Module II: Defining the Field of Computer Ethics

10-Mark Question Bank with Explanations & Examples

Q1. Define Computer Ethics. Explain its scope and importance. (10 Marks)
Definition
Computer ethics is the branch of applied/practical ethics that studies and analyzes the
moral, social, and legal issues arising from the development and use of computing
technology. It examines how computers create new versions of standard moral problems
and dilemmas, exacerbate old problems, and force us to apply ordinary moral norms in
uncharted realms.
The most widely cited definition is by James Moor (1985), who described computer ethics
as:
"The analysis of the nature and social impact of computer technology, and the
corresponding formulation and justification of policies for the ethical use of such
technology."
Moor argued that computers create a "policy vacuum" — situations where no rules of
conduct existed before because the technology itself is new — and computer ethics exists
to fill this vacuum with reasoned, defensible policies.
Nature of the Problem
Moor identifies computers as "logically malleable" — they can be shaped to perform any
activity that can be characterized in terms of inputs, outputs, and logical operations.
Because of this flexibility, computers introduce genuinely new ethical questions rather
than merely automating old ones. For example:
Before the internet, "stealing" meant physically removing a tangible object.
Downloading a pirated movie removes nothing from the original owner — is it still
"theft"? This is a conceptual vacuum requiring new ethical clarity.
Scope of Computer Ethics
Computer ethics covers a wide range of issues, including:
1. Privacy — collection, storage, and use of personal data (e.g., a company tracking users'
browsing habits without consent).
2. Property/Ownership — intellectual property rights over software, code, and digital
content (e.g., software piracy).
3. Access — the "digital divide" and who gets access to computing resources (e.g.,
unequal access to online education during COVID-19).
 4. Accuracy — responsibility for errors in software/data (e.g., a hospital's faulty
scheduling software causing missed treatments).
5. Security — protecting systems from unauthorized access (e.g., hacking of a bank's
database).
6. Professional responsibility — the duties of IT professionals to employers, clients, and
society (e.g., a programmer refusing to build a system that enables discrimination).
Importance
Guides professionals (like the ACM/IEEE codes) in making decisions where law lags
behind technology.
Helps society respond to rapidly evolving issues like AI bias, surveillance, and
cybercrime.
Bridges the gap between what is legally permitted and what is morally right (e.g.,
scraping public data may be legal but can still be an ethical breach of privacy).
Example: When Cambridge Analytica harvested Facebook users' data without proper
consent for political profiling, it was largely within the letter of Facebook's API rules at the
time — yet it was a major computer ethics violation, showing why ethical analysis is needed
even where law is silent.

