Deck 4: Ethical and Social Issues in Information Systems

Question 1

As per the ________, if an action cannot be taken repeatedly, it is not right to take at all.

A) slippery-slope rule
B) lemming rule
C) high-failure cost rule
D) utilitarian principle
E) Golden Rule

Answer 1

A

Question 2

Which of the following best describes the effect that new information technology has on society?

A) It has a dampening effect on the discourse of business ethics.
B) It has a ripple effect, raising new ethical, social, and political issues.
C) It is beneficial for society as a whole, while raising dilemmas for consumers.
D) It has a waterfall effect in raising ever more complex ethical issues.
E) It has a magnifying effect, creating increasing numbers of ethical issues.

Answer 2

B

Question 3

The routine violation of individual privacy is made more difficult by advances in data storage.

Answer 3

False

Question 4

________ means that you accept the potential costs and obligations for the decisions you make.

A) Responsibility
B) Accountability
C) Liability
D) Due process
E) Duty

Question 5

________ is a feature of social institutions that means mechanisms are in place to determine responsibility for an action.

A) Due process
B) Accountability
C) The courts of appeal
D) The judicial system
E) Liability

Question 6

Describe three technology trends that pose ethical issues, giving an example for each of its ethical or moral impact.

Question 7

________ is a societal practice of having laws that are known and understood, along with the ability to appeal to higher authorities to ensure that the laws are applied correctly.

A) Liability
B) Due process
C) The courts of appeal
D) Accountability
E) The judicial system

Question 8

Taking the action that produces the least harm best describes the

A) Categorical Imperative.
B) Risk Aversion Principle.
C) Utilitarian Principle.
D) Golden Rule.
E) "no free lunch" rule.

Question 9

As discussed in the chapter, all of the following are steps in the process for analyzing an ethical issue except

A) assigning responsibility.
B) identifying the stakeholders.
C) identifying the options you can reasonably take.
D) identifying and clearly describing the facts.
E) identifying the potential consequences of your options.

Question 10

Which of the following describes Immanuel Kant's Categorical Imperative?

A) If an action cannot be taken repeatedly, then it is not right to be taken at any time.
B) One should take the action that produces the least harm or incurs the least cost.
C) One can put values in rank order and understand the consequences of various courses of action.
D) If an action is not right for everyone to take, it is not right for anyone to take.
E) You should act towards others as you would like them to act towards you.

Question 11

Which of the following best describes how new information systems result in legal gray areas?

A) They work with networked, electronic data, which are more difficult to control than information stored manually.
B) They result in new situations that are not covered by old laws.
C) They are implemented by technicians rather than managers.
D) They are created from sets of logical and technological rules rather than social or organizational mores.
E) They are little understood by politicians or lawyers.

Question 12

A peer at work takes small amounts of office supplies for her own use at home, saying that this is a tiny loss to the company. You tell her that if everyone were to take office supplies, then the loss would no longer be minimal. Your rationale expresses which historical ethical principle?

A) Kant's Categorical Imperative
B) The Golden Rule
C) The Risk Aversion Principle
D) The "No free lunch" rule
E) The slippery-slope rule

Question 13

The moral dimension of ________ can be described as the obligations that individuals and organizations have concerning rights to intellectual property.

A) property rights and obligations
B) system quality
C) accountability and control
D) information rights and obligations
E) quality of life

Question 14

Identify the five moral dimensions that are involved in political, social, and ethical issues and briefly describe each. Of these, which do you think is the most difficult for society to deal with?
Support your opinion.

Question 15

A man steals from a grocery store in order to feed his starving family. Which of the following best expresses the Utilitarian Principle in evaluating this situation?

A) His action is acceptable, because the grocer suffers the least harm.
B) His action is acceptable, because the higher social value is the survival of the family.
C) His action is wrong, because the man would not want the grocer to steal from him.
D) His action is wrong, because if everyone were to do this, the concept of personal property is defeated.
E) His action is wrong, because the grocery store owner is harmed.

