GLOBALIZATION
Globalization
means integration of countries through commerce, transfer of technology, and
exchange of information and culture. In a way, it includes acting together and
interacting economies through trade, investment, loan, development schemes and
capital across countries. These involve flow of knowledge, science, technology,
skills, culture, information, and entertainment, besides direct human resource,
tele-work, and outsourcing. For the engineers, the issues such as multinational
organizations, computer, internet functions, military development and
environmental ethics have assumed greater importance for their very sustenance
and progress.
MULTINATIONAL
CORPORATIONS
Organizations
who have established business in more than one country, are called
multinational
corporation. The
headquarters are in the home country and the business is extended in many host
countries. The
Western organizations do business in less developing and under-developed
countries to gain the advantage of inexpensive labor, availability of natural
resources, conducive-tax atmosphere, and virgin market for the products.
At the same
time, the developing countries are also benefited by fresh job opportunities,
jobs with higher remuneration and challenges, transfer of technology, and
several social benefits by the wealth developed. But this happens invariably
with some social and cultural disturbance. Loss of jobs for the home country,
and loss or exploitation of natural resources, political instability for the host countries are some of the
threats of globalization.
1
International Human Rights
The MNCs have to
follow minimal rights to smoothen the transactions when the engineers and
employers of MNCs have to interact at official, social, economic and sometimes
political levels. At international level, the organizations are expected to
adopt the minimum levels of (a)
values, such as mutual support, loyalty, and reciprocity, (b) the negative duty of refraining
from harmful actions such as violence and fraud, and (c) basic fairness and practical justice in case of conflicts.
The ten
international rights to be taken care of, in this context are:
1. Right of
freedom of physical movement of people
2. Right of
ownership of properties
3. Freedom from
torture
4. Right to fair
trial on the products
5. Freedom from
discrimination on the basis of race or sex.
6. Physical
security. Use of safety gadgets have to be supplied to the workers even if the
laws of the host country do not suggest such measures.
7. Freedom of
speech and forming association
8. Right to have
a minimum education
9. Right to
political participation
10. Right to
live and exist (i.e., coexistence). The individual liberty and sanctity of the
human life are to be respected by all societies.
2
Technology Transfer
It is a process
of moving technology to a new setting and implementing it there. Technology
includes hardware (machines and installations) and the techniques (technical,
organizational, and managerial skills and procedures). It may mean moving the
technology applications from laboratory to the field/factory or from one
country to another. This transfer is affected by governments, organizations, universities,
and MNCs.
3
Appropriate Technology
Identification,
transfer, and implementation of most suitable
technology for a set of new situations, is called appropriate technology. Technology
includes both hardware (machines and installations) and software (technical,
organizational and managerial skills and procedures). Factors such as economic,
social, and engineering constraints are the causes for the modification of
technology.
Depending on the
availability of resources, physical conditions (such as temperature, humidity,
salinity, geographical location, isolated land area, and availability of
water), capital opportunity costs, and the human value system (social
acceptability) which includes their traditions, beliefs, and religion, the
appropriateness is to be determined.
For example,
small farmers in our country prefer to own and use the power tillers, rather
than the
high-powered
tractors or sophisticated harvesting machines. On the other hand, the latest
technological device, the cell phones and wireless local loop phones have found
their way into remote villages and hamlets, than the landline telephone
connections.
The term appropriate is value based and it should ensure fulfillment of
the human needs and protection of the environment.
4
How Appropriate is Aptech?
1. A case
against the technology transfer is that the impact of borrowed or transferred
technology
has been
threatening the environment beyond its capacity and sustainable development of
the host countries. Large plantations that orient their efforts to exports
leave the small farmers out of jobs and at the mercy of the foreign country.
For example,
genetically modified cotton have shown sufficient disturbance in Europe and
Africa. This has made the European Union to oppose the entry of G.M. cotton
into Europe.