Q2. What are Computer Ethics Codes? Discuss the major codes of ethics used
in the computing profession. (10 Marks)
Meaning
A code of ethics (or code of conduct) is a formal set of principles and standards adopted by
a professional body or organization to guide the behavior of its members. In computing,
these codes translate abstract moral principles into practical, professional guidelines,
helping IT professionals navigate situations involving conflicting obligations to employers,
clients, users, and the public.
Purpose of Codes of Ethics
Set a minimum standard of professional conduct.
Increase public trust in the profession.
Provide guidance in ambiguous or novel situations.
Serve as a basis for disciplinary action against unethical members.
Major Computer Ethics Codes
1. ACM Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct (Association for Computing Machinery)
Organized around general moral imperatives, such as:
Contribute to society and human well-being.
Avoid harm to others.
 Be honest and trustworthy.
Respect the privacy of others.
Honor confidentiality.
Example: Under this code, a software engineer who discovers a security flaw in a banking
app must disclose it responsibly rather than exploit or ignore it — this reflects the "avoid
harm" and "be honest" imperatives.
2. IEEE Code of Ethics Emphasizes engineers' responsibility to:
Disclose factors that might endanger the public or environment.
Avoid real or perceived conflicts of interest.
Reject bribery in all forms.
Improve the understanding of technology and its consequences.
Example: An IEEE member working on autonomous vehicle software must disclose known
safety limitations rather than conceal them to meet a launch deadline.
3. Ten Commandments of Computer Ethics (Computer Ethics Institute) A widely taught,
simplified set of principles, including:
1. Thou shalt not use a computer to harm other people.
2. Thou shalt not interfere with other people's computer work.
3. Thou shalt not snoop around in other people's files.
4. Thou shalt not use a computer to steal.
5. Thou shalt not use a computer to bear false witness.
6. Thou shalt not copy or use proprietary software for which you have not paid.
7. Thou shalt not use other people's computer resources without authorization.
8. Thou shalt not appropriate other people's intellectual output.
9. Thou shalt think about the social consequences of the program you write.
10. Thou shalt use a computer in ways that show consideration and respect.
Example: Commandment 6 directly addresses software piracy — using cracked/unlicensed
software violates this even if the user faces no immediate legal consequence.
4. British Computer Society (BCS) Code of Conduct Focuses on public interest,
professional competence, duty to relevant authority, and duty to the profession.
Significance
These codes are not legally binding like statutes, but they carry professional and
reputational weight — violations can lead to expulsion from professional bodies, loss of
certification, or reputational damage, and they often inform court judgments on "standard
of care" in negligence cases involving software.
Q3. Discuss the sample topics/major issues studied under Computer Ethics.
(10 Marks)
Computer ethics as a field covers a broad set of recurring issues. These are commonly
grouped as follows:
1. Computer Crime and Security
Unauthorized access, data theft, and system attacks. Example: Ransomware attacks (like
WannaCry, 2017) that encrypted hospital systems and demanded payment, endangering
patient care.
2. Software Theft and Intellectual Property
Illegally copying, distributing, or using software/digital content. Example: Torrenting a
licensed copy of Microsoft Office.
3. Hacking and Malicious Code
Unauthorized intrusion into systems and creation of viruses/malware. Example: The
"Stuxnet" worm, designed to sabotage Iranian nuclear centrifuges.
4. System Failure and Reliability
Ethical responsibility for harm caused by defective software. Example: The Boeing 737
MAX MCAS software failures linked to fatal crashes.
5. Privacy (Personal, Workplace, and Internet)
Collection and misuse of personal data. Example: Companies using cookies to build
behavioral profiles for targeted advertising without meaningful consent.
6. Artificial Intelligence and Expert Systems
Bias, accountability, and job displacement caused by automated decision-making. Example:
An AI hiring tool found to systematically downgrade resumes from women applicants.
7. Professional Responsibility of IT Salespeople and Vendors
Ethical issues in marketing/selling technology, e.g., overselling capabilities ("vaporware")
or hiding known defects.
8. Digital Divide and Access
Unequal access to computing resources based on economic or geographic factors. Example:
Rural students unable to attend online classes due to lack of internet access.
9. Freedom of Expression vs. Content Regulation
Balancing free speech online against harms like hate speech, misinformation, and
defamation.
10. Accountability and Liability
Who is responsible when an autonomous system causes harm — the programmer,
company, or user? Example: Liability debates following autonomous vehicle accidents (e.g.,
Uber's self-driving car fatality in 2018).
Conclusion: These sample topics illustrate that computer ethics is not a single fixed
doctrine but an evolving field responding to new technological capabilities — from simple
software piracy to complex questions of AI accountability.

Q4. Explain Computer Crime and Computer Security with suitable examples.
(10 Marks)
Computer Crime
Computer crime (cybercrime) refers to any illegal activity that involves a computer, either
as the target of the crime or as the tool used to commit it.
Categories of Computer Crime:
1. Computers as the target:
Hacking into systems, denial-of-service (DoS) attacks, data breaches.
Example: The 2017 Equifax data breach exposed personal data of ~147 million
people due to an unpatched vulnerability.
2. Computers as the instrument:
Using computers to commit traditional crimes like fraud, forgery, or theft.
Example: Phishing emails tricking users into revealing bank credentials, leading
to financial fraud.
3. Computers as incidental to crime:
Storing records of an unrelated crime (e.g., drug trafficking ledgers) on a
computer.

