Digital Ethics – 1

Introduction to Digital Ethics

BY
S I LV I A DA M AYA N TI ,
DE SA K P U TU EKA N I L AKU S MAWAT I,
I MA DE S U PA RT H A U TA MA

UDAYANA UNIVERSITY
Topics to be covered in this presentation?

 What are Digital Ethics?

 What Users need to know about the internet’s unwritten Code of
Conduct.

 What are personal Digital Ethics?

 What are Corporate Digital Ethics?
 What moral obligations do Digital Ethics impose on user?
 Digital ethics is the field of study concerned with the way technology is shaping
and will shape our political, social, and moral existence.
 Digital Ethics is the study of how to manage oneself ethically, professionally and
in a clinically sound manner via online and digital mediums.
 Digital Ethics are the norms dedicated to ensuring the autonomy and dignity of
users is respected on the internet. While traditional ethics concern relationships
between individuals, and corporate ethics pertain to relationships between
companies and customers, digital ethics blend these to apply to any two (or
more) parties interacting online.

 Digital Ethics prescribe how two individuals communicating online should

behave, how two corporations should responsibly conduct internet commerce,
and how companies should treat their users.
Internet’s unwritten Code of Conduct

 Internet Society Engagement & Community Rules

 Discussion Group Etiquette

 Privacy Policy

 Legal Notice
 Internet Society Engagement & Community Rules

 Treat all users and colleagues fairly and equally. Stimulate conversation, be

respectful of others’ views, and refrain from personal attacks.

 Respect legitimate intellectual property rights, do not plagiarize work, and give

credit to the originators of ideas.

 Don’t share the posts of others without permission.

Discussion Group Etiquette
 All defamatory, abusive, profane, threatening, offensive, or illegal material is strictly
prohibited.
 Discriminatory, hostile or intimidating messages or language will not be tolerated,
whether based on a person’s race, ethnicity, culture, national origin, social or economic
class, educational level, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity and expression, age,
size, family status, political belief, religion, or mental or physical ability.
 Internet Society strives to create and maintain a community in which people of many
different backgrounds and cultures are treated with respect.
 Be mindful and respectful of linguistic background – while the language for online
fora discussions is mostly English (unless otherwise specified), remember not
everybody is a native English speaker/writer.
 Discussion Group Etiquette

 Keep subject lines concise and clear so that members can respond appropriately and
easily search the archives.
 Include only relevant portions of the original message in replies.
 Only send a message to the entire list if everyone can benefit from it. Do not send
“thank you” and “me too” replies to the full list.
 Avoid administrative messages, such as remove me from the list (use the web interface
to change your personal settings).
 If relevant, add “Long Message” to the subject line or at the beginning of the message
body.
 Do not spam several lists or libraries with the same message.
 Don’t publicly post commercial messages.
 Discussion Group Etiquette

 Use caution when discussing products. Information posted on the lists and in the
libraries is available for all members to see. Comments are subject to libel, slander,
and antitrust laws.

 Please carefully read the items listed in the disclaimer and legal rules below,
particularly regarding the copyright ownership of information posted. 
Privacy policy

The Internet Society is committed to respect the privacy of each members and
of visitors to every site. It do not sell, rent, or share any personally-identifiable
information shared by visitors or its membership mailing list.
Legal Notice

 The Internet Society provides communication tools as a service for its

members. 
 The Internet Society is not responsible for opinions and information posted
on any site or list.
 The Internet Society does monitor but does not moderate postings on any
site or list, but if any inappropriate posting is brought to the attention of the
Internet Society, the Internet Society reserves the right to take appropriate
action, including, without limitation, terminating access to any user who
does not abide by these guidelines.
Legal Notice

 Do not post any information or other material protected by copyright without

permission. By posting material, the posting party warrants and represents that
they own the copyright with respect to such material or has received permission
from the copyright owner. In addition, the posting party grants the Internet
Society and users of any site the nonexclusive right and license to display,
copy, publish, distribute, transmit, print, and use such information or other
material.
Personal Digital Ethics?

