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Ethics of technology

Ethics of technology is a sub-field of ethics addressing the ethical questions specific to the Technology Age, the transitional shift in society where personal computers and subsequent devices have been introduced to provide users an easy and quick way to transfer information. Ethics in technology has become an evolving topic over the years as technology has development.

When we think of ethical issues, we do not usually think about technology. Even though it is not on the top of our minds when we think about ethical issues, technology poses an ethical dilemma on producers and consumers alike. The subject of technoethics, or the ethical implications of technology, have been studied by different philosophers such as Hans Jonas and Mario Bunge.

This article will walk through what technoethics is, the different types of technoethics within application areas, the history of technoethics, general ethical challenges, current technoethical issues, recent and future developments, and future considerations of technoethics. This article discusses many different topics and types of technology that is currently in use within our society and discusses the ethical implication of each of these technologies.

Definitions

• Technoethics (TE) is an interdisciplinary research area that draws on theories and methods from multiple knowledge domains (such as communications, social sciences information studies, technology studies, applied ethics, and philosophy) to provide insights on ethical dimensions of technological systems and practices for advancing a technological society.

Technoethics views technology and ethics as socially embedded enterprises and focuses on discovering the ethical uses for technology, protecting against the misuse of technology , and devising common principles to guide new advances in technological development and application to benefit society. Typically, scholars in technoethics have a tendency to conceptualize technology and ethics as interconnected and embedded in life and society. Technoethics denotes a broad range of ethical issues revolving around technology – from specific areas of focus affecting professionals working with technology to broader social, ethical, and legal issues concerning the role of technology in society and everyday life.

• Ethics address the issues of what is 'right', what is 'just', and what is 'fair'. Ethics describe moral principles influencing conduct; accordingly, the study of ethics focuses on the actions and values of people in society (what people do and how they believe they should act in the world).

• Technology is the branch of knowledge that deals with the creation and use of technical means and their interrelation with life, society, and the environment; it may draw upon a variety of fields, including industrial arts, engineering, applied science, and pure science. Technology "is core to human development and a key focus for understanding human life, society and human consciousness." "

Using theories and methods from multiple domains, technoethics provides insights on ethical aspects of technological systems and practices, examines technology-related social policies and interventions, and provides guidelines for how to ethically use new advancements in technology. Technoethics provides a systems theory and methodology to guide a variety of separate areas of inquiry into human-technological activity and ethics. Moreover, the field unites both technocentric and bio-centric philosophies, providing "conceptual grounding to clarify the role of technology to those affected by it and to help guide ethical problem solving and decision making in areas of activity that rely on technology." As a bio-techno-centric field, technoethics "has a relational orientation to both technology and human activity"; it provides "a system of ethical reference that justifies that profound dimension of technology as a central element in the attainment of a 'finalized' perfection of man."

Types of Technology Ethics

Technology ethics are principles that can be used to govern technology including factors like risk management and individual rights. They are basically used to understand and resolve moral issues that have to do with the development and application of technology of different types.

There are many types of technology ethics:

• Access rights: access to empowering technology as a right
• Accountability: decisions made for who is responsible when considering success or harm in technological advancements
• Digital Rights: protecting intellectual property rights and privacy rights
• Environment: how to produce technology that could harm the environment
• Existential Risk: technologies that represent a threat to the global quality of life pertaining to extinction
• Freedom: technology that is used to control a society raising questions related to freedom and independence
• Health & Safety: health and safety risks that are increased and imposed by technologies
• Human Enhancement: human genetic engineering and human-machine integration
• Human Judgement: when can decisions be judged by automation and when do they acquire a reasonable human?
• Over-Automation: when does automation decrease quality of life and start affecting society?
• Precaution Principle: Who decides that developing this new technology is safe for the world?
• Privacy: protection of privacy rights
• Security: Is due diligence required to ensure information security?
• Self Replicating Technology: should self replicating be the norm?
• Technology Transparency: clearly explaining how a technology works and what its intentions are
• Terms of Service: ethics related to legal agreements

Ethical challenges

Ethical challenges arise in many different situations:

• Human knowledge processes
• Workplace discrimination
• Strained work life balance in technologically enhanced work environments: Many people find that simply having the technology to allow you to do work while at home increases stress levels. In a recent study 70% of respondents said that since technology, work has creeped into their personal lives. Since so many people have found this to be an issue, it is very important to find that medium. For instance, by not answering non-urgent work matters over the weekends or on holiday, unless an urgent matter. In order to reach the ethical portion of having technology in the work place, it is vital to keep work and personal life separate, again unless an urgent matter.
• digital divide: Inequalities in information access for parts of the population
• Unequal opportunities for scientific and technological development
• Norris says access to information and knowledge resources within a knowledge society tend to favour the economically privileged who have greater access to technological tools needed to access information and knowledge resources disseminated online and the privatization of knowledge
• Inequality in terms of how scientific and technological knowledge is developed around the globe. Developing countries do not have the same opportunities as developed countries to invest in costly large-scale research and expensive research facilities and instrumentation
• Organizational responsibility and accountability issues
• Intellectual property issues: When is comes to intellectual property in order to ethically own something it must be represented on a tangible device such as putting a design on paper. By copying someone else's design you are taking away someone else's design which is unethical.
• Information overload: Information processing theory is working memory that has a limited capacity and too much information can lead to cognitive overload resulting in loss of information from short term memory
• Limit an organization's ability to innovate and respond for change
• Knowledge society is intertwined with changing technology requiring new skills of its workforce. Cutler says that there is the perception that older workers lack experience with new technology and that retaining programs may be less effective and more expensive for older workers. Cascio says that there is a growth of virtual organizations. Saetre & Sornes say that it is a blurring of the traditional time and space boundaries has also led to many cases in the blurring of work and personal life
• Negative impacts of many scientific and technological innovations have on humans and the environment has led to some skepticism and resistance to increasing dependence on technology within the Knowledge Society. Doucet calls for city empowerment to have the courage and foresight to make decisions that are acceptable to its inhabitants rather that succumb to global consumer capitalism and the forces of international corporations on national and local governments
• Scientific and technological innovations that have transformed organizational life within a global economy have also supplanted human autonomy and control in work within a technologically oriented workplace
• The persuasive potential of technology raises the question of "how sensitive ... designers and programmers [should] be to the ethics of the persuasive technology they design." Technoethics can be used to determine the level of ethical responsibility that should be associated with outcomes of the use of technology, whether intended or unintended
• Rapidly changing organizational life and the history of unethical business practices have given rise to public debates concerning organizational responsibility and trust. The advent of virtual organizations and telework has bolstered ethical problems by providing more opportunities for fraudulent behaviour and the production of misinformation. Concerted efforts are required to uphold ethical values in advancing new knowledge and tools within societal relations which do not exclude people or limit liberties of some people at the expense of others
• Artificial Intelligence: Artificial Intelligence seems to be the one of the most talked of challenges when it comes ethics. In order to avoid these ethical challenges some solutions have been established; first and for most it should be developed for the common good and benefit of humanity. Secondly, it should operate on principles of intelligibility and fairness. It should also not be used to diminish the data rights or privacy of individuals, families, or communities. It is also believed that all citizens should have the right to be educated on artificial intelligence in order to be able to understand it. Finally, the autonomous power to hurt, destroy, or deceive humans should never be vested in artificial intelligence.