Other common forms:

Identity theft — stealing personal information to impersonate someone.
Cyberstalking and harassment.
Financial fraud — online banking scams, credit card fraud.
Cyberterrorism — attacks aimed at critical infrastructure (power grids, hospitals) for
political motives.
Computer Security
Computer security refers to the protective measures and controls designed to safeguard
computer systems, networks, and data from unauthorized access, alteration, theft, or
damage.
Core objectives (the "CIA Triad"):
Confidentiality — ensuring only authorized users access data.
Integrity — ensuring data is accurate and unaltered.
Availability — ensuring systems/data are accessible when needed.
Common security measures:
Firewalls and antivirus software.
Encryption of sensitive data.
Multi-factor authentication.
Regular software patching and security audits.
Example: A hospital encrypting patient records and requiring two-factor authentication
protects confidentiality; regular backups protect availability in case of a ransomware
attack.
Ethical Dimension
Computer crime and security are directly connected to ethics because:
Weak security is itself an ethical failing — companies have a moral duty of due
diligence to protect user data (e.g., failing to patch known vulnerabilities, as in the
Equifax case, was found to be gross negligence).
"White hat" (ethical) hackers who responsibly disclose vulnerabilities are contrasted
with "black hat" hackers who exploit them for personal gain — highlighting how
intent determines the ethical status of otherwise similar technical acts.

Q5. Discuss Software Theft and Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) issues in
Computer Ethics. (10 Marks)
Software Theft
Software theft (piracy) refers to the unauthorized copying, use, distribution, or sale of
copyrighted software.
Common forms of software theft:
1. Softlifting — copying software for use by additional users beyond the license (e.g.,
installing a single-user license on multiple office computers).
2. Counterfeiting — illegally duplicating and selling software as if genuine.
3. Internet piracy — downloading/distributing cracked software or using torrent sites.
4. Hard-disk loading — computer resellers installing unlicensed copies of software on
machines they sell to customers.
5. License misuse — violating terms of an End User License Agreement (EULA), e.g.,
using an "educational" license commercially.
Example: A small business using a single purchased copy of Adobe Photoshop on 20
employee computers without additional licenses is committing softlifting.
Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) in Computing
IPR grants creators legal control over their creative and intellectual works, incentivizing
innovation. Relevant IPR categories for software include:
1. Copyright — protects the source code/object code of software as a "literary work";
prevents unauthorized copying or distribution. (Most common protection for
software.)
2. Patents — protect novel processes or technical inventions embedded in software (e.g.,
a unique data compression algorithm).
3. Trademarks — protect brand names/logos associated with software products (e.g.,
the "Windows" logo).
4. Trade Secrets — protect confidential business information like source code or
algorithms not publicly disclosed (e.g., Google's search ranking algorithm).
Ethical Issues Involved
Balancing innovation incentives vs. access: Strong IPR protects developers'
investment and encourages innovation, but overly restrictive protection can limit
access to knowledge and technology (e.g., in developing countries where licensed
software is unaffordable).
"Victimless crime" misconception: Many users rationalize piracy since no physical
object is "stolen," but this ignores the economic harm to creators and the broader
software industry.
Open-source movement as an ethical response: Licenses like GPL and Creative
Commons represent an ethical stance that knowledge should be more freely shared,
while still respecting attribution and contribution norms.
Example: The Business Software Alliance (BSA) estimates billions of dollars in annual
global losses due to software piracy — illustrating the real economic impact, not merely a
technical license violation.
Conclusion
Software theft raises the core computer-ethics tension between property rights
(Commandment 6 of the Ten Commandments of Computer Ethics) and the ease of
duplication that digital technology enables — a tension not present with physical property.
Q6. Explain Computer Hacking and the Creation of Viruses. Discuss their
ethical implications. (10 Marks)
Computer Hacking
Hacking refers to gaining unauthorized access to a computer system or network, often by
exploiting vulnerabilities in security.
Types of hackers:
1. White hat hackers — ethical hackers who find and report vulnerabilities, often hired
for penetration testing.
2. Black hat hackers — malicious actors who exploit systems for personal gain,
sabotage, or theft.
3. Grey hat hackers — access systems without authorization but without malicious
intent, sometimes disclosing flaws publicly without permission (an ethically
ambiguous middle ground).
Example: A grey hat hacker who breaks into a company's server to prove a vulnerability
exists, then publicly discloses it (rather than reporting it privately first), may cause the very
harm they claim to be warning against — raising the ethical question of responsible
disclosure.
Common hacking techniques:
Phishing — tricking users into revealing credentials.
SQL injection — exploiting poorly coded database queries to access data.
Brute-force attacks — systematically guessing passwords.
Social engineering — manipulating people into breaking security procedures.
Creation and Spread of Viruses
A computer virus is a self-replicating program that attaches itself to legitimate
files/programs and spreads when the host file is executed, often causing harm (data
corruption, system slowdown, unauthorized access).
Related malicious software (malware):
Worms — self-replicate independently across networks without needing a host file
(e.g., the "ILOVEYOU" worm, 2000).
Trojan horses — disguise themselves as legitimate software to trick users into
installing them.
Ransomware — encrypts a victim's files and demands payment for the decryption
key (e.g., WannaCry, 2017, which crippled the UK's NHS hospital systems).
Spyware — secretly monitors user activity and transmits data to third parties.
Ethical Implications
1. Harm principle: Even "harmless" viruses created "just to see if it can be done" violate
the ethical principle of not causing harm/disruption to others' systems and work
(Commandments 1 & 2 of Computer Ethics).
2. Intent vs. impact: A virus author may not intend catastrophic harm, but the self-
replicating, uncontrollable nature of malware means the ethical responsibility for
downstream damage still rests with the creator.
3. Responsible disclosure debate: Ethical hacking requires a balance between
transparency (informing the public) and restraint (not enabling malicious actors)
when disclosing discovered vulnerabilities.
4. State-sponsored hacking: Raises complex ethical/political questions, e.g., Stuxnet
(allegedly US/Israeli-developed) sabotaged Iranian nuclear facilities — framed by
some as a legitimate act of prevention and by others as an unethical act of
cyberwarfare with uncontrollable spread (it eventually infected systems worldwide).
Conclusion
Hacking and virus creation exemplify the "dual-use" nature of computing skills — the same
technical knowledge used to protect systems (white hat hacking) can be used to attack
them, making intent, authorization, and consequence central to the ethical evaluation of
any given act.

