Importamce of the eticks for the IT professionals Essay

Importamce of the eticks for the IT professionals - Essay Example The advent of technology has leaped mankind to a new level in almost every field of life, ranging from education to business, tourism to medicine. IT departments and computer professionals have grown to become one of the important assets of any organization since they have the power to drive the organization towards the attainment of an effective and structured infrastructure. IT professionals are known to be involved in different activities like development, analysis, design, implementation and maintenance pertaining to computer applications and hardware, as well as data mining and data warehousing techniques. The computer applications that are developed by IT professionals have an impact on their environment and society; some effects may not be as positive as the others. Therefore, it is important for the IT professionals to understand the magnitude of the probable effects of their creations so that they can aim to produce applications that benefit the society, rather than cause ha rm. Thomson and Schmoldt (2001) defined professional ethics as the concepts of doing good or bad, right or wrong; it involves the decision making aspects of any professional conduct. Computer ethics have gained much importance over the last two decades since many articles, journals and conferences discuss its relevance in the prevailing times. It has been attempted to be explained by many researchers, however, Bynum and Rogerson (1996) defined it comprehensively as the field of analysis that identifies the effects of information technology on the health, wealth, intellect, freedom, privacy, security and work of individuals in the society. Therefore it can be stated that computer ethics involve the effects on humans as well as on the society. Crnkovic (n.d) pointed out that an IT professional possesses the power to ‘create’; this power has to be exercised with greater responsibility since it influences people and their lives. The IT professionals should have strong ethic al mindsets to overcome the unjust temptations and continue to use their tools and platforms for the betterment of mankind. 2. Literature Review An IT professional maintains relationships with several figures including, employer, clients and society. Some conflicts of interest might rise among these entities; it is the responsibility of the IT professional to tackle the conflicts with ethical considerations. Keil (2008) categorized the ethical concerns of IT professionals as following: data protection, privacy and security, intellectual property and honesty. Moor (1998) stressed on the relevance of computer ethics by defining it as a ‘special field of ethical research’. He classified the area of computer ethics into two broad divisions; firstly, the social effects of the computer technology on humans and society, and secondly, the policies and standards that are formulated for the implication of computer ethics in different fields. He argued that there exists a ‘p olicy vacuum’ in the area of computer ethics. Moor (1985) also agreed with the minimal focus on formulation of policies of computer ethics on an international level. Few efforts that have been made in this respect have resulted in the development of ‘ACM Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct’ (Association for Computing Machinery, 2011). The guideline compels the IT professionals to develop software that protect the users from health and safety threats. It discourages all actions that are aimed to intentionally destroy data or files that might be present in any individual’s system i.e. development of viruses. Computer ethics are also important so that due credit for the development of any software is given to the deserving side. ACM Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct also promotes this notion and strictly prohibits any unauthorized replications or usage of programs or tools (Association for Computing Machinery, 2011). Weckert (1997) defined intellect ual prop