Current issues

Copyright

Digital copyrights are a complicated issue because there are multiple sides to the discussion. There are ethical considerations surrounding the artist, producer, and end user. Not to mention the relationships with other countries and the impact on the use of content housed in their countries. In Canada, national laws such as the Copyright Act and the history behind Bill C-32 are just the beginning of the government's attempt to shape the "wild west" of Canadian Internet activities. The ethical considerations behind Internet activities such a peer-to-peer file sharing involve every layer of the discussion – the consumer, artist, producer, music/movie/software industry, national government, and international relations. Overall, technoethics forces the "big picture" approach to all discussions on technology in society. Although time consuming, this "big picture" approach offers some level of reassurance when considering that any law put in place could drastically alter the way we interact with our technology and thus the direction of work and innovation in the country.

The use of copyrighted material to create new content is a hotly debated topic. The emergence of the musical "mashup" genre has compounded the issue of creative licensing. A moral conflict is created between those who believe that copyright protects any unauthorized use of content, and those who maintain that sampling and mash-ups are acceptable musical styles and, though they use portions of copyrighted material, the end result is a new creative piece which is the property of the creator, and not of the original copyright holder. Whether or not the mashup genre should be allowed to use portions of copyrighted material to create new content is one which is currently under debate.

Cybercriminality

Main article: Computer crime

For many years , new technologies took an important place in social, cultural, political, and economic life. Thanks to the democratization of informatics access and the network's globalization, the number of exchanges and transaction is in perpetual progress.

Many people are exploiting the facilities and anonymity that modern technologies offer in order to commit multiple criminal activities. Cybercrime is one of the fastest growing areas of crime. The problem is that some laws that profess to protect people from those who would do wrong things via digital means also threaten to take away people's freedom.

Privacy vs. security: Full-body airport scanners

Since the introduction of full body X-ray scanners to airports in 2007, many concerns over traveler privacy have arisen. Individuals are asked to step inside a rectangular machine that takes an alternate wavelength image of the person's naked body for the purpose of detecting metal and non-metal objects being carried under the clothes of the traveler. This screening technology comes in two forms, millimeter wave technology (MM-wave technology) or backscatter X-rays (similar to x-rays used by dentists). Full-body scanners were introduced into airports to increase security and improve the quality of screening for objects such as weapons or explosives due to an increase of terrorist attacks involving airplanes occurring in the early 2000s.

Ethical concerns of both travelers and academic groups include fear of humiliation due to the disclosure of anatomic or medical details, exposure to a low level of radiation (in the case of backscatter X-ray technology), violation of modesty and personal privacy, clarity of operating procedures, the use of this technology to discriminate against groups, and potential misuse of this technology for reasons other than detecting concealed objects. Also people with religious beliefs that require them to remain physically covered (arms, legs, face etc.) at all times will be unable and morally opposed to stepping inside of this virtually intrusive scanning technology. The Centre for Society, Science and Citizenship have discussed their ethical concerns including the ones mentioned above and suggest recommendations for the use of this technology in their report titled "Whole Body Imaging at airport checkpoints: the ethical and policy context" (2010).

Privacy and GPS technologies

The discourse around GPS tracking devices and geolocation technologies and this contemporary technology's ethical ramifications on privacy is growing as the technology becomes more prevalent in society. As discussed in the New York Times's Sunday Review on September 22, 2012, the editorial focused on the ethical ramifications that imprisoned a drug offender because of the GPS technology in his cellphone was able to locate the criminal's position. Now that most people carry on the person a cell, the authorities have the ability to constantly know the location of a large majority of citizens. The ethical discussion now can be framed from a legal perspective. As raised in the editorial, there are stark infractions that these geolocation devices on citizens' Fourth Amendment and their protection against unreasonable searches. This reach of this issue is not just limited to the United States but affects more democratic state that uphold similar citizens' rights and freedoms against unreasonable searches.