2. The high
technology has contributed to large-scale migration from villages to the cities
where corporations are located, leading to the undesirable side-effects of
overcrowding of cities, such as the scarcity of water, insanitation, poverty,
and the increase in crimes.
3. The term
‘appropriate’ should emphasize the social acceptability and environmental
protection
of the host
countries, and this need to be addressed while transferring technology. Thus,
we confirm the view that engineering is a continual social experimentation with
nature.
5
MNCs and Morality
The economic and
environmental conditions of the home and host countries may vary. But the multinational
institutions have to adopt appropriate measures not to disturb or dislocate the
social and living conditions and cultures of the home countries. A few
principles are enlisted here:
1. MNC should
respect the basic human rights of the people of the host countries.
2. The
activities of the MNC should give economic and transfer technical benefits, and
implement welfare measures of the workers of the host countries.
3. The business
practices of the multinational organizations should improve and promote morally
justified
institutions in the host countries.
4. The
multinationals must respect the laws and political set up, besides cultures and
promote cultures of the host countries.
5. The
multinational organizations should provide a fair remuneration to the employees
of the host countries. If the remuneration is high as that of home country,
this may create tensions and if it is too low it will lead to exploitation.
6. Multinational
institutions should provide necessary safety for the workers when they are engaged
in hazardous activities and ‘informed consent’ should be obtained from them.
Adequate
compensation should be paid to them for the additional risks undertaken.
Case
Study: Bhopal Gas Tragedy
The Union
Carbide had 51% and the Indian subsidiary UC India Ltd. had 49% of stock. In
1983, there were 14 plants in India manufacturing chemicals, pesticides, and
other hazardous products. The Bhopal plant had a license to make Methyl
isocyanate-based pesticides. In November 1984, they had decided to close down
the plant. For quite some years before the production rate was going down.
The cumulative
effects of the following factors caused the tragedy in Bhopal on December 3, 1984.
1. Maintenance
was neglected and the trained maintenance personnel were reduced as economy
measure. Need
for quick diagnosis aggravates the situation by causing considerable psychological
stress on the plant personnel.
2. Training
activities for the supervisory personnel were stopped. This led to inadequate
training
of the personnel
to handle emergencies.
3. Periodical
Safety Inspection teams from U.S. which visited previously were also stopped.
From the initial
U.S. Standards, the safety procedures were reduced to low level Indian standards.
The procedures had been deteriorating at these sites for weeks or months, prior
to the accident. There was clear lack of management systems and procedures to
ensure safety.
4. Vital spares for
equipments and machineries were not available
5. Absence of
capital replacement led to the stagnant economy of the plant.
6. The high
turnover of the experienced engineers and technicians, who were demoralized by the
lack of development.
7. Lack of experienced
personnel to operate and control the vital installations.
8. They have not
conducted a thorough process hazards analysis that would have exposed the serious
hazards which resulted in disaster later.
9. No emergency
plan was put in practice, during the shut down and maintenance.
10. Above all,
the commitment of top-level management to safety was lacking. They have been paying
only lip service ( Oral words, no actions) to safety of people of the host
country.
Technologically,
the tragedy was caused by a series of events listed:
1. The safety
manual of Union Carbide prescribed that the MIC tanks were to be filled only up
to 60% of the
capacity. But the tanks were reported to have been filled up to 75%.
2. The safety
policy prescribed that an empty tank should be available as a stand-bye in case
of
emergency. But
the emergency tank was also filled with to its full capacity (misappropriate
technology).
3. The storage tanks should be refrigerated to
make the chemical less reactive. But here the refrigeration system was shut
down as an economy measure. This raised the temperature of the gas stored.
4. The plant was
shut down for maintenance two months earlier. The worker who cleaned the pipes
and filters connected to the tanks and closed the valves, was not trained
properly. He did not insert the safety disks to prevent any possible leakage of
the gas. This led to the build up of temperature and pressure in the storage
tanks.
