Ethics in development of Information Technology
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When people are asked to give their opinion about technology as a whole, they seem to think in a more of a black-and-white way, a binary approach. Many people express that technology is more of a ‘job-destroyer’, ‘something which enslaves humans by making them dependent on itself’, some also say that it ‘makes us lazy and equips us with God-ly powers’, etc. However, in contrast to these points, other people claim that it’s ‘something which induces progress into the society’, ‘something that saves human lives and feeds the starving and the poor’, ‘which increases the standard of living’, and ‘which creates interesting and rewarding jobs’. Speaking about the development, we, as people who are studying Information Technology, have learnt that the enormous field of Internet of Things (IoT) focusses on developing internet-connected applications which will make our lives easier and comfortable. In addition to the principles and practices which are expected to be followed during the development of the applications, there are some lesser emphasized facts too. These facts include an important factor of ETHICS. Humans are accustomed to follow some ethics right from our birth, rather we are induced these ethics by our elders. The reason is quite simple – for the betterment of the society and to avoid any evil exploitation of the lesser intelligent people. However, modern capitalism tends to bend the traditional ethics. People resort to ease and comfort over what is right. A lot of subtopics fall under the wide section of Ethics. They include: 1. Characterizing the Internet of Things 2. Privacy (Of the users as well as their valuable data) 3. Control (Who actually controls the collected data) 4. Environment (Concerns about the environment and practices) 5. Solutions (for the preservation of the principle of Ethics) In this slide show, we are going to emphasize on the initial couple of topics.
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Ethics in development of Information Technology
- 1. ETHICS
- 3. 3 TECHNOLOGY
- 4. “Technology is a job-destroyer” 4 “Technology will save lives!” “Technology will bring progress to society!” “Technology is making us LAZY!”
- 6. 6
- 7. 7 CHARACTERIZING THE INTERNET OF THINGS PRIVACY CONTROL ENVIRONMENT ETHICS
- 8. 8 TOPIC TO BE COVERED IN THIS SLIDE SHOW: › Characterizing the Internet of Things › Privacy
- 9. 9 On what basis you want to characterize your IOT device
- 10. 10
- 11. 11 Vannevar Bush’s masterful essay of 1945, “As We May Think” “Machines with interchangeable parts can now be constructed with great economy of effort. In spite of much complexity, they perform reliably. Witness the humble typewriter, or the movie camera, or the automobile. Electrical contacts have ceased to stick when thoroughly understood. Note the automatic telephone exchange, which has hundreds of thousands of such contacts, and yet is reliable. A spider web of metal, sealed in a thin glass container, a wire heated to brilliant glow, in short, the thermionic tube of radio sets, is made by the hundred million, tossed about in packages, plugged into sockets—and it works! Its gossamer parts, the precise location and alignment involved in its construction, would have occupied a master craftsman of the guild for months now it is built for thirty cents. The world has arrived at an age of cheap complex devices of great reliability; and something is bound to come of it.”
- 12. 12 Example Connecting the Internet to the real world allows both your physical actions to be made public and, in the opposite direction, for events on the Internet to affect your environment. Applying this bidirectional communication to Things can lead to features that interact with the concept of privacy. When you switch on your Good Night Lamp, the “little lamp” at your mother’s bedside will also turn on, letting her know you are home. When you leave the office, the WhereDial at home turns to let your partner know you’re travelling.
- 13. PRIVACY 13
- 14. 14 WHAT IS “PRIVACY”? Internet : A massive open publishing platform. Internet in general terms defined as global network connecting millions of computer. The data that has been shared through internet is visible to anyone online. It is the most cost effective communications method in the world. The following services are available for communication: • Email. • Facebook. • Online shopping websites. • Skype.
- 15. 15 Impact of internet The internet is a globally connected network system that exchanges data of an individual. Example: Facebook . Do you always want people to be able to see that data? Do you want not just your family or friends but also companies , police , etc to see that data?
- 16. 16 Private data “If you’ve got nothing to hide , then you’ve got nothing to fear.” Some of you may not want your activities to be shared with an abusive ex-spouse. You might be risk of assassination by criminal , terrorist , or state organizations. You might belong to a group which is targeted by your state(religion ,sexuality, political party, etc.)
- 17. 17 Impact of IoT • We don’t typically consider mobile phone as an IoT device , but using this device we can upload our photographs in just one click. • Previously we would have to take photo , develop it and take printed copy to computer scan it , and then upload it. • Now by this example we can consider the mobile phone as an IoT device. • Like this we use a lot of device such as Nike+ ,GPS watch , etc. • This all device generates data about user and transfers it through internet.
- 18. 18 Case study: WhereDial and Goodnight lamp • WhereDial : It provides a delightful way to make a personal connection with a family member or friend. • The WhereDial is made from laser cut plywood or colourful plastic and features a list of location categories around the dial. • Through the cloud based location aggregator – MapMe.At ,the WhereDial can retrieve a person’s location from FourSquare.
- 19. 19 WhereDial
- 20. 20 Good Night Lamp • Good Night Lamp: It share your presence and availability with your global friends and family in an easy and ambient way. • When you switch on your Good Night Lamp,the “Little lamp” will at your mother’s beside will also turn on , letting her know you are at home.
- 23. 23
- 24. 24 “IoT applications are mere simple modifications to the everyday things.”