These geolocation technologies are not only affecting how citizens interact with their state but also how employees interact with their workplaces. As discussed in article by the Canadian Broadcasting Company, "GPS and privacy", that a growing number of employers are installing geolocation technologies in "company vehicles, equipment and cellphones" (Hein, 2007). Both academia and unions are finding these new powers of employers to be indirect contradiction with civil liberties. This changing relationship between employee and employer because of the integration of GPS technology into popular society is demonstrating a larger ethical discussion on what are appropriate privacy levels. This discussion will only become more prevalent as the technology becomes more popular.

Genetically modified organisms

Genetically modified foods have become quite common in developed countries around the world, boasting greater yields, higher nutritional value, and greater resistance to pests, but there are still many ethical concerns regarding their use. Even commonplace genetically modified crops like corn raise questions of the ecological consequences of unintended cross pollination, potential horizontal gene transfer, and other unforeseen health concerns for humans and animals.

Trademarked organisms like the "Glofish" are a relatively new occurrence. These zebrafish, genetically modified to appear in several fluorescent colours and sold as pets in the United States, could have unforeseen effects on freshwater environments were they ever to breed in the wild.

Providing they receive approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), another new type of fish may be arriving soon. The "AquAdvantage salmon", engineered to reach maturity within roughly 18 months (as opposed to three years in the wild), could help meet growing global demand. There are health and environmental concerns associated with the introduction any new GMO, but more importantly this scenario highlights the potential economic impact a new product may have. The FDA does perform an economic impact analysis to weigh, for example, the consequences these new genetically modified fish may have on the traditional salmon fishing industry against the long term gain of a cheaper, more plentiful source of salmon. These technoethical assessments, which regulatory organizations like the FDA are increasingly faced with worldwide, are vitally important in determining how GMOs—with all of their potential beneficial and harmful effects—will be handled moving forward.

Pregnancy screening technology

For over 40 years, newborn screening has been a triumph of the 20th century public health system. Through this technology, millions of parents are given the opportunity to screen for and test a number of disorders, sparing the death of their children or complications such as mental retardation. However, this technology is growing at a fast pace, disallowing researchers and practitioners from being able to fully understand how to treat diseases and provide families in need with the resources to cope.

A version of pre-natal testing, called tandem mass spectrometry, is a procedure that "measures levels and patterns of numerous metabolites in a single drop of blood, which are then used to identify potential diseases. Using this same drop of blood, tandem mass spectrometry enables the detection of at least four times the number of disorders than was possible with previous technologies." This allows for a cost-effective and fast method of pre-natal testing.

However, critics of tandem mass spectrometry and technologies like it are concerned about the adverse consequences of expanding newborn screen technology and the lack of appropriate research and infrastructure needed to provide optimum medical services to patients. Further concerns include "diagnostic odysseys", a situation in which the patient aimlessly continues to search for diagnoses where none exists.

Among other consequences, this technology raises the issue of whether individuals other than newborn will benefit from newborn screening practices. A reconceptualization of the purpose of this screening will have far reaching economic, health and legal impact. This discussion is only just beginning and requires informed citizenry to reach legal if not moral consensus on how far we as a society are comfortable with taking this technology.

Citizen journalism

Main article: Citizen journalism

Citizen journalism is a concept describing citizens who wish to act as a professional journalist or media person by "collecting, reporting, analyzing, and disseminating news and information" According to Jay Rosen, citizen journalists are "the people formerly known as the audience," who "were on the receiving end of a media system that ran one way, in a broadcasting pattern, with high entry fees and a few firms competing to speak very loudly while the rest of the population listened in isolation from one another— and who today are not in a situation like that at all. ... The people formerly known as the audience are simply the public made realer, less fictional, more able, less predictable".

The internet has provided society with a modern and accessible public space. Due to the openness of the internet, there are discernible effects on the traditional profession of journalism. Although the concept of citizen journalism is a seasoned one, "the presence of online citizen journalism content in the marketplace may add to the diversity of information that citizens have access to when making decisions related to the betterment of their community or their life". The emergence of online citizen journalism is fueled by the growing use of social media websites to share information about current events and issues locally, nationally and internationally.

The open and instantaneous nature of the internet affects the criteria of information quality on the web. A journalistic code of ethics is not instilled for those who are practicing citizen journalism. Journalists, whether professional or citizen, have needed to adapt to new priorities of current audiences: accessibility, quantity of information, quick delivery and aesthetic appeal. Thus, technology has affected the ethical code of the profession of journalism with the popular free and instant sharing qualities of the internet. Professional journalists have had to adapt to these new practices to ensure that truthful and quality reporting is being distributed. The concept can be seen as a great advancement in how society communicates freely and openly or can be seen as contributing to the decay of traditional journalistic practices and codes of ethics.

Other issues to consider:

• Privacy concerns: location services on cell devices which tell all users where a person is should they decide to turn on this feature, social media, online banking, new capabilities of cellular devices, Wi-fi, etc.
• New music technology: People see more electronic music today with the new technology able to create it, as well as more advanced recording technology

Recent developments

Despite the amassing body of scholarly work related to technoethics beginning in the 1970s, only recently has it become institutionalized and recognized as an important interdisciplinary research area and field of study. In 1998, the Epson Foundation founded the Instituto de Tecnoética in Spain under the direction of Josep Esquirol. This institute has actively promoted technoethical scholarship through awards, conferences, and publications. This helped encourage scholarly work for a largely European audience. The major driver for the emergence of technoethics can be attributed to the publication of major reference works available in English and circulated globally. The "Encyclopedia of Science, Technology, and Ethics" included a section on technoethics which helped bring it into mainstream philosophy. This helped to raise further interest leading to the publication of the first reference volume in the English language dedicated to the emerging field of Technoethics. The two volume Handbook of Research on Technoethics explores the complex connections between ethics and the rise of new technologies (e.g., life-preserving technologies, stem cell research, cloning technologies, new forms of surveillance and anonymity, computer networks, Internet advancement, etc.) This recent major collection provides the first comprehensive examination of technoethics and its various branches from over 50 scholars around the globe. The emergence of technoethics can be juxtaposed with a number of other innovative interdisciplinary areas of scholarship which have surfaced in recent years such as technoscience and technocriticism.