Q7. Discuss Computer and Information System Failure as an ethical issue. (10
Marks)
Meaning
System failure refers to situations where a computer or information system does not
perform as intended, due to hardware faults, software bugs, poor design, inadequate
testing, or human error — often resulting in financial loss, harm to users, or loss of life.
Causes of System Failure
1. Software bugs/design flaws — errors in code logic.
2. Inadequate testing — rushing software to market without sufficient quality
assurance.
3. Poor requirements analysis — building a system that doesn't correctly address the
real-world problem.
4. Hardware malfunction.
5. Human error in operation or data entry.
6. Integration failures — when multiple systems/components don't work correctly
together.
Real-World Examples
1. Therac-25 (1985–87): A radiation therapy machine's software bug caused massive
radiation overdoses, leading to several patient deaths — a landmark case in computer
ethics showing the life-and-death stakes of software reliability and the responsibility
of engineers to rigorously test safety-critical systems.
2. Boeing 737 MAX (2018–19): Flawed MCAS flight-control software, combined with
inadequate pilot training and disclosure, contributed to two fatal crashes killing 346
people — raising questions about corporate responsibility, regulatory oversight, and
transparency with airlines and pilots.
3. NASA Mars Climate Orbiter (1999): Lost due to a units-conversion error (metric vs.
imperial) between two software teams — a costly failure due to inadequate
communication/verification protocols.
4. Y2K bug: Widespread fear that legacy systems using 2-digit year fields would fail at
the turn of the millennium, requiring a global, costly remediation effort.
Ethical Responsibility
Professional duty of care: Software engineers, like other professionals (doctors, civil
engineers), have an ethical obligation to build safe, reliable systems, especially in
safety-critical domains (medical devices, aviation, nuclear plants).
Whistleblowing: Employees who identify serious safety flaws face the ethical
dilemma of whether to report them internally, publicly, or risk their careers by staying
silent — as seen in the Boeing case, where engineers reportedly raised internal
concerns that were downplayed.
Liability and accountability: Determining who is responsible for failure — the
programmer, the company, the tester, or the regulator — is a recurring ethical and
legal question, particularly as systems become more complex and autonomous (e.g.,
AI-driven decision systems).
Duty to disclose limitations: Ethical practice requires companies to honestly
communicate a system's known limitations rather than overstate its reliability to
secure sales or approval.
Conclusion
Computer/information system failures show that ethics in computing is not just about
misuse of technology but also about the standard of professional competence and
honesty required in building and maintaining systems that people's lives and livelihoods
depend on.
Q8. Discuss the issue of Invasion of Privacy in the context of Computer Ethics.
(10 Marks)
Meaning of Privacy
Privacy is the right of an individual to control the collection, use, and disclosure of their
personal information. In computer ethics, invasion of privacy refers to the unauthorized
collection, access, use, or disclosure of an individual's personal data through computing
technology.
How Computers Enable Privacy Invasion
1. Mass data collection — websites, apps, and IoT devices collect vast amounts of
personal data (location, browsing habits, biometric data).
2. Data aggregation — combining data from multiple sources to build detailed profiles
of individuals, even from data that seemed harmless in isolation.
3. Surveillance — CCTV networks, facial recognition, and tracking software monitor
individuals' movements/activities.
4. Data breaches — hacking incidents exposing personal records (e.g., healthcare,
financial data).
5. Unauthorized sharing/selling of data — companies sharing user data with third
parties without proper consent.
Real-World Examples
Cambridge Analytica scandal (2018): Personal data of millions of Facebook users
was harvested without proper consent and used for political ad targeting — a
landmark example of ethical (and eventually legal) privacy violation.
Aadhaar data leak concerns (India): Repeated reports of Aadhaar (biometric ID) data
being exposed through poorly secured government/private portals raised major
privacy concerns.
Facial recognition in public spaces: Use of facial recognition by law enforcement or
retailers to track individuals without their knowledge or consent.
Ethical Principles Involved
1. Informed consent — individuals should know what data is collected and how it will
be used, and should agree to it (contrasted with long, unread "Terms & Conditions"
that provide only nominal consent).
2. Data minimization — only collecting data that is necessary for a stated purpose.
3. Purpose limitation — using data only for the purpose it was originally collected for.
4. Right to be forgotten — the ethical (and in some jurisdictions, legal, e.g., under
GDPR) claim that individuals should be able to have their data deleted.
Legal Response
Many jurisdictions have responded with data protection laws, e.g., the EU's GDPR (General
Data Protection Regulation) and India's Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023,
which formalize many computer-ethics principles (consent, purpose limitation, right to
erasure) into enforceable law.
Conclusion
Invasion of privacy exemplifies Moor's "policy vacuum" concept directly — computers
made possible forms of data collection and profiling that simply did not exist before, forcing
society to develop entirely new ethical norms and legal frameworks to protect a value
(privacy) that predates computing itself.

