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Ethics for the Information Age
Ethics for the Information Age is appropriate for any standalone Computers and Society or Computer Ethics course offered by a computer science, business, or philosophy department, as well as special modules in any advanced CS course. It is also appropriate for readers interested in computers and society or computer ethics.
In an era where information technology changes constantly, a thoughtful response to these rapid changes requires a basic understanding of IT history, an awareness of current issues, and a familiarity with ethics. Ethics for the Information Age is unique in its balanced coverage of ethical theories used to analyze problems encountered by computer professionals in today’s environment. By presenting provocative issues such as social networking, government surveillance, and intellectual property from all points of view, this market-leading text challenges students to think critically and draw their own conclusions, which ultimately prepares them to become responsible, ethical users of future technologies. ¿ Teaching and Learning Experience This program presents a better teaching and learning experience–for you and your students. It will
In an era where information technology changes constantly, a thoughtful response to these rapid changes requires a basic understanding of IT history, an awareness of current issues, and a familiarity with ethics. Ethics for the Information Age is unique in its balanced coverage of ethical theories used to analyze problems encountered by computer professionals in today’s environment. By presenting provocative issues such as social networking, government surveillance, and intellectual property from all points of view, this market-leading text challenges students to think critically and draw their own conclusions, which ultimately prepares them to become responsible, ethical users of future technologies. ¿ Teaching and Learning Experience This program presents a better teaching and learning experience–for you and your students. It will
400 pages, Paperback
First published May 11, 2004
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Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews
March 13, 2009
If you've actually taken a class in ethics, this book is going to be way oversimplified. It does do a good job though of explaining ethical questions surrounding computer technology, so factually it's interesting.
February 21, 2020
What can you do when your intellect is too limited to write your own programs? Well, you can be a smart *** and tell the ones who can what they should do. And the irony is double: ethics from a social parasite living off the tax dollar.
August 7, 2019
Better than the professor I had, no offense...
May 19, 2018
I think textbooks ought to be held to the same standard as any general nonfiction, and this book is not bad by that standard. Chapter 2 in particular serves as a nice introduction to ethical theories. The technology discussed seems a bit dated at times, this is hard to avoid considering the speed of advancements, and the author is appropriately forward thinking in many places. Some of the content comes across as somewhat elementary for a college class, while in places it becomes a bit speculative, but overall a solid effort.
February 16, 2024
I'm reading the third edition but it doesn't seem to be listed here.
I would highly recommend this book to students of computer science, software engineering, and instructors teaching a course in social implications of information processing regardless of the course's ethics focus or lack thereof. While it does not fit all the topics I prefer to cover it does a wonderful job as a supplementary text.
I would highly recommend this book to students of computer science, software engineering, and instructors teaching a course in social implications of information processing regardless of the course's ethics focus or lack thereof. While it does not fit all the topics I prefer to cover it does a wonderful job as a supplementary text.
June 15, 2019
Interesting subject matter, but it reads like the required textbook that it is.
January 13, 2026
This remains my text book of choice for teaching a class in the social implications of computing. My thanks to the author for presenting issues objectively and releasing new editions frequently.
The ninth edition has removed the outdated end of chapter interviews in favor of adding more main content. This seems like the right move to me. Less so is the removal of software engineering, simulations, validation and verification, and software warranties, topics that impact the entire population, not just students studying computing. While I was also sad to see the history of the term “hacker” go, something had to make room for the ever expanding computing front. The “Introduction to Argumentation” Appendix is a great addition. It would also be great to see the ACM Code of Ethics updated from the 1997 version. As the author notes, it is very challenging to keep thousands of sources up to date. There were numerous other updates, improvements, and changes. One troubling trend is the declining quality of references including more citing of Wikipedia articles, growing lack of publication dates, and URLs without access dates. While this likely represents a very large amount of work, it seems especially necessary to excel in the use of sources given our times.
I received a copy of the hardcover book from the publisher and cannot speak to the Kindle Edition.