Technology and Ethics in the Music Industry

With all the developments we've had in technology it has created a lot advancement for the music industry both positive and negative. A main concern is piracy and illegal downloading; with all that is available through the internet a lot of music (TV shows and movies as well) have become easily accessible to download and upload for free. This does create new challenges for artist, producers, and copyright laws. The advances it has positively made for the industry is a whole new genre of music. Computers are being used to create electronic music, as well as synthesizers (computerized/electronic piano). This type of music is becoming rapidly more common and listened to. These advances have allowed the industry to try new things and make new explorations.

Technology and Ethics During the Coronavirus Pandemic

The world has greatly changed since March 2020. As the world adapts to a new normal, technology has been emerging to help combat this pandemic. I thought adding the ethics behind using technology, especially contact tracing apps, to slow the spread of coronavirus would be a great addition section to this article. I have done some research on my own, I would appreciate if other Wiki contributors provided more information, guidance, or edits to this.

As the world has dealt with the emergence of the coronavirus pandemic, we have turned to technology to help slow down the spread and track the infected or exposed. Many countries have utilized CCTV cameras, drones, credit card information, and location data from cell phones and contract tracing apps . In theory, this is a valuable way to track infected and exposed people with coronavirus but is it an infringement on your privacy? Will the tracking end when you are not infected or exposed? Will you be aware that you are being tracked? How can you feel safe that the government is not tracking you anymore?

As of April 20, 2020 there has been over 43 contract tracing apps available globally. Countries are in the process of creating their own methods of digitally tracing coronavirus status (symptoms, confirmed infected, exposed). Apple and Google are working together on a shared solution that helps with contract tracing around the world. Since this is a global pandemic with no end in sight, the restriction of some fundamental rights and freedoms may be ethically justifiable. It may be unethical to not use these tracing solutions to slow the spread. The European Convention on Human Rights, the United Nations International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and the United Nations Siracusa Principles all indicate when it is ethical to restrict the rights of the population to prevent the spread of infectious disease. All three documents cite that the circumstances for restricting rights must be time-bound, meet standards of necessity, proportionality, and scientific validity. We must evaluate if the gravity of the situation justifies the potential negative impact, if the evidence shows that the technology will work, is timely, will be adopted by enough people and yields accurate data and insights, and evaluate if the technology will only be temporary. These three documents also provide guidelines on how to ethically develop and design technologies. The development and design guidelines are important for being effective and for security reasons.

Even though these three bodies of government can deem contact tracing ethical, all these contact tracing apps come with a price. They are collecting sensitive personal data including health data. This poses a threat to violate HIPPA and PII if not handled and processed correctly. Even if these apps are only used temporarily, they are storing permanent records of health, movements, and social interactions. Not only do we have to consider the ethical implications of your personal information being stored, but we must also look at the accessibility and digital literacy of the users. Not everyone has access to a smartphone or a cell phone. If we are developing smartphone applications, we will be missing a huge portion of coronavirus data.

Covid-19 (Coronavirus)

While it may be necessary to utilize technology to slow the spread of coronavirus, the Government needs to design and deploy the technology in a way that does not breach the public trust. There is a fine line of saving lives and possibly harming the fundamental rights and freedoms of individuals.

Future developments

The future of technoethics is a promising, yet evolving field. The studies of e-technology in workplace environments are an evolving trend in technoethics. With the constant evolution of technology, and innovations coming out daily, technoethics is looking to be a rather promising guiding framework for the ethical assessments of new technologies. Some of the questions regarding technoethics and the workplace environment that have yet to be examined and treated are listed below:

• Are organizational counter measures not necessary because it invades employee privacy?
• Are surveillance cameras and computer monitoring devices invasive methods that can have ethical repercussions?
• Should organizations have the right and power to impose consequences?

UNESCO

UNESCO – a specialized intergovernmental agency of the United Nations, focusing on promotion of education, culture social and natural sciences and communication and information. In the future, the use of principles as expressed in the UNESCO Universal Declaration on Bioethics and Human Rights (2005) will also be analyzed to broaden the description of bioethical reasoning (Adell & Luppicini, 2009).

User data

In a digital world, much of users' personal lives are stored on devices such as computers and smartphones, and we trust the companies we store our lives on to take care of our data. A topic of discussion regarding the ethics of technology is just exactly how much data these companies really need and what they are doing with it. Another major cause for concern is the security of our personal data and privacy, whether it is leaked intentionally or not.

Large companies share their users' data constantly. In 2018, the U.S, government cracked down on Facebook selling user data to other companies after declaring that it had made the data in question inaccessible. One such case was in a scandal regarding Cambridge Analytica, in which Facebook sold user data to the company without consent from the users whose data was being accessed. The data was then used for several political agendas, such as the Brexit vote and the U.S. Presidential Election of 2016. In an interview with CBS' 60 Minutes, Trump campaign manager Brad Parscale described in detail how he used data taken from different social media websites to create ads that were both visually appealing to potential voters and targeted the issues that they felt strongest about.

Besides swinging political races, the theft of people's data can result in serious consequences on an individual level. In some cases, hackers can breach websites or businesses that have identifying information about a person, such as their credit card number, cell phone number, and address, and upload it to the dark web for sale, if they decide not to use it for their own deviant purposes.

Drones

File:Parrot-Bebop-Drone Red 2.jpg

A drone.

