The Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) created the ACM Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct to direct computing professionals to act and promote ethical behavior in the profession (ACM, 2018). The ACM Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct is in four sections: General Ethical Principles, Professional Responsibilities, Professional Leadership Principles, and Compliance With the Code (ACM, 2018). This paper will discuss the seven General Ethical Principles and classify them into the three major areas of ethics, privacy, and social justice.
Ethics is a broad subject. Ethics is a human moral value system where an individual’s actions may rightly or wrongly impact other people or groups. Ploug writes about ethics when a person’s actions affect others, and they must give all the information to others about the planned behavior to allow for consent or rejection of such activities. Best practice is making the particularities of a public situation while being sensitive to the moral requirements (2009).
Craig describes privacy in the digital age into three categories: communication, behavior, and our person (2011). What used to be private is now stored digitally. Emails, phone calls, text messages are stored data due to our current technology. Our recorded behaviors in the digital world are possible while our anonymity is changing because of technology such as public cameras, photos, location tracking, and government security policies.
Reed et al. (2010) describe social justice as a “distribution of all rights and responsibilities” (p.21) in every aspect of society with fair treatment and benefits shared between all of society. Social justice shall dissolve social inequalities, and all people in a community can have access to the same benefits of technologies available to all.
General Ethical Principles
Contribute to society and human well-being, acknowledging that all people are stakeholders in computing (ACM, 2018). The first principle is about social justice, and computing should benefit all of humanity regardless of how diverse people and groups are from each other. The first principle also mentions autonomy, health, safety, and sustainability considered on the broader social justice scale what computing professionals produce is in-line with public well-being.
Avoid Harm (ACM, 2018). The second principle is also related to social justice by being extra diligent in mitigating and controlling adverse outcomes from technology as not to cause any unseen or intended harm. Avoiding harm can also be considered ethics from a moral standpoint to be morally responsible for caring for the well-being of others.
Be honest and trustworthy (ACM, 2018). The third principle is an ethical concept because it is how one acts toward others. Open and transparent so others can consent or not consent to actions that will affect them personally. The third principle discloses and answers what, why, when, how about the activities.
Be fair and take action not to discriminate (ACM, 2018). The fourth principle is a social justice concept and means to treat all people and groups equally with respect and openness by providing equal opportunities for all to use and participate in the technologies without discrimination or harassment.
Respect the work required to produce new ideas, inventions, creative works, and computing artifacts (ACM, 2018). The fifth principle is about social justice by the value society is given from the original and innovative efforts of computing professionals. However, the fifth principle states mutual respect among professionals who have created new inventions to give credit to others while not falsely taking praise for work that was primarily done by others, mainly if it was open to the public in the first place. The fifth principle can also be considered an ethical concept of integrity. Citing another’s work and obtaining permission to use without falsely taking full credit for other’s original ideas.
Respect privacy (ACM, 2018). The sixth principle is clear. However, the interpretation of privacy needs specific defining. Respecting privacy involves using, storing, merging, and consenting to use personal information. Authorization is always required to proceed with the use of other persons or groups, personally identifiable information. Protecting the privacy rights of others is paramount, and precautions shall be in place to protect data.
Honor confidentiality (ACM, 2018). The seventh principle is a privacy concept and on behalf of the individual or groups. The principle states, reliably, there will be no disclosure of information, whether it is private or invested interests, including the privacy of a larger group such as a corporation, government, research institutions, etc. A breach of confidentiality is also breaking regulations and other legal protections by the law. Such information could go against the moral values of a person if considering disclosing confidential information. Thus extreme discretion should be used when working with private information.
In conclusion, the seven classified principles outlined all fall under ethics, privacy, and social justice. Most policies are well-defined, and classification is typically one or the other, while some code principles have two categories of classification. Either way, the concept is clear how the professionals shall act and avoid and be aware of issues that can arise between ethics, privacy, and social justice while handling data and technologies available today.
References
ACM (2018). ACM code of ethics and professional conduct. Retrieved from: https://www.acm.org/code-of-ethics#h-2.9-design-and-implement-systems-that-are-robustly-and-usably-secure.
Craig, T. (2011). Privacy and big data. https://doi.org/10.1080/19393555.2012.706866
Davis, K. (2012). Ethics of big data: Balancing risk and innovation. (pp. 17-18). https://doi.org/10.5555/2432198
Ploug, T. (2009). Ethics in cyberspace: how cyberspace may influence interpersonal interaction. (pp.191-192). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-90-481-2370-4
Reed, K., Hemphill, B., Ashe, A., Brandt, L., Estes, J., Foster, L., & Slater, D. (2010). Occupational therapy code of ethics and ethics standards. American Journal of Occupational Therapy, 64, (pp. 21-22). https://doi:10.5014/ajot.2010.64s17-64s26