©Pearson Education 2009 19 Intellectual Property Patents – grants an exclusive (statutory) right to make, use, sell or import an invention for a specified period of time. Patents are granted by a government when a person or organization can prove: that the invention is new; the invention is useful in some way; The invention involves an inventive step. ©Pearson Education 2009 In order to analyze confidential data without compromising privacy, the University of Tartu has developed a Sharemind database and analysis system that works with encrypted data without decrypting it. There are many ethical issues related to the collection, storage and protection of data in databases. Companies collect and store a wealth of customer information in their databases. These ethical issues related to this data in databases can be examined from three angles: The ethical responsibility of companies towards customers revolves around collecting only the necessary data from customers, adequately protecting customer data, limiting the exchange of customer data and correcting errors in customer data. The ethical responsibility of employees is to avoid browsing customer data or records unless necessity requires not selling customer data to competitors and not sharing customer data with related parties. Customers also have ethical responsibilities when it comes to providing data to the companies they deal with. This includes providing accurate and complete data where such data is necessary and maintaining the obligation not to disclose or use the company data to which they have access. Each of these types of responsibilities is explained in detail in the following sections.
This discussion of ethical issues is not intended to list and describe all ethical issues related to databases, but. 17 Intellectual Property (IP)It is important that data and database administrators, as well as business analysts and software developers, recognize and understand intellectual property issues to ensure that their ideas can be protected and that the rights of others are not violated. Intellectual property is the product of human creativity in the industrial, scientific, literary and artistic fields. ©Pearson Education 2009 2 Objectives How ethical and legal issues can be defined in information technology. Distinguish between legal and ethical issues and situations faced by data/database administrators. How new regulations impose additional demands and responsibilities on data/database administrators. ©Pearson Education 2009 23 Intellectual Property Rights (IPR)It is also necessary to consider the data that an organization potentially collects, processes and shares with its business partners. In collaboration with senior management and legal counsel, data custodians must define and enforce policies that govern when data can be shared and how it can be used within the organization ©.
Pearson Education 2009 7 Ethical Behavior in Information Technology A survey conducted by TechRepublic, an IT-centric web portal from CNET Networks (techrepublic.com), found that 57% of IT staff surveyed said their superiors told them to do something „unethical“ (Thornberry, 2002). Examples include installing counterfeit software, accessing personal information, and disclosing trade secrets. ©Pearson Education 2009 3 Goals How laws such as Sarbanes-Oxley and BASEL II affect data and database management functions. Best practices for preparing and supporting audit and compliance functions. Intellectual property (IP) issues related to informatics and data and database administration.