In the book Society and Technological Change, 8th Edition, by Rudi Volti, the author comments on unmanned aerial vehicles, also known as UAVs or drones. Once used primarily as military technology, these are becoming increasingly accessible tools to the common person for hobbies like photography. In the author's belief, this can also cause concern for security and privacy, as these tools allow people with malicious intents easier access to spying.

Outside of public areas, drones are also able to be used for spying on people in private settings, even in their own homes. In an article by today.com, the author writes about people using drones and taking videos and photographs of people in their most private moments, even in the privacy of their own home.

Pet Cloning

In 2020 pet cloning is to become something of interest for those who can afford it. For $25k - $50k anyone will be able to clone their house pet but there is no guarantee you will get the exact same pet that you once had. This may seem very appealing to certain animal-lovers, but what about all of those animals that already have no home?

There are a few different ethical questions here; the first being how is this fair to the animals that are suffering out in the wilderness with no home? The second being that cloning animals is not only for pets, but for all animals in general. Maybe people are concerned that people are going to clone animals for food purposes.
Another question about animal cloning is it is good for the welfare of the animal or will the radiation and other procedural aspects cause the animals life to end earlier? These are just some of many concerns people have with animal cloning.

Areas of Technoethical Inquiry

Biotech ethics

Main article: Bioethics

Biotech ethics concerned with ethical dilemmas surrounding the use of biotechnologies in fields including medical research, health care, and industrial applications. Topics such as cloning ethics, e-health ethics, telemedicine ethics, genetics ethics, neuroethics, and sport and nutrition ethics fall into this category; examples of specific issues include the debates surrounding euthanasia and reproductive rights.

Technoethics and cognition

This area of technoethical inquiry is concerned with technology's relation to the human mind, artificial agents, and society. Topics of study that would fit into this category would be artificial morality and moral agents, technoethical systems and techno-addiction.

• An artificial agent describes any type of technology that is created to act as an agent, either of its own power or on behalf of another agent. An artificial agent may try to advance its own goals or those of another agent.

Technoethics and society

This field is concerned with the uses of technology to ethically regulate aspects of a society. For example: digital property ethics, social theory, law, science, organizational ethics and global ethics.

Technofeminism

Technoethics has concerned itself with society as a general group and made no distinctions between the genders, but considers technological effects and influences on each gender individually. This is an important consideration as some technologies are created for use by a specific gender, including birth control, abortion, fertility treatments, and Viagra. Feminists have had a significant influence on the prominence and development of reproductive technologies. Technoethical inquiry must examine these technologies' effects on the intended gender while also considering their influence on the other gender. Another dimension of technofeminism concerns female involvement in technological development: women's participation in the field of technology has broadened society's understanding of how technology affects the female experience in society.

Information and communication technoethics

Information and communication technoethics is "concerned with ethical issues and responsibilities arising when dealing with information and communication technology in the realm of communication." This field is related to internet ethics, rational and ethical decision making models, and information ethics. A major area of interest is the convergence of technologies: as technologies become more interdependent and provide people with multiple ways of accessing the same information, they transform society and create new ethical dilemmas. This is particularly evident in the realms of the internet. In recent years, users have had the unprecedented position of power in creating and disseminating news and other information globally via social networking; the concept of "citizen journalism" primarily relates to this. With developments in the media, has led to open media ethics as Ward writes, leading to citizen journalism.

In cases such as the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami or the 2011 Arab Spring movements, citizen journalists were seen to have been significant sources of facts and information in relation to the events. These were re-broadcast by news outlets, and more importantly, re-circulated by and to other internet users. As Jay David Bolter and Richard Grusin state in their book Remediation: Understanding New Media (1999): "The liveness of the Web is a refashioned version of the liveness of broadcast television" However, it is commonly political events (such as 'Occupy' movements or the Iran Elections of 2009) that tend to raise ethical questions and concerns. In the latter example, there had been efforts made by the Iranian government in censoring and prohibiting the spread of internal happenings to the outside by its citizen journalists. This occurrence questioned the importance of the spread of crucial information regarding the issue, and the source from which it came from (citizen journalists, government authorities, etc.). This goes to prove how the internet "enables new forms of human action and expression [but] at the same time it disables [it]" Information and Communication Technoethics also identifies ways to develop ethical frameworks of research structures in order to capture the essence of new technologies.

Educational and professional technoethics

Main article: Internet research ethics

Technoethical inquiry in the field of education examines how technology impacts the roles and values of education in society. This field considers changes in student values and behavior related to technology, including access to inappropriate material in schools, online plagiarism using material copied directly from the internet, or purchasing papers from online resources and passing them off as the student's own work. Educational technoethics also examines the digital divide that exists between educational institutions in developed and developing countries or between unequally-funded institutions within the same country: for instance, some schools offer students access to online material, while others do not. Professional technoethics focuses on the issue of ethical responsibility for those who work with technology within a professional setting, including engineers, medical professionals, and so on. Efforts have been made to delineate ethical principles in professions such as computer programming (see programming ethics).

Environmental and engineering technoethics

Main articles: Environmental ethics and Engineering ethics

Environmental technoethics originate from the 1960s and 1970s' interest in environment and nature. The field focuses on the human use of technologies that may impact the environment; areas of concern include transport, mining, and sanitation. Engineering technoethics emerged in the late 19th century. As the Industrial Revolution triggered a demand for expertise in engineering and a need to improve engineering standards, societies began to develop codes of professional ethics and associations to enforce these codes. Ethical inquiry into engineering examines the "responsibilities of engineers combining insights from both philosophy and the social sciences."