5. When the gas
started leaking out, the operators tried to use the vent gas-scrubber that was designed
to reduce the exhausting gas. But that scrubber was also shut down.
6. There was a
flare tower that was designed to burn-off the gas escaping from the scrubber. That
was not also in working condition.
7. The workers
finally tried to spray water up to 100 feet to quench the gas (which is water soluble).
But the gas was escaping from the chimney of 120-feet high.
8. The workers were not
trained on safety drills or emergency drills or any evacuation plans. The gas
escaped into the air and spread over 40 sq. km. About 600 people died and left
7000 injured and the health of about 2 million people was affected adversely.
Even after 22 years, influence of the Central Government and the courts, the
compensation had not reached all the affected people.
6
Ethical Balance
There is a
saying, “When in Rome do as Romans do”. Can this be applied in the case of
MNCs?
This is called ethical relativism. The actions of
corporation and individuals that are accepted by law, custom and other values
of a society can be morally right in that society. It is morally false, if it
is illogical. It means, the corporation (and the engineers) functioning in
other countries must understand their law, customs, and beliefs and act in line
with those prevailing in that country. This will lead to disaster if the
country is a developing one where the safety standards are given a go-bye. Laws
and conventions are not morally self-sustaining. In a overpopulated country,
the loss of human lives may not physically affect them, but the tragedy cast
shadow for over decades, as it happened in Bhopal in 1984. This will be
criticized from the points of view of human rights, public welfare, and respect
to people.
On the other
hand, the organizations may practice laws of the home country, without
adjustments
to the host
culture. This stand is called ethical
absolutism. This is again false, since the moral principles in a
different culture come into conflicts, and implementation in the ‘hostile’
culture is almost impossible.
Hence, MNCs may
adopt ethical relationalism
(contexualism) as a compromise. Moral judgments are made in relation to
the factors prevailing locally, without framing rigid rules. The judgments should
be contextual and in line with the customs of other cultures. The ethical pluralism which views more
than one justifiable moral solution is also adaptable. This principle accepts
cultural diversity and respects the legitimate cultural differences among
individuals and groups, of the host country.
Environmental
ethics is the study of (a)
moral issues concerning the environment, and (b) moral
perspectives,
beliefs, or attitudes concerning those issues. Engineers in the past are known
for their negligence of environment, in their activities. It has become
important now that engineers design eco-friendly tools, machines, sustainable
products, processes, and projects.
These are
essential now to (a) ensure
protection (safety) of environment (b)
prevent the degradation of environment, and (c) slow down the exploitation of the natural resources, so that
the future generation can survive.
The American
Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) code of ethics, has specifically requires
that “engineers shall hold paramount the safety, health, and welfare of the
public and shall strive to comply with the principles of sustainable
development in the performance of professional duties” The term sustainable development emphasizes on
the investment, orientation of technology, development and functioning of
organizations to meet the present needs of people and at the same time ensuring
the future generations to meet their needs.
Compaq Computer
Corporation (now merged with HP) was the leader, who exhibited their commitment
to environmental health, through implementation of the concept of ‘Design for
environment’ on their products, unified standards all over the world units, and
giving priority to vendors with a record of environmental concern.
Engineers as
experimenters have certain duties towards environmental ethics, namely:
1. Environmental impact assessment: One
major but sure and unintended effect of technology is wastage and the resulting
pollution of land, water, air and even space. Study how the industry and
technology affects the environment.
2. Establish standards: Study and to fix
the tolerable and actual pollution levels.
3. Counter measures: Study what the
protective or eliminating measures are available for immediate implementation
4. Environmental awareness: Study on how
to educate the people on environmental practices, issues, and possible
remedies.
