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Ethics. What is it, why is it relevant to HCI, why is it important?. What is ethics?. Right and wrong Behaviour ‘absolute’ not conditional Professional issues. Why us?. Technology changes society
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Ethics What is it, why is it relevant to HCI, why is it important?
What is ethics? • Right and wrong • Behaviour • ‘absolute’ not conditional • Professional issues
Why us? • Technology changes society • Need to understand that change, put it to effective use, understand the consequences of our actions • We are often asked to do things that create ethical dilemmas • We have powerful tools at our command that we can do significant things with
Why HCI people? • At the intersection of technology, individuals and society • Understand the capabilities of technologies, the needs of individuals, the needs of societies • Sometimes in conflict
Examples • Boss asks us to monitor employees’ email • Legal or illegal • Ethical or unethical • Specialist knowledge puts you into major role in consultancy company • Company asked to develop missile offence system for government • Many employees are pacifists • Take the contract, or not?
Philosophical approaches to ethics • Utilitarianism • “greatest happiness of the greatest number” • Happiness = sum of pleasure – sum of pain • Simple, democratic, forward looking and consequential
Problems with utilitarianism • Copying software could be argued as good as it spreads more happiness to more people • Yet most would regard it as unethical • Punishing an innocent person for a crime may be sanctioned • the deterrent effects may be more beneficial than the problems suffered by the single person
And more • Hard to measure happiness and compare different happy events • No notion of duty or friendship
Kantian ethics • Deontic (to do with acts) • Do your duty • The right motive is “to do the right thing”, “to do one’s duty”, “to respect the moral law.” • A rational being who consistently has the right motive has Good Will. • Nothing is more important for morality than having a good will. According to Kant, a rational being with a Good Will automatically does its duty.
Kant II • Not consequentialist • Do duty regardless • E.g. Do not lie • Woman comes into your house seeking shelter from a violent partner. Partner comes in and asks if woman is there.
Ethical issues to consider • Data protection/freedom of information • (Ethical) hacking • Consequences of software errors – who is responsible?
Biometric identity cards • Government want to bring in biometric identity cards to cut down crime, stop identity theft, reduce the chances of terrorist attack, reduce illegal immigration and asylum seeking, cut benefit fraud, … • So a good thing
Facts • £1.3 billion: cost of identity theft in UK per year • £1.6 million: credit card fraud in UK per day • £2 billion: benefit fraud • Biometrics uses human physical characteristic to identify the person • Retinal scans • Fingerprint recognition • Face recognition
Problems • German magazine tested almost every biometric security device available to consumers • Bypassed them all with sellotape, talcum powder, and a photograph • 2.3%: falsely identified as terrorist on every flight using facial recognition • 10%: failure rate of biometric passports in UK and EU trials
Terrorism? • Identity theft a big business, with competent computing people in it • Will get identities from dead people, emigrated ones, etc. • Privacy International: 25 countries suffering from terrorism since 1986, 80% have national i.d. cards, 33% of which have biometric data
Fraud? • Only £50m of the £2b is identity-related • Presence of centralised biometric identity system will give more power to those with expertly forged cards • If we trust biometric system then a faked i.d. becomes very powerful
Privacy? • Privacy issues as well • Notion is that information can be shared by government departments • Will the govt always be trustable? • And by private organisations • Ads whilst you walk
Costs • £5.5 billion to set up • And of course that won’t get larger, given it’s a government project • £85 for biometric passport, £40 for i.d. card • Every 10 years or so • Savings to each of us: 83p/year • If works perfectly, doesn’t take any more police time, eliminates all identity crime, doesn’t delay us, doesn’t go over budget
Dilemma • Should we have biometric identity cards? • Should you work on them?