Q9. Explain Privacy in the Workplace and on the Internet with examples. (10
Marks)
Privacy in the Workplace
Employers increasingly use technology to monitor employees, raising ethical tension
between an organization's legitimate interest in security/productivity and an employee's
reasonable expectation of privacy.
Common workplace monitoring practices:
1. Email and internet monitoring — scanning employee emails/browsing for policy
violations.
2. Keystroke logging and screen monitoring software — tracking exactly what
employees type/view.
3. CCTV surveillance in office spaces.
4. GPS tracking of company vehicles/devices, including personal phones used for work
(BYOD policies).
5. Productivity-tracking software — measuring idle time, app usage, etc. (especially
common with remote work).
Ethical tensions:
Employers argue monitoring protects trade secrets, ensures productivity, and
prevents harassment/legal liability.
Employees argue excessive monitoring is intrusive, damages trust, and can extend
into their personal lives (e.g., monitoring personal social media, or GPS-tracking a
phone used off-duty).
Example: A company installing keystroke logging software without informing employees,
then using it to build a case for termination, raises ethical concerns about transparency and
proportionality, even if technically legal in the employment contract.
Ethical guideline: Best practice requires transparency (informing employees monitoring
is occurring), proportionality (monitoring only what's necessary for a legitimate purpose),
and limited scope (avoiding intrusion into clearly personal/off-duty activity).
Privacy on the Internet
Internet-based privacy concerns arise from how websites, apps, and platforms collect and
use personal data during ordinary use.
Key issues:
1. Cookies and tracking technologies — used to track browsing behavior across sites for
targeted advertising.
2. Data harvesting by social media platforms — collecting behavioral, relational, and
even biometric data (e.g., photo tagging with facial recognition).
3. Third-party data sharing — user data sold or shared with advertisers/data brokers.
4. IoT and smart devices — smart speakers, fitness trackers, and smart TVs collecting
continuous behavioral data.
5. Location tracking — apps requesting location access beyond what's needed for core
functionality.
Example: A fitness app that shares users' running routes publicly by default (as happened
with the Strava heatmap incident in 2018) can inadvertently reveal sensitive information,
such as the locations of secret military bases, from aggregated jogging data of personnel.
Comparing the Two Contexts
Aspect Workplace Privacy Internet Privacy