- 25. 25 There are no notifications issued whether any personal data is going to be transferred. In such situations, we have quite a little or even negligible control over the data, which eventually disturbs the concept of privacy.
- 26. 26 DATA COLLECTION “…data being collected without our knowledge by hidden cameras and sensors at public places..”
- 27. 27 ANALYSIS AND PREDICTION “…’predict consumer behavior’ … data is collected for analysis to improve existing products.” “… there are no actual governmental laws to control the flow of such data.”
- 28. 28 OPTIMUM USE OF RESOURCES “Data analysis helps to make efficient and optimum use of resources to make them available for everyone…”
- 29. 29 AGGREGATED DATA “Smart algorithms and computing power perform such analysis in no time…But some aggregated data is always vulnerable…”
- 30. 30 “…In public places like parks and shops, sensors like CCTV cameras, temperature meters, footfall counters collect data all the time. The term of “data subjects” is coined for this purpose. Although we do not have any direct ownership over the collected data, we should have some rights over it...”
- 31. 31 CONCLUSION
- 32. 32 • Privacy along with Ethics means the FAIR and RIGHTFUL ways of collecting data • This means letting the data subjects know that their data is being collected. • The data should be well-preserved and well-secured to avoid it from getting into the undesired hands.
- 33. THANKS! Any questions? You can find me at: AnKit Mhatre – ankitmhatre164@gmail.com 33
Editor's Notes
- When people are asked to give their opinion about technology as a whole, they seem to think in a more of a black-and-white way, a binary approach. Many people express that technology is more of a ‘job-destroyer’, ‘something which enslaves humans by making them dependent on itself’, some also say that it ‘makes us lazy and equips us with God-ly powers’, etc. However, in contrast to these points, other people claim that it’s ‘something which induces progress into the society’, ‘something that saves human lives and feeds the starving and the poor’, ‘which increases the standard of living’, and ‘which creates interesting and rewarding jobs’.
- Speaking about the development, we, as people who are studying Information Technology, have learnt that the enormous field of Internet of Things (IoT) focusses on developing internet-connected applications which will make our lives easier and comfortable. In addition to the principles and practices which are expected to be followed during the development of the applications, there are some lesser emphasized facts too. These facts include an important factor of ETHICS.
- Humans are accustomed to follow some ethics right from our birth, rather we are induced these ethics by our elders. The reason is quite simple – for the betterment of the society and to avoid any evil exploitation of the lesser intelligent people. However, modern capitalism tends to bend the traditional ethics. People resort to ease and comfort over what is right.
- A lot of subtopics fall under the wide section of Ethics. They include: Characterizing the Internet of Things Privacy (Of the users as well as their valuable data) Control (Who actually controls the collected data) Environment (Concerns about the environment and practices) Solutions (for the preservation of the principle of Ethics)
- Now that we’ve looked into some specific examples about why the privacy concerns are so emphasized, we’ll see another perspective of privacy.
- The aforementioned examples are the devices that we choose to deploy in our personal space, at our will. But, there are electronic components like sensors, which work in the background and continuously collect data. They are so ubiquitous, that they collect even such data that we haven’t chosen to go public. In fact, when deployed in common places, people do own any direct rights over such data.
- Also, many of the IoT applications are mere simple modifications to the everyday things like the Internet-connected chair or the internet-connected scarf from your coat rack.
- Now talking about data being transferred without prior notice silently, we come to the point about our data being collected without our knowledge by hidden cameras and sensors at public places like simple vending machines which are used for demographic purposes.
- Although the purpose of such installations is to “predict consumer behavior” towards specific objects, that data is necessarily collected without notifying the person. Also, there are no actual governmental laws to control the flow of such data. The majority of the population blindly accepts whatever the privacy policy the hosting business has issued. In fact, in today’s world, more and more data is being collected under the broad title of analysis and prediction of consumer behavior.
- Now, this doesn’t mean that all the data that is collected is useless and is going to be used for some evil cause by some huge corporation. It’s definitely collected for the betterment of the existing products. Let’s see an example for this: Suppose, in the mornings, sensors can be used to measure subtle data peaks collected for the use of electricity. This electricity is consumed by specific components like an electric kettle or an electric shower. But, these analytics can be used to predict the number of members in a household. Now, this data can be aggregated with other data sources like those of water meter readings. And we can re-route excessive resources of electricity and water to these households, over those households which are expected to wake up an hour later. This helps in avoiding overproduction and optimizing the use of resources.
- The idea of analyzing multiple data-sets is now a reality. Smart algorithms and computing power perform such analysis in no time. But the basic concern of privacy still overshadows these noble causes. It is very important to understand that even aggregate data can “leak” information. For example, such analysis can definitely predict which household is away for a vacation. Even street cameras help for such prediction. This may endanger the household for a break-in or robbery. Such situations raise a lot of questions: whether allowing the resources providing companies to trade data? Whether they should be allowed for such data analysis? Or should there be any limits for such analysis?
- This brings us to the end of our discussion. The concept of PRIVACY doesn’t necessarily mean to hide all the data nor does it mean to avoid collecting any personal data. Rather, Privacy along with Ethics means the FAIR and RIGHTFUL ways of collecting data. This means letting the data subjects know that their data is being collected. In some cases, it also means that the hosts who are collecting the data should get permissions before collecting any data. The data should be well-preserved and well-secured to avoid it from getting into the undesired hands.