Question 16

In today's legal environment, business managers who violate the law through the misuse of information systems are still unlikely to be fully prosecuted.

Question 17

In the information age, the obligations that individuals and organizations have regarding the preservation of existing values and institutions fall within the moral dimension of

A) family and home.
B) property rights and obligations.
C) system quality.
D) accountability and control.
E) quality of life.

Question 18

The ethical "no free lunch" rule states that

A) if an action cannot be taken repeatedly, then it is not right to be taken at any time.
B) one should take the action that produces the least harm or incurs the least cost.
C) one can put values in rank order and understand the consequences of various courses of action.
D) everything is owned by someone else, and that the creator wants compensation for this work.
E) anything of value should not be taken.

Question 19

Which of the following is not one of the current key technology trends that raises ethical issues?

A) data storage improvements
B) data analysis advancements
C) increase in multimedia quality
D) increase in use of mobile devices
E) advances in networking technology

Question 20

The central business activities of ChoicePoint raise which of the five moral dimensions?

A) property rights and obligations
B) system quality
C) accountability and control
D) quality of life
E) information rights and obligations

Question 21

The European Parliament has yet to ban unsolicited commercial messaging.

Question 22

________ is a new data analysis technology that finds hidden connections between data in disparate sources.

A) HIPAA
B) FIP
C) NORA
D) COPPA
E) Spyware

Question 23

Which of the following best describes the basis for the FIP principles?

A) the accountability of the record holder
B) the responsibility of the record holder
C) the mutuality of interest between the record holder and the individual
D) the privacy of the individual
E) the difference between the interests of the individual and commercial organizations

Question 24

U.S. businesses are allowed to use personal data from EU countries if they

A) have informed consent.
B) create a safe harbor.
C) develop equivalent privacy protection policies.
D) make their privacy protection policies publicly available.
E) register their activities with a central EU government databank.

Question 25

In 2010, the FTC added all of the following recommendations to its privacy guidelines except

A) firms should build products and services that protect privacy.
B) firms should increase the transparency of their data collection.
C) firms should require consumer consent and provide clear options to opt out of data collection.
D) firms should limit the length of time that any personal data is stored to six months or less.
E) consumers should be able to review and contest the accuracy and completeness of data.

Question 26

The ________ framework developed by the U.S. Department of Commerce allows U.S. businesses to legally use personal data from EU countries.

A) COPPA
B) P3P
C) PGP
D) bilateral
E) safe-harbor

Question 27

Define the basic concepts of responsibility, accountability, and liability as applied to ethical decisions. How are these concepts related?

Question 28

The Federal Trade Commission FIP principle of Notice/Awareness states that

A) customers must be allowed to choose how their information will be used for secondary purposes other than the supporting transaction.
B) data collectors must take responsible steps to assure that consumer information is accurate and secure from unauthorized use.
C) there must be a mechanism in place to enforce FIP principles.
D) consumers should be able to review the data collected about them.
E) Web sites must disclose their information practices before collecting data.

Question 29

Privacy protection in the United States is ________ in Europe.

A) more far reaching than
B) more liable to laws than
C) much more stringent than
D) much less stringent than
E) at about the same level of strictness as

Question 30

________ restricts the information that the U.S. federal government can collect about an individual and regulates what it can do with the information.

A) The Privacy Act of 1974
B) The Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act of 1999
C) The Freedom of Information Act
D) The FIP set of principles
E) COPPA

Question 31

What are the steps in conducting an ethical analysis?

Question 32

Which of the following U.S. laws gives patients access to personal medical records and the right to authorize how this information can be used or disclosed?

A) HIPAA
B) Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act
C) Privacy Protection Act
D) Freedom of Information Act
E) COPPA

Question 33

Liability is a feature of political systems and allows individuals to recover damages done to them by others.

Question 34

The ethical guideline that asks you to put yourself in the place of others, and think of yourself as the object of the decision, is called the Utilitarian Principle.

Question 35

Identifying the stakeholders-people who have a vested interest in the outcome of the decision-is the last step in analyzing an ethical issue.

