Ethics

The power and expansion of computers and networking has unfortunately brought many ethical questions and situations to the forefront. While computers are powerful tools for many aspects of our modern lives and have provided us with amazing advances in many fields from astrophysics to zoology, they have in turn given us many new problematic choices for action and choice. The burgeoning field of computer ethics includes consideration of both personal and social policies for the ethical use of computer technology.

Companies have emerged to specialize in the manufacture of anti-virus, anti-spyware, anti-spam, and privacy protection software programs. Nearly everyone has heard of computers getting infected with a malicious computer virus and behaving strangely. Trojan Horses, invasive programs disguised as other things, such as music videos or games, can cause problems with computer systems and compromise a computer user's privacy. Spyware can latch onto a computer and send all sorts of data to third parties, who use this knowledge to adjust their advertising.

A whole new field of criminal justice has emerged which deals only with serious computer crimes, such as unauthorized use of a computer (i.e., the theft of usernames and passwords), identity theft, denial of service attacks, the alteration of websites, illegal or offensive material posted on websites or received in emails, predatory sexual behavior, copyright infringement, unregulated gambling, and more. Sexual predators can hide behind a screen name. Computer hackers attempt to get bank account and credit card information. Pornography and gambling can often be hard to regulate over the Internet, and copyright infringement is much more likely to go unnoticed.

Since most of these issues and problems are fairly new due to the expansion of the Internet and information technologies everywhere, laws and rules are just starting to be implemented, although it has been a challenge to keep up with the rapid acceleration of changes. It is always important to think about the ramifications of one's own actions when using computer technology.