Technoethical assessment and design

Main article: Technology assessment

A technoethical assessment (TEA) is an interdisciplinary, systems-based approach to assessing ethical dilemmas related to technology. TEAs aim to guide actions related to technology in an ethical direction by advancing knowledge of technologies and their effects; successful TEAs thus produce a shared understanding of knowledge, values, priorities, and other ethical aspects associated with technology. TEAs involve five key steps:

1. Evaluate the intended ends and possible side effects of the technology in order to discern its overall value (interest).
2. Compare the means and intended ends in terms of technical and non-technical (moral and social) aspects.
3. Reject those actions where the output (overall value) does not balance the input in terms of efficiency and fairness.
4. Consider perspectives from all stakeholder groups.
5. Examine technological relations at a variety of levels (e.g. biological, physical, psychological, social, and environmental).

Technoethical design (TED) refers to the process of designing technologies in an ethical manner, involving stakeholders in participatory design efforts, revealing hidden or tacit technological relations, and investigating what technologies make possible and how people will use them. TED involves the following four steps:

1. Ensure that the components and relations within the technological system are explicitly understood by those in the design context.
2. Perform a TEA to identify relevant technical knowledge.
3. Optimize the technological system in order to meet stakeholders' and affected individuals' needs and interests.
4. Consult with representatives of stakeholder and affected groups in order to establish consensus on key design issues.

Both TEA and TED rely on systems theory, a perspective that conceptualizes society in terms of events and occurrences resulting from investigating system operations. Systems theory assumes that complex ideas can be studied as systems with common designs and properties which can be further explained using systems methodology. The field of technoethics regards technologies as self-producing systems that draw upon external resources and maintain themselves through knowledge creation; these systems, of which humans are a part, are constantly in flux as relations between technology, nature, and society change. TEA attempts to elicit the knowledge, goals, inputs, and outputs that comprise technological systems. Similarly, TED enables designers to recognize technology's complexity and power, to include facts and values in their designs, and to contextualize technology in terms of what it makes possible and what makes it possible.

References

• Hans Jonas, The Imperative of Responsibility: In Search of Ethics for the Technological Age (1979).
• Hans Jonas, On Technology, Medicine and Ethics (1985).
• Melanie G. Snyders, CyberEthics and Internet Downloads: An Age by Age Guide to Teaching Children what they need to know (2005).

External links

• National Academies of Engineering's Center for Engineering, Ethics, and Society
• Stanford Law School's Center for Internet and Society
• California Polytechnic State University's Ethics + Emerging Sciences Group
• University of Notre Dame's Reilly Center for Science, Technology, and Values
• Arizona State University's Lincoln Center for Applied Ethics
• Santa Clara University's Markkula for Applied Ethics
• Centre for Applied Philosophy and Public Ethics, Australia
• Yale University's Interdisciplinary Center for Bioethics
• Case Western Reserve University's Inamori Center for Ethics and Excellence
• University of Delaware's Center for Science, Ethics, and Public Policy
• University of Oxford's Future of Humanity Institute
• UNESCO - Ethics of Science and Technology
• 3TU.Centre for Ethics and Technology
• Cyber Crime

* Journals

• International Journal of Technoethics
• Journal of Technology, Knowledge, and Society
• Journal of Social Work Ethics and Values
• Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
• Journal of Ethics and Social Philosophy

* Organizations

• Ethics and Emerging Sciences Group
• W. Maurice Centre for Applied Ethics
• United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization UNESCO

* Technoethics

• Ahmad Al Khabaz vs Dawson college
• Adam-swartz case
• Bagheri, A. (2011). The Impact of the UNESCO Declaration in Asian and Global Bioethics. Asian Bioethics Review, Vol. 3(2), 52-64.
• Bolter, J. D., Grusin, R., & Grusin, R. A. (2000). Remediation: Understanding new media. MIT Press.
• Borgmann, A. (1984). Technology and the character of contemporary life: A philosophical inquiry. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
• Coyne, R., 1995, Designing information technology in the postmodern age: From method to metaphor. Cambridge MA: MIT Press.
• Castells, M. (2000). The rise of the network society. The information age: economy, society and culture (Vol. 1). Malden, UK:Blackwell.
• Canada Foundation for Innovation: www.innovation.ca
• Puig de la Bellacasa, M. (2017). Matters of care : speculative ethics in more than human worlds. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
• Dreyfus, H.L., 1999, "Anonymity versus commitment: The dangers of education on the internet," Ethics and Information Technology, 1/1, p. 15-20, 1999
• Gert, Bernard. 1999, "Common Morality and Computing," Ethics and Information Technology, 1/1, 57-64.
• Fleddermann, C.B. (2011). Engineering Ethics. Prentice Hall. 4th edition.
• Harris, C.E., M.S. Pritchard, and M.J. Rabins (2008). Engineering Ethics: Concepts and Cases. Wadsworth Publishing, 4th edition.
• Heidegger, M., 1977, The Question Concerning Technology and Other Essays, New York: Harper Torchbooks.
• Huesemann M.H., and J.A. Huesemann (2011). Technofix: Why Technology Won't Save Us or the Environment, Chapter 14, "Critical Science and Social Responsibility", New Society Publishers, ISBN 0865717044, 464 pp.
• Ihde, D. 1990, Technology and the Lifeworld: From garden to earth. Bloomington and Indianopolis: Indiana University Press.
• Jonas, H. (1979). The Imperative of Responsibility: In Search of Ethics for the Technological Age, Chicago: Chicago University Press.
• Jonas, H. (1985). On technology, medicine and ethics. Chicago: Chicago University Press.
• Levinas, E., 1991, Otherwise than Being or Beyond Essence, Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers.
• Luppicini, R., (2008). The emerging field of Technoethics. In R. Luppicini and R. Adell (eds.). Handbook of Research on Technoethics (pp. 49–51). Hershey: Idea Group Publishing.
• Luppicini, R., (2010). Technoethics and the Evolving Knowledge Society: Ethical Issues in Technological Design, Research, Development and Innovation. Hershey, PA: IGI Global.
• Martin, M.W., and R. Schinzinger (2004). Ethics in Engineering. McGraw-Hill. 4th edition.
• Mitcham, C. (1994). Thinking through technology. University of Chicago Press.
• Mitcham, C. (1997). Thinking ethics in technology: Hennebach lectures and papers, 1995-1996. Golden, CO: Colorado School of Mines Press.
• Mitcham, C. (2005). Encyclopedia of science, technology, and ethics. Detroit: Macmillan Reference.
• Sullins, J. (2010). RoboWarfare: can robots be more ethical than humans on the battlefield. Journal of Ethics and Information Technology, Vol. 12(3), 263-275.
• Tavani, H. T. (2004). Ethics and technology: Ethical issues in an age of information and communication technology. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.
• Turkle, S. 1996, "Parallel lives: Working on identity in virtual space." in D. Grodin & T. R. Lindlof, (eds.), Constructing the self in a mediated world, London: Sage, 156-175.
• Van de Poel, I., and L. Royakkers (2011). Ethics, Technology, and Engineering: An Introduction. Wiley-Blackwell.
• Ward, S. & Wasserman, T. (2010). "Towards and open ethics: implications of new media platforms for global ethics discourse". Journal of Mass Media Ethics. 25 (4): 275–292. doi:10.1080/08900523.2010.512825.