A)
Disasters
1. Plastic Waste Disposal
In our country,
several crores of plastic bottles are used as containers for water and oil, and
plastic bags are used to pack different materials ranging from vegetables to gold
ornaments. Hardly any of these are recycled. They end up in gutters, roadsides,
and agricultural fields. In all these destinations, they created havoc. The
worse still is the burning of plastic materials in streets and camphor along
with plastic cover in temples, since they release toxic fumes and threaten
seriously the air quality. Cities and local administration have to act on this,
collect and arrange for recycling through industries.
Recently Jenna R.Jambeck, a National Geographic explorer talked about the threat that is being created by plastic waste in ocean. already it has resulted in extinction of many species and according to her by 2025 around 17 million tonnes of plastic waste would be disposed into ocean per year and that can be a threat to more than 700 species.
She proposes 5C approach. - Contain, Collect, Capture, Culture and Contact. Integration of these 5C's can alone help to fight plastic menace.
2. e-Waste Disposal
The parts of
computers and electronic devices which have served its useful life present a
major environmental issue for all the developing countries including India.
This scrap contains highly toxic elements such as lead, cadmium, and mercury.
Even the
radioactive waste will lose 89% of its toxicity after 200 years, by which time
it will be no more toxic than some natural minerals in the ground. It will lose
99% of its remaining toxicity over the next 30,000 years. The toxic chemical
agents such as mercury, arsenic, and cadmium retain toxicity undiminished
forever.
But these scraps
are illegally imported by unscrupulous agencies to salvage some commercially valuable
inputs. Instead of spending and managing on the scrap, unethical organizations
sell them to countries such as India. This is strictly in violation of the
Basel Convention of the United Nations Environment Program, which has banned
the movement of hazardous waste.
A recent report
of the British Environment Agency, 13 has revealed that the discarded
computers, television sets, refrigerators, mobile phones, and electrical
equipments have been dispatched to India and Pakistan in large quantity, for
ultimate disposal in environmentally-unacceptable ways and at great risk to the
health of the labour.
Even in the
West, the electronic junk has been posing problems. Strong regulation including
(a)
pressure on
industries to set up disassembling facilities, (b) ban on disposal in landfill sites, (c) legislation for recycling requirements for these junk and (d) policy incentives for eco-friendly
design are essential for our country. The European Union through the Waste
Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) directive has curbed the e-waste
dumping by member countries and require manufacturers to implement methods to
recover and recycle the components.
Indian
Government expressed its concern through a technical guide on environmental
management for IT Industry in December, 2004. It is yet to ratify the ban on
movement of hazardous waste according to the Basel Convention. A foreign news
agency exposed a few years back, the existence of a thriving e-waste disposal
hub in a suburb of New Delhi, operating in appallingly dangerous conditions.
Our country needs regulations to define waste, measures to stop illegal
imports, and institutional structures to handle safe disposal of domestic
industrial scrap.
3. Industrial Waste Disposal
There has been a
lot of complaints through the media, on (a)
against the Sterlite Copper Smelting Plant in Thuthukkudi (1997) against its
pollution (Sulphur dioxide emissions went beyond limits leading to burning sensation and breath shortening , choking), and (b) when Indian
companies imported the discarded French Warship Clemenceau for disposal, the
poisonous asbestos compounds
were expected to pollute the atmosphere besides exposing the labor to a great
risk, during the disposal. The government did not act immediately. Fortunately
for Indians, the French Government intervened and withdrew the ship, and the
serious threat was averted!
4. Depletion of Ozone Layer
The ozone layer protects the entire
planet from the ill-effects of ultraviolet radiation and is vital for all living
organisms in this world. But it is eaten away by the Chloro-fluro-carbons (CFC)
such as Freon emanating from
the refrigerators, air conditioners, and aerosol can spray. This has caused
also skin cancer to sun-bathers in the Western countries. Further NO and NO2
gases were also found to react with the ozone. Apart from engineers, the
organizations, laws of the country and local administration and market
mechanisms are required to take up concerted efforts to protect the
environment.
