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The handbook of information and computer ethics
Himma K. (ed), Tavani H. (ed), John Wiley&Sons, 2007. Type: Book (9780471799597)
Date Reviewed: Jan 23 2009

This handbook accomplishes the excellent job of addressing all aspects, points of view, theories, and types of ethical problems that face philosophers in the information age. Himma and Tavani successfully compile 27 essays, from 32 experts in the field of information and computer ethics, most of them founding fathers of modern ethics theories and methodologies, such as Luciano Floridi (information ethics theory) and Batya Friedman (value-sensitive design). Each chapter is enriched with footnotes and extensive lists of references.

The essays are organized in six parts, but it is not necessary to read the book in sequence; each chapter is self contained, introducing the concepts and foundations of the respective essay, allowing the reader to jump straight to the subject of interest. Part 1 presents “Foundational Issues and Methodological Frameworks,” tracing back to Norbert Wiener’s cybernetics science, up to today’s modern theories of value-sensitive design.

Part 2 addresses theoretical issues that affect intellectual property, privacy, anonymity, and security. As in all six parts of the book, Part 2 begins by presenting a theoretical landscape--Moore’s essay, “Personality-based, rule utilitarian, and Lockean justifications of intellectual property”--and then jumps ahead to ethical problems, dilemmas, and the way to address them, with examples of privacy threats from cookies, data mining healthcare databases, surveillance technologies, radio-frequency identification (RFID) technologies, hacking, and counter-hacking.

Part 3, “Professional Issues and the Information-Related Professions,” covers the librarian profession in the first essay, followed by the pressing themes of open-source software, Internet research, health information, and business ethics. All chapters are devoted to the ethical problem of trustworthiness in lieu of professional responsibility as an information provider: neutrality, accuracy, and advocacy.

Part 4, “Responsibility Issues and Risk Assessment,” begins with Internet responsibility issues, such as Internet service provider (ISP) accountability issues, and evolves to virtual reality issues, such as virtual property, virtual child pornography, and online games. Chapter 16 touches on the issue of genetic information and privacy. Chapter 17 addresses cyber warfare and cyber conflicts. After an impressive view of ethical theories, the reader is presented with a totally different subject in the last chapter of Part 4: a detailed description of a computer-aided ethical risk assessment tool, fully explained with screen snapshots and practical applications--the example given is a thorough explanation of the ethical issues related to the UK e-voting system.

Parts 5 and 6 cover miscellaneous ethical problems, ranging from Alvin Toffler’s information overload, to Internet regulation, email spam, information plagiarism, intellectual property of online file sharing, information censorship, and information social responsibility--social digital divide, gender discrimination, and intercultural ethics. The two final chapters are crafted in a way that guarantees the completeness of the handbook as the ultimate reference on information and computer ethics. This is the greatest merit of the book: broad and deep coverage of ethical issues, by current leading ethical researchers and philosophers.

However, the reader waiting for cookie-cutter solutions to ethical issues will be disappointed; there are no ready-made recipes in the handbook, since ethical problems frequently present a double-edged-sword dilemma and it would certainly not be ethical to postulate solutions to complex and context-sensitive problems.

Reviewer:  Jair Merlo Review #: CR136453 (0912-1158)
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Professional Ethics (K.7.4 )
 
 
Public Policy Issues (K.4.1 )
 
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