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Gift of Fire, A: Social, Legal, and Ethical Issues for Computing Technology, 4th Edition

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Gift of Fire, A: Social, Legal, and Ethical Issues for Computing Technology, 4th Edition

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  • Published Jul 26, 2012 by Pearson.

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Features


  • Focus on solutions to computer-related problems from technology and from markets, management, and law.
  • Discussion of how computers change established institutions and conventions.
  • Comparison of the risks and problems of computer technology with other technologies and non-computerized alternatives.
  • Historical background on many issues.
  • Analysis of ethical issues facing today's computer professionals.
  • Wide range of topics, including some not covered in similar texts.
  • Coverage of current issues and controversies, from multiple perspectives.
  • Problem-solving approach.
  • Many examples from real incidents and cases.
  • The Appendix features two professional codes of ethics for computer science professionals.
  • Shaded "boxes" that describe examples, cases, or historical background.
  • Roughly 350 exercises including review questions, essay questions, activities, and questions for class discussion. 
    • The extensive amount of exercises, many of which are based on real cases, provides a wealth of options for classroom discussion, term paper topics, and further study.

Description

  • Copyright 2013
  • Dimensions: 7" x 9-1/8"
  • Pages: 496
  • Edition: 4th
  • Book
  • ISBN-10: 0-13-249267-9
  • ISBN-13: 978-0-13-249267-6

A Gift of Fire: Social, Legal, and Ethical Issues for Computing Technology, 4e is ideal for courses in Computer Ethics and Computers and Society. It is also a useful reference for computer science professionals or anyone interested in learning more about computing technology and its overarching impact.

Sara Baase explores the social, legal, philosophical, ethical, political, constitutional, and economic implications of computing and the controversies they raise. With a computer scientist's perspective, and with historical context for many issues, she covers the issues students will face both as members of a technological society and as professionals in computer-related fields. A primary goal is to develop computer professionals who understand the implications of what they create and how it fits into society at large. 

Sample Content

Table of Contents

1 Unwrapping the Gift 1
1.1 The Pace of Change . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
1.2 Changes and Unexpected Developments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
1.2.1 Connections: Cellphones, Social Networking, and More . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
1.2.2 E-commerce and Free Stuff . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
1.2.3 Amateur Creative Works: Blogs and Video . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
1.2.4 Artificial Intelligence, Robotics, and Motion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
1.2.5 Tools for Disabled People . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
1.2.6 What Next? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
1.3 Issues and Themes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
1.4 Ethics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
1.4.1 What Is Ethics, Anyway? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
1.4.2 A Variety of Ethical Views . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
1.4.3 Some Important Distinctions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24

2 Privacy 35
2.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
2.1.1 What Is Privacy? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
2.1.2 New Technology, New Risks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
2.1.3 Terminology and Principles for Managing Personal Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
2.1.4 Stolen and Lost Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
2.2 The Fourth Amendment, Expectation of Privacy, and Surveillance Technologies . . . . . . 48
2.2.1 The Fourth Amendment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
2.2.2 New Technologies, Supreme Court Decisions, and Expectation of Privacy . . . . . 50
2.2.3 Search and Seizure of Computers and Phones . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
2.2.4 Video Surveillance and Face Recognition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
2.3 The Business and Social Sectors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
2.3.1 Marketing and Personalization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
2.3.2 Our Social and Personal Activity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
2.3.3 Location Tracking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
2.3.4 A Right to Be Forgotten . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
2.4 Government Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
2.4.1 Databases . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
2.4.2 Public Records: Access versus Privacy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
2.4.3 National ID Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
2.5 Protecting Privacy: Technology, Markets, Rights, and Laws . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
2.5.1 Technology and Markets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
2.5.2 Rights and Law . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
2.5.3 Privacy Regulations in the European Union . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
2.6 Communications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
2.6.1 Wiretapping and Email Protection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
2.6.2 Designing Communications Systems for Interception . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
2.6.3 Secret Intelligence Gathering . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93

3 Freedom of Speech 107
3.1 Communications Paradigms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107
3.1.1 Regulating Communications Media . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108
3.1.2 Free-Speech Principles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110
3.2 Controlling Speech . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111
3.2.1 Offensive Speech: What Is It? What Is Illegal? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111
3.2.2 Censorship Laws and Alternatives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113
3.2.3 Child Pornography and Sexting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117
3.2.4 Spam . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119
3.2.5 Challenging Old Regulatory Structures and Special Interests . . . . . . . . . . . . 122
3.3 Posting, Selling, and Leaking Sensitive Material . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123
3.4 Anonymity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128
3.5 The Global Net: Censorship and Political Freedom . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131
3.5.1 Tools for Communication, Tools for Oppression . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131
3.5.2 Aiding Foreign Censors and Repressive Regimes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133
3.5.3 Shutting Down Communications in Free Countries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135
3.6 Net Neutrality Regulations or the Market? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136