Other

• Ethical Dilemmas in Information Technology: A Scenario Collection
• The Technological Citizen
• Canada's Bill C-32: Copyright that can stifle creativity

Assignment9: Completed

After reviewing the peer review for my article, I added a new lead section to high-level outline of the article and the important topics discussed. I also took the feedback from my peer about the flow of the article and I changed the formatting of the sections. I now have the beginning paragraph discussing what Technoethics is, then it goes into the definition of Technoethics, the fundamental issues Technoethics presents and the history of Technoethics. I moved the Technology and Ethics section which outlines the ethical theories and how those theories apply to technology down in the article so the reader now gets a better understanding of Technoethics before reading about ethical theories. I left the formatting for the types of technology ethics section, recent and future developments, etc the same because I think it flows well discussing current and recent developments and what will be coming out in the future or what we should be considering for the future. My peer had questioned the area of the Ethical theories, but I believe this section is important to the article in understanding why as a society we are becoming dependent and more advanced by using technology, but even if this technology benefits our daily lives, healthcare, tracking, etc. it has implications far beyond what we can see.

The overall peer-review given to me was helpful and allowed me to make edits to my article.

Ethics of Technology Article Evaluation

This semester I have been evaluating and developing the Wikipedia Article: Ethics of Technology. Not only have I looked at the article from a holistic view of readability, ease of understanding, structure/flow, I have looked at my article from the content perspective. I have looked at the content that makes sense to keep, the content that could be improved upon, and what relevant content may be missing. I also evaluated the article from a grammatical standpoint.

Overall Article Structure Evaluation

Upon my initial evaluation of this article I thought the article was well-detailed and elaborative. It provided a lot of examples of the topics that anyone would be able to understand or relate to. The article covered in-depth information on both what ethics is and what technologies exist that could be ethical or unethical in nature. As the semester went on and I revisited my article, I realized that the article may be too complex for the average reader to understand. The article dives deep into ethical theories and the philosophies that have contributed to the concept of technoethics.

I believe for the article to be more effective it should briefly describe the definition of ethics, technology, and technoethics. Ethics address the issues of what is 'right', what is 'just', and what is 'fair' (Homser, 1995). Technology is the branch of knowledge that deals with the creation and use of technical means and their interrelation with life, society, and the environment; it may draw upon a variety of fields, including industrial arts, engineering, applied science, and pure science (International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences). Technoethics is an interdisciplinary research area that draws on theories and methods from multiple knowledge domains (such as communications, social sciences information studies, technology studies, applied ethics, and philosophy) to provide insights on ethical dimensions of technological systems and practices for advancing a technological society (Luppicini, 2010).

After briefing describing each of these concepts, the article should go right into section on Types of Technology Ethics then into the section on Areas of Technoethical Inquiry. By only keeping these two main sections, the article would retain the important points and examples, but eliminate some of the confusion behind the ethical theories, philosophies, and historical information. Having the lengthy description of the ethical theories, philosophies, and historical information at the top of the article may contribute to losing more potential readers or researchers early on. By eliminating some of the content of this article, and reorganizing the sections that are left, the article has a better flow and still provides the readers with the appropriate and necessary information.

Article Content Evaluation

Lead Evaluation

After working on the flow and readability of the article, I worked on the actual content. The article’s lead was vague and did not cover what the contents of what the article discussed. I worked on the lead by re-structuring it and adding more details on the different sections the article discusses.

Final Version of Lead

Ethics of technology is a sub-field of ethics addressing the ethical questions specific to the Technology Age, the transitional shift in society where personal computers and subsequent devices have been introduced to provide users an easy and quick way to transfer information. Ethics in technology has become an evolving topic over the years as technology has development. When we think of ethical issues, we do not usually think about technology. Even though it is not on the top of our minds when we think about ethical issues, technology poses an ethical dilemma on producers and consumers alike. The subject of technoethics, or the ethical implications of technology, have been studied by different philosophers such as Hans Jonas and Mario Bunge. This article will walk through what technoethics is, the different types of technoethics within application areas, the history of technoethics, general ethical challenges, current technoethical issues, recent and future developments, and future considerations of technoethics. This article discusses many different topics and types of technology that is currently in use within our society and discusses the ethical implication of each of these technologies.

Content Evaluation

The article provides a lot of great examples of different technological innovations and advancements and provided information on ethical and unethical uses of these technologies. The article discussed technology ethics, ethical challenges, current issues, recent developments, and future developments. These sections of the article were up to date with one exception, technology and ethics during the Coronavirus Pandemic. I decided the use of technology to slow the spread of Covid-19 would be a great topic to add since our society has turned to utilizing technology to contact trace.

Technology and Ethics During the Coronavirus Pandemic

The world has greatly changed since March 2020. As the world adapts to a new normal, technology has been emerging to help combat this pandemic. I thought adding the ethics behind using technology, especially contact tracing apps, to slow the spread of coronavirus would be a great addition section to this article. I have done some research on my own, I would appreciate if other Wiki contributors provided more information, guidance, or edits to this. As the world has dealt with the emergence of the coronavirus pandemic, we have turned to technology to help slow down the spread and track the infected or exposed. Many countries have utilized CCTV cameras, drones, credit card information, and location data from cell phones and contract tracing apps (Sharma, 2020). In theory, this is a valuable way to track infected and exposed people with coronavirus but is it an infringement on your privacy? Will the tracking end when you are not infected or exposed? Will you be aware that you are being tracked? How can you feel safe that the government is not tracking you anymore? As of April 20th, 2020 there has been over 43 contract tracing apps available globally. Countries are in the process of creating their own methods of digitally tracing coronavirus status (symptoms, confirmed infected, exposed). Apple and Google are working together on a shared solution that helps with contract tracing around the world. Since this is a global pandemic with no end in sight, the restriction of some fundamental rights and freedoms may be ethically justifiable. It may be unethical to not use these tracing solutions to slow the spread. The European Convention on Human Rights, the United Nations International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and the United Nations Siracusa Principles all indicate when it is ethical to restrict the rights of the population to prevent the spread of infectious disease. All three documents cite that the circumstances for restricting rights must be time-bound, meet standards of necessity, proportionality, and scientific validity. We must evaluate if the gravity of the situation justifies the potential negative impact, if the evidence shows that the technology will work, is timely, will be adopted by enough people and yields accurate data and insights, and evaluate if the technology will only be temporary. These three documents also provide guidelines on how to ethically develop and design technologies. The development and design guidelines are important for being effective and for security reasons (Morley et al., 2020). Even though these three bodies of government can deem contact tracing ethical, all these contact tracing apps come with a price. They are collecting sensitive personal data including health data. This poses a threat to violate HIPPA and PII if not handled and processed correctly. Even if these apps are only used temporarily, they are storing permanent records of health, movements, and social interactions. Not only do we have to consider the ethical implications of your personal information being stored, but we must also look at the accessibility and digital literacy of the users. Not everyone has access to a smartphone or a cell phone. If we are developing smartphone applications, we will be missing a huge portion of coronavirus data.[42]

While it may be necessary to utilize technology to slow the spread of coronavirus, the Government needs to design and deploy the technology in a way that does not breach the public trust. There is a fine line of saving lives and possibly harming the fundamental rights and freedoms of individuals.

Conclusion

This semester I enjoyed not only learning about my chosen topic, Ethics of Technology, but I liked learning about Wikipedia, using the visual editor to edit articles, adding sources within Wikipedia, and learning how to add images and media without plagiarizing. I have used Wikipedia as a search engine prior to this class but was not aware of the innerworkings or how people contributed to Wikipedia articles. After spending the semester reviewing and revamping my article, I now realize that the articles on Wikipedia are usually a work in progress with many different contributions from people with vast knowledge and various backgrounds.

References Hosmer, L. (1995). Trust: The Connecting Link Between Organizational Theory And Philosophical Ethics. Academy of Management Review, 20(2), 379-403. doi:10.5465/amr.1995.9507312923 International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences. (2020, October 16) Encyclopedia.com. Retrieved November 28, 2020, from https://www.encyclopedia.com/science-and-technology/technology/technology-terms-and-concepts/technology Luppicini, R. (2010). Technoethics and the Evolving Knowledge Society: Ethical Issues in Technological Design, Research, Development, and Innovation. IGI Global. http://doi:10.4018/978-1-60566-952-6 Morley, J., Cowls, J., Taddeo, M., & Floridi, L. (2020). Ethical Guidelines for SARS-CoV-2 Digital Tracking and Tracing Systems. SSRN Electronic Journal. doi:10.2139/ssrn.3582550 Sharma, M. (2020). How drones are being used to combat COVID-19. Retributed from: https://www.geospatialworld.net/blogs/how-drones-are-being-used-to-combat-covid-19/

Definitions

• Ethics address the issues of what is 'right', what is 'just', and what is 'fair'. Ethics describe moral principles influencing conduct; accordingly, the study of ethics focuses on the actions and values of people in society (what people do and how they believe they should act in the world).
• Technology is the branch of knowledge that deals with the creation and use of technical means and their interrelation with life, society, and the environment; it may draw upon a variety of fields, including industrial arts, engineering, applied science, and pure science. Technology "is core to human development and a key focus for understanding human life, society and human consciousness."

Using theories and methods from multiple domains, technoethics provides insights on ethical aspects of technological systems and practices, examines technology-related social policies and interventions, and provides guidelines for how to ethically use new advancements in technology. Technoethics provides a systems theory and methodology to guide a variety of separate areas of inquiry into human-technological activity and ethics. Moreover, the field unites both technocentric and bio-centric philosophies, providing "conceptual grounding to clarify the role of technology to those affected by it and to help guide ethical problem solving and decision making in areas of activity that rely on technology." As a bio-techno-centric field, technoethics "has a relational orientation to both technology and human activity"; it provides "a system of ethical reference that justifies that profound dimension of technology as a central element in the attainment of a 'finalized' perfection of man."