Question 36

Cookies created during Web site visits are stored

A) on the Web site's server.
B) on the user's computer.
C) on servers owned by advertising networks.
D) in the browser's application settings.
E) nowhere, because they are only used during a visit and are discarded once a visitor leaves the Web site.

Question 37

Identify and discuss the six ethical principles discussed in the chapter.

Question 38

Because of their special claims to knowledge, wisdom, and respect, professionals take on special rights and obligations.

Question 39

Ethics describes the principles of right and wrong that can be used by individuals to make choices to guide their behavior.

Question 40

________ is the use of computers to assemble data from different sources to create electronic dossiers of detailed information about individuals.

A) Profiling
B) Phishing
C) Spamming
D) Targeting
E) Spyware

Question 41

The rate of global piracy is approximately 42%.

Question 42

Most Internet businesses do very little to protect the privacy of their customers.

Question 43

Copyright is the legal protection afforded intellectual property, including drawings, movies, and maps.

Question 44

"Look and feel" copyright infringement lawsuits are concerned with

A) the distinction between tangible and intangible ideas.
B) the distinction between an idea and its expression.
C) using the graphical elements of another product.
D) using the creative elements of another product.
E) preventing the use of another product's graphical user interface.

Question 45

A Facebook users' visit to a Web site can be tracked even if they do not click a Like button.

Question 46

________ enables advertisers to display more relevant ads based on user's search and browsing history.

A) Behavioral targeting
B) A Web bug
C) NORA
D) An intelligent agent
E) FIP

Question 47

________ protects the creators of intellectual property from having their work copied by others.

A) Patent protection
B) Intellectual property law
C) Copyright law
D) Fair Use Doctrine
E) Trade Secret law

Question 48

Which legal mechanism grants the owner exclusive ownership of the ideas behind an invention for 20 years?

A) copyright
B) trademark
C) patent
D) trade secret protection

Question 49

In the ________ model of informed consent, personal information can be collected until the consumer specifically requests that his or her data not be collected.

A) opt-in
B) opt-out
C) P3P
D) PGP
E) IPA

Question 50

Which of the following is not one of the types of information gathered by Web site tracking tools?

A) health concerns
B) birthplace
C) income
D) purchases
E) marital status

Question 51

Unlike regular browser cookies, Flash cookies

A) are installed only at the user's request.
B) are not stored on the user's computer.
C) cannot be easily detected or deleted.
D) monitor the user's behavior at a Web site.
E) are able to track much more of the user's personal information

Question 52

Malicious software that is installed secretly on your computer by other applications and that tracks your online movements is called spyware.

Question 53

Which of the following best describes intellectual property?

A) intangible property created by individuals or corporations
B) unique creative work or ideas
C) tangible or intangible property created from a unique idea
D) the expression of an intangible idea
E) any tangible or intangible property within the creative arts

Question 54

________ prohibits an organization from collecting any personal information unless the individual specifically takes action to approve information collection and use.

A) A legal safe harbor
B) The opt-in model
C) The FIP set of guidelines
D) P3P

Question 55

Any intellectual work product that isn't based on public knowledge can be classed as a trade secret.

Question 56

The strength of patent protection is that it

A) puts the strength of law behind copyright.
B) allows protection from Internet theft of ideas put forth publicly.
C) is easy to define.
D) provides a clear distinction between software and books.
E) grants a monopoly on underlying concepts and ideas.

Question 57

The ________ brought copyright law to the Internet age by outlawing the circumvention of technology-based protections of copyrighted materials.

A) Digital Millennium Copyright Act
B) Privacy Act
C) Freedom of Information Act
D) Electronic Communications Privacy Act
E) Computer Software Copyright Act

Question 58

The Online Privacy Alliance

A) encourages self regulation to develop a set of privacy guidelines for its members.
B) protects user privacy during interactions with Web sites.
C) has established technical guidelines for ensuring privacy.
D) is a government agency regulating the use of customer information.
E) is a lobbying organization promoting the online privacy interests of consumers.