The ninth edition has removed the outdated end of chapter interviews in favor of adding more main content. This seems like the right move to me. Less so is the removal of software engineering, simulations, validation and verification, and software warranties, topics that impact the entire population, not just students studying computing. While I was also sad to see the history of the term “hacker” go, something had to make room for the ever expanding computing front. The “Introduction to Argumentation” Appendix is a great addition. It would also be great to see the ACM Code of Ethics updated from the 1997 version. As the author notes, it is very challenging to keep thousands of sources up to date. There were numerous other updates, improvements, and changes. One troubling trend is the declining quality of references including more citing of Wikipedia articles, growing lack of publication dates, and URLs without access dates. While this likely represents a very large amount of work, it seems especially necessary to excel in the use of sources given our times.
I received a copy of the hardcover book from the publisher and cannot speak to the Kindle Edition.
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January 7, 2020It's a great textbook because it explains clearly the different existing ethical frameworks, then applies them to different scenarios, such as privacy, emerging technologies, government regulation, etc.
August 26, 2020
The book is surprisingly still current, despite how quickly technology advances. However, the book has an emphasis, rather than being more encompassing of the broad topic. The "digital divide" topic wasn't even mentioned until far later in the book, for example. Good book otherwise.
November 27, 2018
Oversimplified, but works as a good summary of relevant issues and ethical frameworks to tackle them.
March 13, 2022
The first chapter is wasting time by reviewing the computing history, and in some chapters is all about American ethics law. Will never recommend it again.
November 29, 2022
Solid book about ethics and technology. Engaging read packed with scenarios to help you practice different modes of ethical thinking.
June 21, 2021
1.0 out of 5 stars
What are the Ethics of Slanted Writing in an Ethics Book?
December 20, 2004
This book is one of the two texts in FSU's COP 3502: "Introduction to Computer Science" course (a required course in their Computer Science degree). It's mostly a waste of time. The first two chapters are of some use because they provide a brief history of computers and a quick introduction to the ethical theories one can use to resolve ethical dilemmas. Unfortunately, chapters 3 through 6 (inclusive) are worthless. They consist of about 190 pages of figuring out why certain obviously wrong activities are wrong (things like sending spam, producing pornography, stealing intellectual property, violating privacy, stealing identities, producing viruses, etc.). The last three chapters might have some merit, though. They cover some of the more general ethical consideration of working in the computer science field. Unfortunately, I stopped reading when the author started bringing up false POLITICAL references.
In general, most of the examples of ethical situations in these chapters are non-computer-related. Since the author specifically talks about this book being an ethics course as adhering to the IEEE's and ACM's "Computing Curricula 2001" standard, its examples ought to be drawn from the Information Systems world. My biggest gripe with these chapters is the obvious political slant of the author. He's constantly slipping his world-view based assumptions into the text as absolute-truth. I wonder what the ethics is of implying to students that certain things are true when, at best, they're controversial, and at worst, false?
I truthfully feel sorry for the poor students in FSU's Computer Science degree program who are stuck going through a course with this book and a (most probably) similarly slanted professor.
I give it 1 Star out of 5.
What are the Ethics of Slanted Writing in an Ethics Book?
December 20, 2004
This book is one of the two texts in FSU's COP 3502: "Introduction to Computer Science" course (a required course in their Computer Science degree). It's mostly a waste of time. The first two chapters are of some use because they provide a brief history of computers and a quick introduction to the ethical theories one can use to resolve ethical dilemmas. Unfortunately, chapters 3 through 6 (inclusive) are worthless. They consist of about 190 pages of figuring out why certain obviously wrong activities are wrong (things like sending spam, producing pornography, stealing intellectual property, violating privacy, stealing identities, producing viruses, etc.). The last three chapters might have some merit, though. They cover some of the more general ethical consideration of working in the computer science field. Unfortunately, I stopped reading when the author started bringing up false POLITICAL references.