Who monitors Employer Websites, apps, advertisers, platforms

Legal basis Employment contract/policy Terms of Service / consent

Main tension Productivity/security vs. employee dignity Free services vs. data as "payment"

Example Email/keystroke monitoring Cookie-based ad tracking

Conclusion
In both contexts, the central ethical question is the same: does the party collecting data
have a legitimate, proportionate purpose, and has the individual been given meaningful
notice and choice? — reflecting core computer ethics principles of consent, transparency,
and minimal necessary intrusion.
Q10. Discuss the Social Implications of Artificial Intelligence and Expert
Systems. (10 Marks)
Meaning
Artificial Intelligence (AI) refers to computer systems capable of performing tasks that
typically require human intelligence (learning, reasoning, decision-making). Expert
systems are a form of AI designed to emulate the decision-making of a human expert in a
specific domain (e.g., medical diagnosis, legal advice) using a knowledge base and
inference rules.
Positive Social Implications
1. Increased efficiency and accuracy — e.g., AI-assisted diagnostic tools detecting
cancers in medical scans with high accuracy.
2. Access to expertise — expert systems can bring specialist-level guidance (e.g.,
agricultural advice, legal document review) to areas lacking human experts.
3. Automation of dangerous/tedious tasks — reducing human exposure to hazardous
work (e.g., AI in mining or disaster response robots).
Ethical and Social Concerns
1. Job Displacement Automation of routine cognitive and manual tasks threatens
employment in sectors like manufacturing, transportation, and even white-collar
work (legal research, customer service). Example: Widespread adoption of AI chatbots
for customer service has reduced demand for human call-center staff.
2. Bias and Discrimination AI systems trained on biased historical data can perpetuate
or amplify discrimination. Example: Amazon scrapped an internal AI recruiting tool
after discovering it systematically downgraded resumes containing the word
"women's" (e.g., "women's chess club"), because it had been trained on a decade of
male-dominated hiring data.
3. Accountability Gap When an AI/expert system makes a harmful decision (e.g.,
wrongly denying a loan or medical treatment), it is often unclear whether the
developer, deployer, or the system itself bears responsibility. Example: Self-driving car
accidents raise unresolved questions of liability between the manufacturer, software
developer, and vehicle owner.
4. Loss of Human Judgment/Over-reliance Excessive trust in expert systems may
cause professionals to defer judgment even when the system is wrong, or to lose
critical skills over time (deskilling). Example: A doctor over-relying on an AI
diagnostic tool might miss a rare condition the system wasn't trained to detect.
5. Transparency and the "Black Box" Problem Many modern AI systems (especially
deep learning models) make decisions in ways that are not easily explainable even to
their creators, raising concerns for fields requiring accountability, like criminal
sentencing or credit decisions. Example: The COMPAS algorithm, used in some US
 courts to predict recidivism risk, was found by investigative journalists to be racially
biased against Black defendants — yet its internal decision logic was proprietary and
not fully explainable.
6. Privacy Concerns AI systems often require massive datasets, including personal data,
raising the privacy issues discussed earlier (surveillance, profiling).
7. Autonomy and Control Long-term concerns about highly autonomous AI systems
acting in ways not fully predictable or controllable by their creators (relevant to
debates on AI safety and regulation).
Ethical/Regulatory Responses
Development of AI ethics guidelines (e.g., EU AI Act, OECD AI Principles)
emphasizing fairness, transparency, accountability, and human oversight.
Calls for explainable AI (XAI) to make automated decisions understandable and
challengeable.
Human-in-the-loop requirements for high-stakes decisions (e.g., requiring human
review of AI-recommended parole decisions).
Conclusion
AI and expert systems illustrate a mature stage of Moor's "policy vacuum" — society is still
developing the ethical and legal frameworks needed to ensure these powerful, opaque, and
increasingly autonomous systems serve human welfare rather than undermine fairness,
employment, and accountability.

Q11. Discuss the Ethical Issues Related to Information Technology

Salesmanship. (10 Marks)
Context
IT vendors, salespeople, and marketers occupy a critical position between technology
developers and end users/organizations. Because buyers (especially non-technical clients)
often cannot fully evaluate complex technical claims, IT sales carries heightened ethical
responsibility — an information and power asymmetry exists between seller and buyer.
Common Ethical Issues in IT Salesmanship
1. Overselling / Exaggerating Capabilities Salespeople may exaggerate what
software/hardware can actually do to close a deal, misleading clients about real-world
performance. Example: Selling an "AI-powered" analytics tool by overstating its
accuracy or autonomy when it is, in practice, a simple rule-based system — sometimes
called "AI washing."
2. Vaporware Announcing or marketing a product that does not yet exist (or may never
be fully realized) to generate interest, pressure competitors, or secure early
sales/investment. Example: A company pre-selling "revolutionary" software with a
 launch date it knows is unrealistic, to lock in customers before competitors can
respond.
3. Concealing Known Defects Failing to disclose known bugs, security vulnerabilities,
or limitations to close a sale. Example: Selling a point-of-sale system with a known
payment-processing vulnerability without informing the client, prioritizing the sales
quota over customer security.
4. High-Pressure and Manipulative Sales Tactics Using artificial urgency (fake
"limited time" offers), confusing pricing/licensing structures, or exploiting a client's
lack of technical knowledge to push unnecessary upgrades or add-ons.
5. Conflicts of Interest Recommending a product because it yields a higher sales
commission rather than because it is the best fit for the client's actual needs.
6. Inadequate After-Sales Support / Support Withdrawal Promising ongoing technical
support or updates to secure a sale, then failing to deliver once payment is received.
7. Data and Privacy Misuse in Sales Processes Using aggressive data-collection tactics
during the sales/trial process (e.g., harvesting a prospective client's data during a "free
trial" for other commercial purposes).
Why This Matters Ethically
Information asymmetry: Clients — especially small businesses, schools, hospitals, or
government bodies — often lack the technical expertise to independently verify a
salesperson's claims, creating a duty of honesty comparable to fiduciary
responsibility.
Downstream harm: Poor IT purchasing decisions driven by misleading sales
practices can cascade into real harm — e.g., a hospital purchasing an inadequately
tested/secure records system based on inflated claims could endanger patient data
and care.
Erosion of trust in the profession: Just as with the codes of ethics discussed earlier
(ACM, IEEE), unethical sales practices damage the broader public trust in the
computing profession as a whole.
Ethical Guidelines for IT Sales
Full and honest disclosure of a product's actual capabilities and limitations.
Avoiding promotion of products before they are genuinely ready (no vaporware).
Recommending solutions based on client need, not commission incentive.
Being transparent about pricing, licensing terms, and support commitments.
Applying the same professional codes of conduct (e.g., ACM's "be honest and
trustworthy" imperative) to sales and marketing roles, not just to engineers and
developers.
Conclusion
IT salesmanship issues show that computer ethics is not confined to programmers or
hackers — it extends across the entire lifecycle of technology, including how it is marketed
and sold, because unethical sales practices can just as easily cause real harm to individuals,
organizations, and society as technical misconduct can.

Quick Revision Table

Topic Core Ethical Issue Key Example

Definition of Computer Filling the "policy vacuum" Digital piracy vs. traditional theft
Ethics created by new technology

Computer Ethics Codes Professional standards for IT ACM Code, Ten Commandments
conduct of Computer Ethics

Computer Crime & Unauthorized access, data Equifax breach, WannaCry

Security protection duty ransomware

Software Theft & IPR Balancing creator rights vs. easy Software piracy, GPL/open source
digital copying

Hacking & Viruses Intent and authorization Stuxnet worm

determine ethical status

System Failure Professional duty of care in safety- Therac-25, Boeing 737 MAX
critical systems

Invasion of Privacy Consent, data minimization, Cambridge Analytica

purpose limitation

Workplace/Internet Transparency & proportionality in Employee email monitoring,

Privacy monitoring cookie tracking

AI & Expert Systems Bias, accountability, job Amazon's biased hiring AI,
displacement COMPAS algorithm

IT Salesman Issues Honesty amid information Vaporware, AI-washing

asymmetry