Republic of the Philippines

BATANGAS STATE UNIVERSITY

College of Informatics and Computing Sciences
Pablo Borbon Main Campus II

ACTIVITY 1
IT 111: Introduction to Computing
Module 2: Code of Ethics

Name: ____________________________________ Course/Section: ______________________

A. Determining Personal Ethics:

When you have a clear idea of what values are important to your, it may be easier to handle
situations in your life that demand ethical actions. You can follow these steps to help yourself define a list
of personal values.

1. Describe yourself. Write down words that describe who you are, based on how others view you.
Would a friend describe you as honest, helpful, or kind? These keywords will give a hint as to the
values and behaviours that are important to you?
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2. List the key principles you believe in. Make a list of the key principles that influence your
decisions. For example, would you be comfortable working in a lab that used animals for medical
research? How important is it to you that you never tell a lie? List they key ideas you believe to
be important in conducting your life. Do you always behave this way, or are there situations in
which your answers might change?
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3. Identify external influences. Where did your key principles come from? Your parents? Your
friends? Your spiritual advisors? Television and movies? You may want to question some of your
beliefs once you actually identify where they came from.
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4. Consider why. After writing down your beliefs, think about why you believe them. Have you
accepted them without investigation? Do they stand up in the context of your real-world
experiences?
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 5. Prepare a statement of values. Distill what you have written into a short statement. Having a
well-defined statement of the values you hold most important in your life will make it easier for
you to make ethical decisions in times of challenge.
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B. Case Analysis:
Analyze the given scenario and answer the following questions. The answer can be based on the
code of ethics of computing.

1. Dave works as a programmer for a large software company. He writes and tests utility programs
such as compilers. His company operates two computing shifts: during the day program
development and online applications are run; at night batch production jobs are completed. Dave
has access to workload data and learns that the evening batch runs are complementary to daytime
programming tasks; that is, adding programming work during the night shift would not adversely
affect performance of the computer to other users.

Dave comes back after normal hours to develop a program to manage his own stock portfolio. His
drain on the system is minimal, and he uses very few expendable supplies , such as printer paper.

Question: Is Dave's behavior ethical?Why?

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2. Donald works for the county records department as a computer records clerk, where he has access
to files of property tax records. For a scientific study, a researcher, Ethel, has been granted access
to the numerical portion ”but not the corresponding names ”of some records.

Ethel finds some information that she would like to use, but she needs the names and addresses
corresponding with certain properties. Ethel asks Donald to retrieve the names and addresses so
she can contact these people for more information and for permission to do further study.

Question: Should Donald release the names and addresses?Why?

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3. Charlie and Carol are students at a university in a computer science program. Each writes a
program for a class assignment. Charlie's program happens to uncover a flaw in a compiler that
ultimately causes the entire computing system to fail; all users lose the results of their current
computation. Charlie's program uses acceptable features of the language; the compiler is at fault.

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 Charlie did not suspect his program would cause a system failure. He reports the program to the
computing center and tries to find ways to achieve his intended result without exercising the
system flaw.

The system continues to fail periodically, for a total of ten times (beyond the first failure). When
the system fails, sometimes Charlie is running a program, but sometimes Charlie is not. The
director contacts Charlie, who shows all of his program versions to the computing center staff.
The staff concludes that Charlie may have been inadvertently responsible for some, but not all, of
the system failures, but that his latest approach to solving the assigned problem is unlikely to lead
to additional system failures.

On further analysis, the computing center director notes that Carol has had programs running
each of the first eight (of ten) times the system failed. The director uses administrative privilege
to inspect Carol's files and finds a file that exploits the same vulnerability as did Charlie's
program. The director immediately suspends Carol's account, denying Carol access to the
computing system. Because of this, Carol is unable to complete her assignment on time, she
receives a D in the course, and she drops out of school.

Question: Write your analysis in this scenario.

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4. Should there be rules for conduct in a virtual world? If so, what should they be?
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5. What does plagiarism mean in a world where people can easily copy, paste, and upload content of
all kinds?
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6. Should workplaces be allowed to monitor their employees’ computing activities without their
knowledge?
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“Leading Innovations, Transforming Lives”

7. Should websites be allowed to capture data related to what visitors do on their sites and analyze
and see that data?
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8. Should programmers be responsible if their software malfunctions and leads to personal injury of
financial loss?
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9. Should Internet access be provided for free by communities to their citizens who cannot afford it?
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10. How should artificial intelligence be designed to behave ethically?

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“Leading Innovations, Transforming Lives”