4 Intellectual Property 145
4.1 Principles, Laws, and Cases . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145
4.1.1 What Is Intellectual Property? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145
4.1.2 Challenges of New Technologies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147
4.1.3 A Bit of History . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149
4.1.4 The Fair-Use Doctrine . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151
4.1.5 Ethical Arguments About Copying . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151
4.1.6 Significant Legal Cases . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153
4.2 Responses to Copyright Infringement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 159
4.2.1 Defensive and Aggressive Responses From the Content Industries . . . . . . . . . 159
4.2.2 The Digital Millennium Copyright Act: Anticircumvention . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163
4.2.3 The Digital Millennium Copyright Act: Safe Harbor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165
4.2.4 Evolving Business Models . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167
4.3 Search Engines and Online Libraries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169
4.4 Free Software . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171
4.4.1 What Is Free Software? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171
4.4.2 Should All Software Be Free? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173
4.5 Patents for Inventions in Software . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173
4.5.1 Patent Decisions, Confusion, and Consequences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 174
4.5.2 To Patent or Not? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 176

5 Crime 187
5.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 187
5.2 Hacking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 188
5.2.1 What is “Hacking”? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 188
5.2.2 Hacktivism, or Political Hacking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 192
5.2.3 Hackers as Security Researchers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 193
5.2.4 Hacking as Foreign Policy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 194
5.2.5 Security . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 196
5.2.6 The Law: Catching and Punishing Hackers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 199
5.3 Identity Theft and Credit Card Fraud . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 203
5.3.1 Stealing Identities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 204
5.3.2 Responses to Identity Theft . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 206
5.3.3 Biometrics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 209
5.4 Whose Laws Rule the Web? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 210
5.4.1 When Digital Actions Cross Borders . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 210
5.4.2 Libel, Speech, and Commercial Law . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 213
5.4.3 Culture, Law, and Ethics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 215
5.4.4 Potential Solutions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 216

6 Work 225
6.1 Changes, Fears, and Questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 225
6.2 The Impact on Employment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 226
6.2.1 Job Destruction and Creation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 226
6.2.2 Changing Skills and Skill Levels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 230
6.2.3 Telecommuting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 232
6.2.4 A Global Workforce . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 234
6.3 Employee Communication and Monitoring . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 239
6.3.1 Learning About Job Applicants . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 239
6.3.2 Risks and Rules for Work and Personal Communications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 242
7 Evaluating and Controlling Technology 255
7.1 Evaluating Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 255
7.1.1 The Need for Responsible Judgment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 255
7.1.2 Computer Models . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 262
7.2 The “Digital Divide” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 269
7.2.1 Trends in Computer Access . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 269
7.2.2 The Global Divide and the Next Billion Users . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 271
7.3 Neo-Luddite Views of Computers, Technology, and Quality of Life . . . . . . . . . . . . . 272
7.3.1 Criticisms of Computing Technologies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 272
7.3.2 Views of Economics, Nature, and Human Needs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 275
7.4 Making Decisions About Technology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 281
7.4.1 Questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 281
7.4.2 The Difficulty of Prediction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 282
7.4.3 Intelligent Machines and Superintelligent Humans–Or the End of the Human Race?285
7.4.4 A Few Observations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 287

8 Errors, Failures, and Risks 299
8.1 Failures and Errors in Computer Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 299
8.1.1 An Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 299
8.1.2 Problems for Individuals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 301
8.1.3 System Failures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 305
8.1.4 What Goes Wrong? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 311
8.2 Case Study: The Therac-25 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 313
8.2.1 Therac-25 Radiation Overdoses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 313
8.2.2 Software and Design Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 314
8.2.3 Why So Many Incidents? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 315
8.2.4 Observations and Perspective . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 316
8.3 Increasing Reliability and Safety . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 317
8.3.1 Professional Techniques . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 317
8.3.2 Trust the Human or the Computer System? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 321
8.3.3 Law, Regulation, and Markets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 322
8.4 Dependence, Risk, and Progress . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 325
8.4.1 Are We Too Dependent On Computers? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 325
8.4.2 Risk and Progress . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 326