Question 59

One of the drawbacks of patent protection is

A) that only the underlying ideas are protected.
B) digital media cannot be patented.
C) preventing the ideas from falling into public domain.
D) the years of waiting to receive it.
E) the limited period of protection.

Question 60

The limitation of trade secret protection for software is that it is difficult to prevent the ideas in the work from falling into the public domain when

A) the courts become involved.
B) hackers are able to break into the source code.
C) the software is widely distributed.
D) a new version of the software is released.
E) the software's programming code is released.

Question 61

In recent years, the illegal sharing of music files has declined with the improvement of technological prevention.

Question 62

Spamming raises the moral dimension of

A) quality of life.
B) system quality.
C) accountability and control.
D) information rights and obligations.
E) property rights and obligations.

Question 63

The most common reason business systems fail is

A) software bugs.
B) software errors.
C) hardware failures.
D) facilities failures.
E) data quality.

Question 64

Describe how a cookie works.

Question 65

Key differences between software and books include all of the following except

A) software contains more information than a book.
B) software is less easily inspected than a book.
C) software products are more easily compared to each other than books.
D) software is understood to be more fallible than a book.
E) it is more difficult to inspect software for flaws.

Question 66

Web beacons are tiny, invisible software programs hidden in e-mail messages and Web pages that are used to track and report a user's online behavior.

Question 67

Re-designing and automating business processes can be seen as a double-edged sword because

A) increases in efficiency may be accompanied by job losses.
B) increases in efficiency may be accompanied by poor data quality.
C) support for middle-management decision making may be offset by poor data quality.
D) reliance on technology results in the loss of hands-on knowledge.
E) senior executives may not approve the changes.

Question 68

The problem with Web browsers' Do Not Track options is that Web sites aren't obligated to honor these settings.

Question 69

The U.S. CAN-SPAM Act of 2003

A) makes spamming illegal.
B) requires spammers to identify themselves.
C) has dramatically cut down spamming.
D) does not override state anti-spamming laws.
E) does not outlaw the use of fake return addresses.

Question 70

According to several court findings, the general functional features of software are protected by copyright law.

Question 71

Although online tracking gathers an enormous amount of information on individual users, it is anonymous and can't be tied to a specific person.

Question 72

What are the major issues concerning privacy in the information age?
Do you believe the need for homeland security should overrule some of the personal privacy and information rights we have previously taken for granted?
Why or why not?

Question 73

Software programs were unprotected by copyright law until the early 1990s.

Question 74

One of the key concepts in patent law is novelty.

Question 75

COPPA is a set of five principles developed by the FTC that most American and European privacy law is based on.

Question 76

Companies can't realistically create error-free software because

A) any programming code is susceptible to error.
B) it is too expensive to create perfect software.
C) errors can be introduced in the maintenance stage of development.
D) any software of any complexity will have errors.
E) many errors are brought on by the user's operating system.

Question 77

When a software product is considered ________, it becomes difficult to hold software producers liable for flaws in their product.

A) to be part of a machine
B) similar to books
C) a service
D) to be an artistic expression
E) a tangible product rather than a service

Question 78

Which of the following is the primary reason that the practice of spamming has grown exponentially?

A) Telephone solicitation is no longer legal.
B) It is good advertising practice and brings in many new customers.
C) It helps pay for the Internet.
D) It is very inexpensive and can reach so many people.
E) There are no legal preventions against it.

Question 79

________ are not held liable for the messages they transmit.

A) Regulated common carriers
B) Private individuals
C) Organizations and businesses
D) Elected officials
E) European ISPs

Question 80

Which of the following is a primary drawback to the "do anything anywhere" computing environment?

A) It makes work environments less pleasant.
B) It creates inequality between workers who have home computing power and those who don't.
C) It centralizes power at corporate headquarters.
D) It blurs the traditional boundaries between work and family time.
E) It leads to employees being paid less for the total amount of work performed.