Personal digital ethics encompass how individual users honor one another’s
right to self-determination online. What makes these unique compared to the
typical ethics guiding interpersonal conduct is that, given the nature of online
infrastructure, communications is almost always mediated by some private
interest or third-party.
Personal Digital Ethics

For example, in the physical world, your location has little impact on how you
should treat other people — whether you're on public or private property, the
expectations of courtesy are essentially the same. By contrast, whether you're
dealing with someone over email or on Facebook greatly changes the obligations
you have to them.
 You shouldn’t include someone in a photo who did not consent to

being in it if you intend to share it online. It's generally polite not to

take a photo of someone without asking, but this takes on new

dimensions when social media enters the picture.

 Another point of contention in personal digital privacy is whether parents
should post pictures of their children (especially infants and toddlers) online,
since they inherently cannot give consent.
 There is no settled standard in this regard. Some argue that parents may
publicize their child’s image, as parenthood is a significant life moment that
parents have a right to share.

 Others insist that one’s legal guardianship of a child should not merit an
exception to the child’s ironclad right to choose when and how their image is
displayed.
Obligations
 The primary duty users have is to act in a way that preserves other users’
choices in regard to their own privacy and safety.
 There are obvious examples of what this entails. It is clearly wrong to
“doxx” someone, meaning to reveal sensitive personal information
(typically their home address) by which others could use to physically or
psychologically harm them. But this principle also binds users in less
obvious but equally important ways.
 Here’s an application that illuminates this: You shouldn’t include someone
in a photo who did not consent to being in it if you intend to share it
online. It's generally polite not to take a photo of someone without asking,
but this takes on new dimensions when social media enters the picture.
Corporate Digital Ethics

Corporate digital ethics primarily revolves around the practices of

online platforms like social networks collecting sensitive information
about users. This collection is often necessary for platforms to deliver
their product’s experience, but there is no uniform expectation for what
can and should be done with this information.
Corporate Digital Ethics

Corporate digital ethics primarily revolves around the practices of

online platforms like social networks collecting sensitive information
about users. This collection is often necessary for platforms to deliver
their product’s experience, but there is no uniform expectation for what
can and should be done with this information.
 Companies commonly take the attitude that if their user agreement, no
matter how arcane, allows for the sale of user data, there is nothing wrong
with selling any data to any “partner” for any reason. When privacy
advocates challenge this, companies usually counter that offering a service
for free has to generate revenue somehow, and that users should know
better than to expect something for nothing.
 The issue is further complicated by the fact that the sale of user data by
private platforms allows government to circumvent legal limits on
information it may collect about citizens. Government agencies can, in many
cases, acquire the same information they could obtain with a search warrant,
but with a legal order mandating far less judicial restrictions. On top of that,
government agencies in most jurisdictions are not barred from purchasing
data from digital platforms, just as other private companies do.
 Just as with personal digital ethics, corporate digital ethics has its own
dialog surrounding how to achieve more equitable outcomes. Much ink has
been proverbially spilled on the merits of making corporations explicitly
and clearly state what they do with user data. Rather than buried in the
terms of service, data policies should be prominently displayed and easy to
understand, proponents contend. The principle is gaining traction, but
hasn’t been widely implemented yet in the absence of laws enforcing it.
Another subject is whether premium options, where services promise to accept payment

to completely forego the sale of that user’s data, should be more prevalent. Currently,

few online platforms offer premium tiers, and those that do rarely guarantee it as a

complete alternative to the sale of data.

 Moral Obligations Do Digital Ethics Impose on Users

While the above points deserve careful thought on all our parts, it helps to distill these
concepts down to definite steps we can take to actually practice digital ethics.
As before, let’s break this down into navigating issues of personal and corporate
digital ethics. In your dealings with other people mediated by an online service, you
should always be mindful of how your choices impact others. Before you create a
post, ask yourself if it will affect someone else, and whether you would be okay with
your decision if you were in their shoes. Basically, as in real life, the golden rule
applies online, with the caveat that your decisions online can ripple out further on
account of the internet’s instant, global reach.
 When it comes to corporate digital ethics, the onus on you, the user, is not so
much to ensure you don’t harm others, but to ensure the services you associate
with don’t harm you. The first thing you should ask when considering an online
platform is how it makes its money. The adage, “if you’re not paying for it, you’re
the product” generally applies here. The next question you should pose is, if the
company does collect personal data (and it probably does), do you trust that
company with your data?
Thank You