Towards Ethics in Information Systems

Abstract

Information Systems (IS) plays an essential role in shaping almost all sectors of society, such as, commerce, politics, services, entertainment, information, relationships, among others. Digital technologies have enabled a new dimension of products, transmission, storage, and access to information. The outcome of this whole transformation process is intended to provide improvement and facilitating the lives and practices of individuals in society. However, we have also to face its negative impacts. We argue that situations involving both the design and the adoption or use of IS should be analyzed from the point of view of Ethics through a well-defined process that might help the professional and/or the citizen in making decisions in sensitive contexts when conceptual conflicts show up. To justify the definition of this process, we discuss the significance of the new technologies based on Andrew Feenberg's Philosophy of Technology. Grounded on this theory, we highlight the benefits and problems of the new technologies in the contemporary world. Finally, we present the process proposal and analyze the results of its application in the context of two well-known real cases and discuss the results in light of the theoretical foundation.

Keywords

• : Ethics, Information Systems, Method, Process