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    Ethics in A Computing Culture: Computing and Vulnerable Groups

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    Joseph Cailao
    This document discusses how computing technologies can harm vulnerable groups and why it is important to consider these groups. It covers several cases involving technologies that could negatively impact people with disabilities, medical issues, legal limitations, minority statuses, or physical frailties. The document argues for designing technologies that are accessible, do not threaten security or privacy, avoid discrimination, and account for vulnerable users.

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    Ethics in A Computing Culture: Computing and Vulnerable Groups

    Uploaded by

    Joseph Cailao
    189 views15 pages
    This document discusses how computing technologies can harm vulnerable groups and why it is important to consider these groups. It covers several cases involving technologies that could negatively impact people with disabilities, medical issues, legal limitations, minority statuses, or physical frailties. The document argues for designing technologies that are accessible, do not threaten security or privacy, avoid discrimination, and account for vulnerable users.

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    9781111531102_PPT_ch08

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    This document discusses how computing technologies can harm vulnerable groups and why it is important to consider these groups. It covers several cases involving technologies that could negatively impact people with disabilities, medical issues, legal limitations, minority statuses, or physical frailties. The document argues for designing technologies that are accessible, do not threaten security or privacy, avoid discrimination, and account for vulnerable users.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PPT, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as ppt, pdf, or txt
    189 views15 pages

    Ethics in A Computing Culture: Computing and Vulnerable Groups

    Uploaded by

    Joseph Cailao
    This document discusses how computing technologies can harm vulnerable groups and why it is important to consider these groups. It covers several cases involving technologies that could negatively impact people with disabilities, medical issues, legal limitations, minority statuses, or physical frailties. The document argues for designing technologies that are accessible, do not threaten security or privacy, avoid discrimination, and account for vulnerable users.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PPT, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as ppt, pdf, or txt
    of 15

    Ethics in a Computing Culture

    Chapter 8
    Computing and Vulnerable Groups
    Objectives
    • How can the work of computer professionals harm
    vulnerable members?
    • How is paying attention to vulnerable populations
    beneficial?
    • How are the arguments of theorists applied in order to
    protect vulnerable members of society?

    Ethics in a Computing Culture 2


    Why Pay Special Attention to
    Vulnerable Groups?

    • What types of assistance does your school provide to


    students from vulnerable groups?

    Ethics in a Computing Culture 3


    The Threat Analysis Method
    • Threat analysis: an attempt to systematically identify
    the ways that a technology might be vulnerable to a
    malicious attack
    – Who might want to abuse this system?
    – Why might they want to abuse a system?

    • Vulnerabilities: potential avenues of attack

    Ethics in a Computing Culture 4


    Case: Should Gun Camera
    Videos be Public?
    • Does the existence of gun cameras make soldiers
    vulnerable to harm that they otherwise would not
    experience?

    Ethics in a Computing Culture 5


    People with Impaired, or Legally
    Limited, Decision-Making Abilities
    • Autonomy: freedom for an entity to make decisions
    without outside constraints or interference

    • Chilling effect: a situation in which one feels pressure


    not to do something, even though it is legal to do so,
    because of fear of prosecution

    Ethics in a Computing Culture 6


    Case: Cell Phones and
    Family Locator Services
    • Locator: anyone who has permission to see the
    locations of others using a family locator service, such as
    via cell phones

    • Locatee: anyone whose cellular phone is being tracked


    – Most families make all adults locators and all children locatees

    • Consider the following claim:


    – “The most moral way to use this technology is for all members of
    the family to be both locators and locatees. That is perfectly fair.”

    Ethics in a Computing Culture 7


    Case: Cell Phones and
    Family Locator Services (continued)
    • Do the benefits of using a family locator service to
    decrease the vulnerability of children outweigh the
    harms?
    – Should the phones of locatees display an icon or message, so
    that the users knows they are being tracked?
    – Should it be possible for locatees to turn off the location feature
    whenever they want?
    – Are the elderly more vulnerable, or less vulnerable, than college
    students?

    Ethics in a Computing Culture 8


    People with Physical
    Limitations or Frailties
    • Accessibility: the degree to which people with disabilities
    can use a given technology

    • Examples of technologies that promote accessibility include:


    – Screen-readers: Software that reads the text on the screen audibly
    – Predictive typing: Software that can tell which word you are trying to
    type based on the first few letters
    – Subtitles: Software that displays the text of any audible dialog
    – High contrast displays: Software that changes the colors of the
    screen to make text easier to read
    – Haptic feedback: User interfaces that make cell phones vibrate
    – Text alternatives for images: On a Web page, provides a text
    description of an image so that a screen-reader can describe an
    image

    Ethics in a Computing Culture 9


    People with Physical
    Limitations or Frailties (continued)

    Ethics in a Computing Culture 10


    Case: Hackers and Implantable
    Medical Devices
    • Given the security vulnerabilities of the ICDs studied by
    Halperin’s team, was it ethically permissible for the ICD
    manufacturer to create and sell the defibrillators?

    • Suppose a software company is designing a


    spreadsheet program. The program designers are
    considering using red to indicate negative numbers
    (instead of a negative symbol) and do not plan to provide
    any other formatting options.
    – Is it morally permissible to create such software?

    Ethics in a Computing Culture 11


    Case: A Right to Gaming?
    • Suppose a software company is designing a video
    game. The game designers are considering using yellow
    and green puzzle pieces and do not plan to provide any
    accommodations for color-blind users.
    – Is it morally permissible to create such software?
    – Is this more or less permissible than the software proposed in
    the previous question?

    Ethics in a Computing Culture 12


    Case: Computer Donations and
    Recycling
    • E-waste: discarded electronic devices
    – Can contain precious metals, as well as toxins
    – If people in developing countries understood the harm they were
    doing to themselves and their children by participating in e-waste
    recycling, do you think they would stop?

    Ethics in a Computing Culture 13


    Members of Minority Groups
    • Is it possible to write a policy that would ban hate
    groups, while not banning other innocent groups?

    • Blizzard’s anti-harassment policies go above and beyond


    what the law ordinarily requires.
    – Should private companies like Blizzard create and enforce
    policies that are different from the law?
    – Or should the police handle all harassment complaints?

    Ethics in a Computing Culture 14


    Case: Sex Selection in India
    • Use a rule utilitarian analysis to explain why the Indian
    government might ban sex selection of babies. In
    particular, what are the consequences for a society if a
    serious imbalance arises between the number of boys
    and number of girls born each year?

    • Indian officials could, if they wanted, ban ultrasound


    sonograms altogether. Should they?
    – Would this benefit female fetuses?
    – Whom would it harm?

    Ethics in a Computing Culture 15

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