5. Global Warming
Over the past 30
years, the Earth has warmed by 0.6 °C. Over the last 100 years, it has warmed
by 0.8 °C. It is likely to push up temperature by 3oC by 2100,
according to NASA’s studies. The U.S. administration has accepted the reality
of global climate change, which has been associated with stronger hurricanes,
severe droughts, intense heat waves and the melting of polar ice. Greenhouse
gases, notably carbon dioxide emitted by motor vehicles and coal-fired power
plants, trap heat like the glass walls of a greenhouse, cause the Earth to warm
up. Delegates from the six countries — Australia, China, India, Japan, South
Korea and US met in California in April 2006 for the first working session of
the Asia- Pacific Partnership on Clean Development and Climate. These six countries
account for about half of the world’s emissions of climate-heating greenhouse
gases. Only one of the six, Japan, is committed to reducing greenhouse gas
emissions by at least 5.2 per cent below 1990 levels by 2012 under the Kyoto Agreement.
About 190
nations met in Germany in the middle of May 2006 and tried to bridge vast
policy gaps between the United States and its main allies over how to combat
climate change amid growing evidence that the world is warming that could wreak
havoc by stoking more droughts, heat waves, floods, more powerful storms and
raise global sea levels by almost a meter by 2100.
6. Acid Rain
Large emissions
of sulphur oxides and nitrous oxides are being released in to the air from the
thermal power stations using the fossil fuels, and several processing
industries. These gases form compounds with water in the air and precipitates
as rain or snow on to the earth. The acid rain in some parts of the world has
caused sufficient damage to the fertility of the land and to the human beings.
Human-centered
Environmental Ethics
This approach
assumes that only human beings have inherent moral worth duly to be taken care
of. Other living being and ecosystems are only instrumental in nature.
Utilitarianism aims to maximize good consequences for human beings. Most of the
goods are engineered products made out of natural resources. Human beings have
also (a) recreational interests
(enjoy leisure through mountaineering, sports, and pastimes), (b) aesthetic interests (enjoy nature
as from seeing waterfalls and snow-clad mountains), (c) scientific interests to explore into nature or processes, and
(d) a basic interest to survive,
by preservation as well as conservation of nature and natural resources.
Rights ethicists
favor the basic rights to live and right to liberty, to realize the right to a
live in a
Supportive environment.
Further, virtue ethics stresses importance of prudence, humility, appreciation of
natural beauty, and gratitude to the Mother Nature that provides everything.
However, the
nature-centered ethics, which ensures the worth of all living beings and
organisms,
seems to be more
appropriate in the present-day context. Many Asian religions stress the unity
with nature, rather than domination and exploitation. The Zen Buddhism calls
for a simple life with compassion towards humans and other animals. Hinduism
enshrines the ideal of oneness (advaitha) in and principle of ahimsa to all living beings. It
identifies all the human beings, animals, and plants as divine. The eco-balance
is the need of the hour and the engineers are the right experimenters to
achieve this.
Adopt recycling to manage waste
COMPUTER
ETHICS
Computer ethics
is defined as (a) study and
analysis of nature and social impact of computer technology, (b) formulation and justification of
policies, for ethical use of computers. This subject has become relevant to the
professionals such as designers of computers, programmers, system analysts,
system managers, and operators. The use of computers have raised a host of
moral concerns such as free speech, privacy, intellectual property right, and
physical as well as mental harm. There appears to be no conceptual framework
available on ethics, to study and understand and resolve the problems in computer
technology.
A)
Types of Issues
Different types
of problems are found in computer ethics.
1. Computer as the Instrument of Unethical Acts
(a) The usage of computer replaces the
job positions. This has been overcome to a large extent
by readjusting
work assignments, and training everyone on computer applications such as word
processing, editing, and graphics.
(b) Breaking privacy. Information or
data of the individuals accessed or erased or the ownership
changed.
(c) Defraud a bank or a client, by
accessing and withdrawing money from other’s bank account.
