Ethics of computer

1. Submitted by:-
Prakash Ata
M.pharm(Pharmaceutics)
1st year
PES Colleage Of Pharmacy
Facilitated By:
Dr. Manjula Talluri
Professor
Dept. Of Pharmaceutics
PES College Of Pharmacy,
Bangalore
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2. CONTENT
 Introduction
 Ethical and unethical
 Philosophy and computer ethics
 Ethical issue
 Codes of conduct
 Summaries
 References
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 Privacy
 liability
 Ownership
 power

3. INTRODUCTION
 Ethics is a set of moral principles that govern the behavior of a group
or individual.
 likewise, computer ethics is set of moral principles that regulate the
use of computers.
 In pharmaceutical research computers, computing technology, and
the consequent information systems have produced ethical challenges
and conflicts.
 The challenges and conflicts have been presented not only to
the practitioner facing new problems but also to the
professional philosopher dealing with computer use at a
conceptual level. 3

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 The challenges and conflicts are not only individual, often arising from
practical experience, but also collective, involving judgments regarding
policy and procedure.
 If we propose to examine the ethics of computing in
pharmaceutical research and the challenges therein, then we
should begin the examination with an overview of how
philosophers regard computer ethics.
 After addressing the matter of how to regard computer ethics in
terms of its philosophical classification, we should identify the
issues and areas in which philosophers have shown the most
interest with regard to computer ethics, namely, the issues of
privacy, liability, ownership,and power.
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 As we address these areas, we note problems more specific to the
computer user in pharmaceutical research and make suggestions about
the place of ethics in pharmaceutical research.
 Finally, we look at some codes of conduct relevant to the use of
computers.
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6. ETHICAL AND UNETHICAL
 Basically Computer ethics are just knowing the difference between
ethical and unethical.
 For example,while it is easy to duplicate copyrighted electronic (or
digital)content, computer ethics would suggest that it is wrong to do so
without the author's approval.
 And while it may be possible to access someone's personal information
on a computer system, computer ethics would advise that such an action
is unethical.
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 For example, according to one open source report, Chinese
hackers have taken as much as 6.5 terabytes of information from
a single company, although the name of the company was not
publicly disclosed. In 2015, Nordic countries pharmaceutical
companies were victimized by the cyber espionage efforts.
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8. PHILOSOPHY AND COMPUTER ETHICS
 As a general observation, we can say that the philosophical community
was slow to understand the ethical and conceptual challenges posed by
the advent of computers.
 The issue of privacy, one of the most important and early issues to arise
with regard to computer use, was not a matter of debate on a national
level.
 Another reason philosophers were slow to provide ethical and
conceptual analysis regarding computer use is that, more often than
not, technology develops in a philosophical vacuum i.e. technology is
developed by people with little training, formal or informal, in
philosophy, including ethics.
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 The ignorance of ethics on the part of technologists and computer gurus
mirrors the ignorance (and subsequent disinterest) of philosophers
about technology and technological development.
 Thus development occurs with unintended and unforeseen ethical
consequences.
 In making these observations, we may only be providing an echo of C. P.
Snow’s The Two Cultures, based on his Rede lecture for Cambridge
University.
 Snow’s main point was that the lack of communication between the
sciences and the humanities was a regrettable situation rife with
negative consequences.
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 The Two Cultures was meant to be both an admonition to thinkers and
an invitation to have scientists and humanists work harder at
understanding each other.
 Snow followed that book with a modified version, The Two Cultures: A
Second Look. In this 1963 book, he suggested that a third culture would
soon be upon us.
 But if we have three cultures, those of the scientist, the humanist, and
the technologist, communication between the three could still improve
along the lines Snow suggested.
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11. ETHICAL ISSUES: PRIVACY, LIABILITY, OWNERSHIP,
AND POWER
 The single best source for quick and reasonably thorough access to the
body of knowledge associated with computer ethics is Deborah
Johnson’s Computer Ethics (3rd edition, 2001).
 For one thing, the first part of the book presents a modest introduction
to the basic considerations that applied ethics most often employs,
namely,rights, justice, and utility.
 The concept of rights, which are an individual’s entitlements to those
liberties, choices, opportunities, and items having serious consequence
for human life, is precisely what privacy depends on for protection.
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 The concept of justice, that is, the matter of giving each
person what is due that person, is necessarily connected to
the distribution of benefits and burdens, whatever they
might be and however they are conceived.
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13. Privacy:
 There is a right to privacy that protects the sick individual’s medical
record from public release and thats the issue of privacy.
 The phrase “Big Brother is watching” meant that government officials
had control over information on citizens.
 The result is a demand to rethink privacy and rethink the framework of
applied ethics, especially because the scale of intrusion may change the
qualitative nature of the offense.
 More narrowly defined, the right to privacy is thought of as the right of
individuals to determine the nature, scope, and manner of information
revealed about themselves.
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 The right to privacy is essentially a matter of an individual’s controlling
the information about himself or herself.
 Supplying information about an individual should be in the hands of
the individual.
 Philosophers have identified three general aspects with regard to the
right to privacy.
 For any intrusion into the right to privacy, the elements of relevance,
consent, and method must be considered.
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 For instance, in employer-employee relationships, the employer may, at
times, investigate work-related problems by encroaching upon the
employee’s private life.
 Such “encroachments” must be relevant to the job the employee does.
 For matters relating to pharmaceutical research,the most likely problem
with regard to privacy is the possibility of learning more about an
individual than the scope of the research permits.
 Now, however, a huge information industry has evolved and the biggest
threats derive from private parties.
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 Pharmaceutical researchers need not and ought not contribute to the
supply of information available about an individual.
 Furthermore, given the advent and techniques of data mining,
researchers should take precautions and build prohibitors into
research that would prevent identification of any individual subject
of the research.
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17. Liability :
 Among the topics related to liability and computer use in general are
legal liability, the duty of honesty, the nature of contracts,
misrepresentation, express and implied warranties, and negligence.
 In the case of software written specifically for a certain research purpose,
the liability may not fall exclusively on the software provider.
 In those situations, it behooves the researcher to be very clear in
knowing and stating his or her purposes to the programmer.
 The fact that software is sold and used as a prepackaged item means that
strict liability obtains.
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 In addition to the increased precision in the communication between
the researcher and the programmer, there will be an increase in the
accuracy of the data involved in the research.
 With the increased importance of accuracy, though, comes an increase
in knowledge about an individual.
 If the right to privacy demands protection,then there may need to be
strict limits on who has access to programs, especially programs
involving research.
 So, not only is there a need for technological “blockers” to protect
against intrusions into programs, policy and procedure must strictly
limit access to programs. 18

19. Ownership :
 Various devices have been used to encapsulate and resolve the question
of ownership of software.
 And, of course, the question of ownership is circumscribed by the right
to property.
 Devices such as copyrights, patents, encryption, trade secrets, and oaths
of confidentiality and standard virtues like trustworthiness and loyalty
have been tried to protect ownership and the right to property.
 In short, not only is there a need to communicate between the
researcher and the programmer for the sake of accuracy and
liability, there is a need to resolve the issue of property rights, too.
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 It is worth noting that questions pertaining to liability for
malfunctioning programs also depend on the resolution of
ownership.
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21. Power :
 Johnson identified the issue of power as a crucial matter for the
development of computer ethics.
 After stating that “power” may broadly be construed as any capacity,
Johnson analyzes computer use in terms of several topics, including the
matter of centralization or decentralization of power, computer use as
favoring the status quo, the embedded values in computer use and
programming.
 For instance, the answer to the empirical question of how the
permeation of computers affects the status quo or whether
computers contribute to the centralization or decentralization of
power will not resolve the questions of whether the status quo
should be maintained and whether centralization or
decentralization of power is the better arrangement.
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22. CODES OF CONDUCT RELEVANT TO THE USE OF COMPUTERS
 A professional code of conduct serves several purposes:
 A recent study identified the ten most important behaviors that are
sanctionable offences in scientific research, and subsequently used this
list to survey scientists about whether they committed any of these
offences.
 To allow a profession to regulate itself.
 To state the agreed-upon values of a profession.
 To make members aware of issues to which they
might not otherwise be sensitized.
 To provide guidelines for ethical behavior.
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23. Top Ten Offenses in Scientific Research:
1. Falsifying or “cooking” research data.
2. Ignoring major aspects of human-subject requirements.
3. Not properly disclosing involvement in firms whose products are
based on one’s own research.
4. Relationships with students, research subjects, or clients that may be
interpreted as questionable.
5. Using another’s ideas without obtaining permission or giving due
credit.
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6. Unauthorized use of confidential information in connection with
7. Failing to present data that contradict one’s own previous research.
8. Circumventing certain minor aspects of human-subject
9. Overlooking others’ use of flawed data or questionable
10. Changing the design, methodology, or results of a study in response
one’s own research.
requirements.
interpretation of data.
to pressure from a funding source. 24

25. Computing Organizations with Codes of Conduct:
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26. SUMMARY
 The applications of computing technology have created new situations
involving ethical challenges and conflicts.
 However, there are four common issues in computer ethics:
privacy, liability, ownership, and power.
 One can consider three ethical frameworks in examining ethical
conflicts: rights (of individuals), justice (fairness), and
consequentialism (utility).
 Researchers who use computer technology in pharmaceutical
research must be aware of the issues of computer ethics in
addition to other issues of conducting pharmaceutical research.
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 Codes of conduct such as the one developed by
ACM(Association For Computing Machinary) can help
provide guidelines for ethical computing in pharmaceutical
research.
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28. REFERENCE
 Computer applications in pharmaceutical research and devolopment,
by SEAN EKINS, A JOHN WILEY & SONS, INC., PUBLICATION, Page
no. 715-726.
 https://www.csoonline.com/article/3084655/cyber-threats-and-
pharmaceuticals.html
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