9 Professional Ethics and Responsibilities 335
9.1 What Is “Professional Ethics”? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 335
9.2 Ethical Guidelines for Computer Professionals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 336
9.2.1 Special Aspects of Professional Ethics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 336
9.2.2 Professional Codes of Ethics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 337
9.2.3 Guidelines and Professional Responsibilities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 338
9.3 Scenarios . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 340
9.3.1 Introduction and Methodology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 340
9.3.2 Protecting Personal Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 342
9.3.3 Designing an Email System With Targeted Ads . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 343
9.3.4 Webcams in School Laptops . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 344
9.3.5 Publishing Security Vulnerabilities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 345
9.3.6 Specifications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 346
9.3.7 Schedule Pressures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 347
9.3.8 Software License Violation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 349
9.3.9 Going Public . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 350
9.3.10 Release of Personal Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 351
9.3.11 Conflict of Interest . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 352
9.3.12 Kickbacks and Disclosure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 353
9.3.13 A Test Plan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 354
9.3.14 Artificial Intelligence and Sentencing Criminals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 354
9.3.15 A Gracious Host . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 356

Epilogue 363

A The Software Engineering Code and the ACM Code 365
A.1 The Software Engineering Code of Ethics and Professional Practice . . . . . . . . . . . . 365
A.2 The ACM Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 370

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Security


Pearson uses appropriate physical, administrative and technical security measures to protect personal information from unauthorized access, use and disclosure.

Children


This site is not directed to children under the age of 13.

Marketing


Pearson may send or direct marketing communications to users, provided that

  • Pearson will not use personal information collected or processed as a K-12 school service provider for the purpose of directed or targeted advertising.
  • Such marketing is consistent with applicable law and Pearson's legal obligations.
  • Pearson will not knowingly direct or send marketing communications to an individual who has expressed a preference not to receive marketing.
  • Where required by applicable law, express or implied consent to marketing exists and has not been withdrawn.

Pearson may provide personal information to a third party service provider on a restricted basis to provide marketing solely on behalf of Pearson or an affiliate or customer for whom Pearson is a service provider. Marketing preferences may be changed at any time.

Correcting/Updating Personal Information


If a user's personally identifiable information changes (such as your postal address or email address), we provide a way to correct or update that user's personal data provided to us. This can be done on the Account page. If a user no longer desires our service and desires to delete his or her account, please contact us at customer-service@informit.com and we will process the deletion of a user's account.

Choice/Opt-out


Users can always make an informed choice as to whether they should proceed with certain services offered by InformIT. If you choose to remove yourself from our mailing list(s) simply visit the following page and uncheck any communication you no longer want to receive: www.informit.com/u.aspx.

Sale of Personal Information


Pearson does not rent or sell personal information in exchange for any payment of money.

While Pearson does not sell personal information, as defined in Nevada law, Nevada residents may email a request for no sale of their personal information to NevadaDesignatedRequest@pearson.com.

Supplemental Privacy Statement for California Residents


California residents should read our Supplemental privacy statement for California residents in conjunction with this Privacy Notice. The Supplemental privacy statement for California residents explains Pearson's commitment to comply with California law and applies to personal information of California residents collected in connection with this site and the Services.

Sharing and Disclosure


Pearson may disclose personal information, as follows:

  • As required by law.
  • With the consent of the individual (or their parent, if the individual is a minor)
  • In response to a subpoena, court order or legal process, to the extent permitted or required by law
  • To protect the security and safety of individuals, data, assets and systems, consistent with applicable law
  • In connection the sale, joint venture or other transfer of some or all of its company or assets, subject to the provisions of this Privacy Notice
  • To investigate or address actual or suspected fraud or other illegal activities
  • To exercise its legal rights, including enforcement of the Terms of Use for this site or another contract
  • To affiliated Pearson companies and other companies and organizations who perform work for Pearson and are obligated to protect the privacy of personal information consistent with this Privacy Notice
  • To a school, organization, company or government agency, where Pearson collects or processes the personal information in a school setting or on behalf of such organization, company or government agency.

Links


This web site contains links to other sites. Please be aware that we are not responsible for the privacy practices of such other sites. We encourage our users to be aware when they leave our site and to read the privacy statements of each and every web site that collects Personal Information. This privacy statement applies solely to information collected by this web site.

Requests and Contact


Please contact us about this Privacy Notice or if you have any requests or questions relating to the privacy of your personal information.

Changes to this Privacy Notice


We may revise this Privacy Notice through an updated posting. We will identify the effective date of the revision in the posting. Often, updates are made to provide greater clarity or to comply with changes in regulatory requirements. If the updates involve material changes to the collection, protection, use or disclosure of Personal Information, Pearson will provide notice of the change through a conspicuous notice on this site or other appropriate way. Continued use of the site after the effective date of a posted revision evidences acceptance. Please contact us if you have questions or concerns about the Privacy Notice or any objection to any revisions.

Last Update: November 17, 2020