2. Computer as the Object of Unethical Act
The data are
accessed and deleted or changed.
(a) Hacking: The software is stolen or information is accessed from
other computers. This may
cause financial
loss to the business or violation of privacy rights of the individuals or
business.
In case of
defense information being hacked, this may endanger the security of the nation.
(b) Spreading virus: Through mail or otherwise, other computers are
accessed and the files are erased or contents changed altogether. ‘Trojan
horses’ are implanted to distort the messages and files beyond recovery. This
again causes financial loss or mental torture to the individuals.
Some hackers
feel that they have justified their right of free information or they do it for
fun. However, these acts are certainly unethical.
(c) Health hazard: The computers pose threat during their use as
well as during disposal.
3. Problems Related to the Autonomous Nature of
Computer
(a) Security risk: Recently the Tokyo Stock Exchange faced a major
embarrassment. A seemingly casual mistake by a junior trader of a large
security house led to huge losses including that of reputation. The order
through the exchange’s trading system was to sell one share for 600,000 Yen. Instead the trader keyed in a
sale order for 600,000 shares at the rate of one Yen each.
Naturally the
shares on offer at the ridiculously low price were lapped up. And only a few buyers
agreed to reverse the deal! The loss to the securities firm was said to be
huge, running into several hundred thousands. More important to note, such an
obvious mistake could not be corrected by some of the advanced technology
available. For advanced countries like Japan who have imbibed the latest
technology, this would be a new kind of learning experience.
(b) Loss of human lives: Risk and loss of human lives lost by
computer, in the operational control of military weapons. There is a dangerous
instability in automated defense system.
An unexpected
error in the software or hardware or a conflict during interfacing between the
two, may trigger a serious attack and cause irreparable human loss before the
error is traced. The Chinese embassy was bombed by U.S. military in Iraq a few
years back, but enquiries revealed that the building was shown in a previous
map as the building where insurgents stayed.
(c) In flexible manufacturing systems,
the autonomous computer is beneficial in obtaining continuous monitoring and
automatic control.
Various issues
related to computer ethics are discussed as follows:
B)
Computers In Workplace
The ethical
problems initiated by computers in the workplace are:
1. Elimination
of routine and manual jobs. This leads to unemployment, but the creation of skilled
and IT-enabled service jobs are more advantageous for the people. Initially
this may require some upgradation of their skills and knowledge, but a formal
training will set this problem right. For example, in place of a typist, we
have a programmer or an accountant.
2. Health and safety: The ill-effects
due to electromagnetic radiation, especially on women and pregnant employees,
mental stress, wrist problem known as Carpel
Tunnel Syndrome, and backpain due to poor ergonomic seating designs, and
eye strain due to poor lighting and flickers in the display and long exposure,
have been reported worldwide. Over a period of long exposure, these are
expected to affect the health and safety of the people. The computer designers
should take care of these aspects and management should monitor the health and safety
of the computer personnel.
3. Computer failure: Failure in
computers may be due to errors in the hardware or software. Hardware errors are
rare and they can be solved easily and quickly. But software errors are very
serious as they can stop the entire network. Testing and quality systems for
software have gained relevance and importance in the recent past, to avoid or
minimize these errors.
C)
Property Issues
The property
issues concerned with the computers are:
1. Computers
have been used to extort money through anonymous telephone calls.
2. Computers are
used to cheat and steal by current as well as previous employees.
3. Cheating of
and stealing from the customers and clients.
4. Violation of
contracts on computer sales and services.
5. Conspiracy as
a group, especially with the internet, to defraud the gullible, stealing the identity
and to forge documents.
6. Violation of
property rights: Is the software a property? The software could be either a Program
(an algorithm, indicating the steps in solving a problem) or a Source code (the
algorithm in a general computer language such as FORTAN, C and COBOL or an
Object code (to translate the source code into the machine language). How do we
apply the concept of property here? This demands a framework for ethical
judgments.
Property is what
the laws permits and defines as can be owned, exchanged, and used. The computer
hardware (product) is protected by patents. The software (idea, expression) is
protected by copyrights and trade secrets. But algorithms can not be
copyrighted, because the mathematical formulas can be discovered but not owned.
The object codes which are not intelligible to human beings can not be copyrighted.
Thus, we see
that reproducing multiple copies from one copy of (licensed) software and
distribution or sales are crimes. The open source concepts have, to a great
extent, liberalized and promoted the use of computer programs for the
betterment of society.
D)
Computer Crime
The ethical
features involved in computer crime are:
1. Physical Security
The computers
are to be protected against theft, fire, and physical damage. This can be
achieved by proper insurance on the assets.
2. Logical security
The aspects
related are (a) the privacy of
the individuals or organizations, (b)
confidentiality, (c)
integrity, to
ensure that the modification of data or program are done only by the authorized
persons,(d) uninterrupted
service. This is achieved by installing appropriate uninterrupted power supply
or back-up provisions, and (e)
protection against hacking that causes dislocation or distortion. Licensed anti-virus
packages and firewalls are used by all computer users to ensure this
protection. Passwords and data encryption have been incorporated in the
computer software as security measures. But these have also been attacked and
bye-passed. But this problem is not been solved completely.
Major weaknesses
in this direction are: (a) the
difficulty in tracing the evidence involved and (b)
absence of
stringent punishment against the crime. The origin of a threat to the Central
Government posted from an obscure browsing center, remained unsolved for quite
a long time. Many times, such crimes have been traced, but there are no clear cyber laws to punish and deter the
criminals.
E)
Privacy and Anonymity
The data
transmission and accessibility have improved tremendously by using the
computers, but the right to privacy has been threatened to a great extent. Some
issues concerned with the privacy are listed here under:
1. Records of Evidence
Service records
or criminal records and the details of people can be stored and accessed to
prove the innocence or guilty. Records on psychiatric treatment by medical
practitioners or hospital, or records of membership of organizations may
sometime embarrass the persons in later years.
2. Hacking
There are
computer enthusiasts who willfully or for fun, plant virus or “Trojan horses”
that may fill the disc space, falsify information, erase files, and even harm
the hardware. They breakdown the functioning of computers and can be treated as
violation of property rights. Some hackers opine that the information should be
freely available for everybody. It is prudent that the right to individual privacy
in limiting the access to the information on oneself, should not be violated.
Further any unauthorized use of personal information (which is a property), is
to be considered as theft. Besides the individual privacy, the national
security, and freedom within the economy are to be respected. The proprietary
information and data of the organizations are to be protected so that they can
pursue the goals without hindrance.
3. Legal Response
In the Indian
scene, the Right to Information Act 2005 14 provides the right to the citizens
to secure access to information under
the control of public authorities, including the departments of the
central government, state governments, government bodies, public sector
companies and public sector banks, to promote transparency and accountability
of public authorities.
Right to information:
Under the Act, section 2 (j),
the right to information includes the right to
(1) Inspect
works, documents, records, (2) take notes, extracts or certified copies of
documents or records, (3) take certified samples of material, and (4) obtain information
in the form of printouts, diskettes, floppies, tapes, video cassettes or in any
other electronic mode.
WHAT IS NOT OPEN
TO DISCLOSURE? The following are exempt from disclosure (Sections
8 and 11)
1. Information,
disclosure of which would prejudicially affect the sovereignty and integrity of
India, the
security, strategic, scientific or economic interests of the state, relation
with, foreign state or lead to incitement of an offence.
2. Information
which has been expressly forbidden to be published by any court of law or tribunal
or the disclosure of which may constitute contempt of court.
3. Information,
the disclosure of which would cause a breach of privilege of Parliament or the State
Legislature.