In general, most of the examples of ethical situations in these chapters are non-computer-related. Since the author specifically talks about this book being an ethics course as adhering to the IEEE's and ACM's "Computing Curricula 2001" standard, its examples ought to be drawn from the Information Systems world. My biggest gripe with these chapters is the obvious political slant of the author. He's constantly slipping his world-view based assumptions into the text as absolute-truth. I wonder what the ethics is of implying to students that certain things are true when, at best, they're controversial, and at worst, false?
I truthfully feel sorry for the poor students in FSU's Computer Science degree program who are stuck going through a course with this book and a (most probably) similarly slanted professor.
I give it 1 Star out of 5.
May 24, 2016
The 6th edition of Ethics for the Information Age includes many updates and improvements over the last edition. Moving Virtue ethics into the Introduction to Ethics chapter cleaned things up considerably. I was overjoyed to finally find access dates for online references. Other nice surprises: a mention of the development of written language, IBM's role in WWII, password advice (be great to compare to advice from the past decades)
Hopes for next edition: Updated data (10+ year old data and examples, some of those prediction dates are here or gone), mention how Software As A Service allows Trade Secrets to protect IP, more technical details (perhaps in a format that makes it easy for the uninterested to skip), a section on critical thinking and logical arguments, new interviews to replace dated ones
This is still my text book of choice for teaching a class in the social implications of computing. My thanks to the author for presenting issues objectively and releasing new editions frequently.
Hopes for next edition: Updated data (10+ year old data and examples, some of those prediction dates are here or gone), mention how Software As A Service allows Trade Secrets to protect IP, more technical details (perhaps in a format that makes it easy for the uninterested to skip), a section on critical thinking and logical arguments, new interviews to replace dated ones
This is still my text book of choice for teaching a class in the social implications of computing. My thanks to the author for presenting issues objectively and releasing new editions frequently.
May 25, 2014
I read most of it for a class, as a new person in ethics and law field it is a good book to start with .
It is written in a light English language which made it easy to read and uses less technical jargon for those who are not deep in information technology.
Most (if not all) of the laws the book have discussed are U.S laws and american point of view which might not be very interesting for everyone to know about:D
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.هذا الكتاب المقرر علي في مادة أخلاقيات تقنية المعلومات
.لأول مرة أقرأ عن الأخلاقيات والقوانين فكان مفيداً بالنسبة لي كجديدة في هذا العلم
يعرف الكاتب الأخلاق ثم يعرض النظريات الثمانية التي
.على أساسها يتم تصنيف التصرف كأخلاقي أو غير أخلاقي
,تكلم عن عدة مواضيع مثل الحقوق الملكية الفكرية , الخصوصية و مراقبة الحكومات لشعوبها
.الأخلاق والمهنة و الأخلاق وتكوين الثروات
يتبني الكاتب وجهة نظر أمريكية في النظر للأمور ويناقش القوانين الأمريكية فقط
.لذلك قد لا يكون مفيداً لغير المهتمين بهذه النقطة
January 22, 2015
Much like the last edition, this is a good text to base a Social Implications Of Computing class on. While ethics is in the title, and relevant to the topics covered in the text, it is easy to focus on the social implications of computing with proper emphasis on ethics being a tool for studying social impact. In addition to missing a chapter on critical thinking as did the last edition, this new edition removed the technical computing details that was present. While making the book more accessible to non-computing majors I believe it also made it less interesting for CS majors, which makes up the majority of my students.
January 22, 2015
Other than missing a chapter on critical thinking this is a great text to base a Social Implications Of Computing class on. While ethics is in the title, and relevant to the topics covered in the text it is easy to focus on the social implications of computing with proper emphasis on ethics being on tool for studying the social impact.
June 4, 2013
Read most of it for class. Good layout.
January 5, 2014
It's a good book that explains the ethical issues in information technology .
February 10, 2014
Read this book during a class taught by the author. It was a great experience. It did open my mind to a new big world, nothing more to say!
November 18, 2014
"The first task of life is to live."
"All possess something and none has too much."
"All possess something and none has too much."
Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews