The study of ethics is very interesting, and certainly one needs some ethical framework in order to consider
the social issues and dilemmas that information technology has created or now influences. For our discussion
of social issues we will refer to the Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct adopted by the Association
for Computing Machinery (ACM) in 1992. You can find a complete statement of the code of ethics at
http://www.acm.org/constitution/code.html.
The first section of the code of ethics declares its support of general moral imperatives. We list here only
the paragraph titles, without the underlying detail, which you can find in the complete statement:
1.1 Contribute to society and human well-being.
1.2 Avoid harm to others.
1.3 Be honest and trustworthy.
1.4 Be fair and take action not to discriminate.
1.5 Honor property rights including copyrights and patents.
1.6 Give proper credit for intellectual property.
1.7 Respect the privacy of others.
1.8 Honor confidentiality.
The code goes on to declare more specific professional responsibilities:
2.1 Strive to achieve the highest quality, effectiveness and dignity in both the process and products of
professional work.
2.2 Acquire and maintain professional competence.
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