4. Information
including commercial confidence, trade secrets or intellectual property, the disclosure
of which would harm the competitive position of a third party, unless the
competent authority is satisfied that larger public *interest warrants the
disclosure of such information.
5. Information
available to a person in his fiduciary relationship( relation involving trust),
unless the competent authority is satisfied that *the larger public interest
warrants the disclosure of such information.
6. Information
received in confidence from foreign government.
7. Information,
the disclosure of which would endanger the life or physical safety of any person
or identify the source of information or assistance given in confidence for law
enforcement or security purposes.
8. Information
which would impede the process of investigation or apprehension or prosecution of
offenders.
9. Information
which relates to personal information the disclosure of which has no
relationship to any public activity or interest, or which would cause
unwarranted invasion of the privacy of the individual.
10.
Notwithstanding anything in the Official Secrets Act 1923 nor any of the
exemptions listed above, a public authority may allow access to information, if
public interest in disclosure outweighs the harm to the protected interests.
11. Where the
Information Officer, intends to disclose any information or record, on a
request, which relates to or has been supplied by a third party and has been
treated as confidential by that third party, the officer shall give a written
notice to such third party of the request and of the fact that the officer
intends to disclose the information, and invites the third party to make a
submission in writing or orally, regarding whether the
information should be disclosed, and such submission of the third party shall
be kept in view while taking a decision about disclosure of information:
provided that except in the case of trade or commercial secrets protected by
law, disclosure may be allowed if the public interest in disclosure outweighs
in importance any possible harm or injury to the interests of such third party.
Laws to regulate
the access to information are very expensive to enforce and inconvenient to
genuine users
such as accessing records of people for medical research.
4. Anonymity
Anonymity in the
computer communication has some merits as well as demerits. While seeking
medical or psychological counseling or discussion (chat) on topics, such as
AIDS, abortion, gay rights, the anonymity offers protection (against revealing
their identity). But frequently, anonymity is misused by some people for money
laundering, drug trafficking and preying upon the vulnerable.
Professional
Responsibility
The computer
professionals should be aware of different conflicts of interests as they
transact with other at different levels. The IEEE and Association for Computing
Machinery (ACM) have established the codes of ethics to manage such
responsibilities.
The
Big Net
Almost all the
countries are now connected by the internet. But there are no international
laws to regulate the issues of freedom of speech, intellectual property rights,
privacy rights etc. Another development in this direction is, the universities
offering degrees-on-line. Third World is certainly gaining knowledge and
education. Even Google.com has announced plans to publish research papers through
the World Wide Web. Knowledge is power.
Knowledge is internationalised! Will this lead to empowerment of the Third
World and promotion of World peace? Only the future can answer this question.
WEAPONS
DEVELOPMENT
Military
activities including the world wars have stimulated the growth of technology.
The growth of Internet amply illustrates this fact. The development of warfare
and the involvement of engineers bring out many ethical issues concerned with
engineers, such as the issue of integrity in experiments as well as expenditure
in defense research and development, issue of personal commitment and
conscience, and the issues of social justice and social health.
Engineers
involve in weapons development because of the following reasons:
1. It gives one
job with high salary.
2. One takes
pride and honor in participating in the activities towards the defense of the
nation
(patriotic
fervor).
3. One believes
the he fights a war on terrorism and thereby contribute to peace and stability
of the country. Ironically, the wars have never won peace, only peace can win
peace!
4. By research
and development, the engineer is reducing or eliminating the risk from enemy weapons,
and saving one’s country from disaster.
5. By
building-up arsenals and show of force, a country can force the rogue country,
towards regulation. Engineers can participate effectively in arms control
negotiations for surrender or peace, e.g., bombing of Nagasaki and Hiroshima
led to surrender by the Japanese in 1945.
Many engineers
had to fight and convince their personal conscience. The scene such as that of
a
Vietnamese
village girl running wild with burns on the body and horror in the face and
curse in her mind has moved some engineers away from their jobs.
