6,730 research outputs found
Disclosive ethics and information technology: disclosing facial recognition systems
This paper is an attempt to present disclosive ethics as a framework for computer and information ethics � in line with the suggestions by Brey, but also in quite a different manner. The potential of such an approach is demonstrated through a disclosive analysis of facial recognition systems. The paper argues that the politics of information technology is a particularly powerful politics since information technology is an opaque technology � i.e. relatively closed to scrutiny. It presents the design of technology as a process of closure in which design and use decisions become black-boxed and progressively enclosed in increasingly complex sociotechnical networks. It further argues for a disclosive ethics that aims to disclose the nondisclosure of politics by claiming a place for ethics in every actual operation of power � as manifested in actual design and use decisions and practices. It also proposes that disclosive ethics would aim to trace and disclose the intentional and emerging enclosure of politics from the very minute technical detail through to social practices and complex social-technical networks. The paper then proceeds to do a disclosive analysis of facial recognition systems. This analysis discloses that seemingly trivial biases in recognition rates of FRSs can emerge as very significant political acts when these systems become used in practice
Robots and Privacy in Japanese, Thai and Chinese Cultures. \ud Discussions on Robots and Privacy as Topics of Intercultural Information Ethics in âFar Eastâ
In this paper, I will analyze âcultural meanings and valuesâ associated with some of the important IIE(intercultural information ethics) topics in âFar East, âi.e. âhuman and robot interaction(HRI)â and âprivacy.â By focusing on these relatively newly emerging topics in âFar East,â I will attempt to make the cultural Ba (locus/place where different\ud
meanings of things, events, peopleâs experiences come together; or frameworks for understanding meanings of phenomena and events) visible through analysis of research data done in Japan, Thailand and China in the past several years. The research data shown in this paper suggest that we canât understand peopleâs attitudes toward robots and privacy in âFar Eastâ without taking into consideration peopleâs broader views on âwhat is a good life?â and âwhat is a virtuous life?
EastâWest Perspectives on Privacy, Ethical Pluralism and Global Information Ethics
Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) are both primary drivers and facilitating technologies of globalizationâand thereby, of exponentially expanding possibilities of cross-cultural encounters. Currently, over one billion persons throughout the planet have access to the Web: of these, Asian users constitute 35.8% of the Web population, while Europeans make up 28.3 % of world usersâand North Americans only 20.9% (Internet World Stats, 2007). Our histories teach us all too well that such encountersâespecially concerning potentially global ethical normsâalways run the risk of devolving into more destructive rather than emancipatory events. Speci?cally, these encounters risk pulling us into one of two contradictory positions. First of all, naĂŻve ethnocentrisms too easily issue in imperialisms that remake âthe Otherâ in oneâs own imageâprecisely by eliminating the irreducible differences in norms and practices that de?ne distinctive cultures. Second, these imperialisms thereby inspire a relativistic turn to the sheerly localâprecisely for the sake of preserving local identities and cultures. Hence the general problem: how we might foster a cross-cultural communication for a global ICE that steers between the two Manichean polarities of ethnocentric imperialism and fragmenting relativism
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"The dearest of our possessions": applying Floridi's information privacy concept in models of information behavior and information literacy
This conceptual paper argues for the value of an approach to privacy in the digital information environment informed by Luciano Floridi's philosophy of information and information ethics. This approach involves achieving informational privacy, through the features of anonymity and obscurity, through an optimal balance of ontological frictions. This approach may be used to modify models for information behavior and for information literacy, giving them a fuller and more effective coverage of privacy issues in the infosphere. For information behavior, the Information Seeking and Communication Model, and the Information Grounds conception, are most appropriate for this purpose. For information literacy, the metaliteracy model, using a modification a privacy literacy framework, is most suitable
The âGood Lifeâ in Intercultural Information Ethics: A New Agenda
Current research in Intercultural Information Ethics (IIE) is preoccupied, almost exclusively, by moral and political issues concerning the right and the just (e.g., Hongladarom & Ess 2007; Ess 2008; Capurro 2008) These issues are undeniably important, and with the continuing development and diffusion of ICTs, we can only be sure more moral and political problems of similar kinds are going to emerge in the future. Yet, as important as those problems are, I want to argue that researchersâ preoccupation with the right and the just are undesirable. I shall argue that IIE has thus far overlooked the issues pertaining to the good life (or, individualâs well-being). IIE, I claim, should also take into account these issues. Hence, I want to propose a new agenda for IIE, i.e. the good life, in the current paper
What Should We Share? : Understanding the Aim of Intercultural Information Ethics
The aim of Intercultural Information Ethics (IIE), as Ess aptly puts, is to â(a) address both local and global issues evoked by ICTs / CMC, etc., (b) in a ways that both sustain local traditions / values / preference, etc. and (c) provide shared, (quasi-) universal responses to central ethical problemsâ (Ess 2007a, 102). This formulation of the aim of IIE, however, is not unambiguous. In this paper, I will discuss two different understandings of the aim of IIE, one of which advocates âshared norms, different interpretationsâ and another proposes âshared norms, different justificationsâ. I shall argue that the first understanding is untenable, and the second understanding is acceptable only with qualification. Finally, I shall briefly suggest an alternative way to understand the aim of IIE
Preserving a combat commanderâs moral agency: The Vincennes Incident as a Chinese Room
We argue that a command and control system can undermine a commanderâs moral agency if it causes him/her to process information in a purely syntactic manner, or if it precludes him/her from ascertaining the truth of that information. Our case is based on the resemblance between a commanderâs circumstances and the protagonist in Searleâs Chinese Room, together with a careful reading of Aristotleâs notions of âcompulsoryâ and âignoranceâ. We further substantiate our case by considering the Vincennes Incident, when the crew of a warship mistakenly shot down a civilian airliner. To support a combat commanderâs moral agency, designers should strive for systems that help commanders and command teams to think and manipulate information at the level of meaning. âDown conversionsâ of information from meaning to symbols must be adequately recovered by âup conversionsâ, and commanders must be able to check that their sensors are working and are being used correctly. Meanwhile ethicists should establish a mechanism that tracks the potential moral implications of choices in a systemâs design and intended operation. Finally we highlight a gap in normative ethics, in that we have ways to deny moral agency, but not to affirm it
Privacy in (mobile) telecommunications services
Telecommunications services are for long subject to privacy regulations. At stake are traditionally: privacy of the communication and the protection of traffic data. Privacy of the communication is legally founded. Traffic data subsume under the notion of data protection and are central in the discussion.
The telecommunications environment is profoundly changing. The traditionally closed markets with closed networks change into an open market with open networks. Within these open networks more privacy sensitive data are generated and have to be exchanged between growing numbers of parties. Also telecommunications and computer networks are rapidly being integrated and thus the distinction between telephony and computing disappears. Traditional telecommunications privacy regulations are revised to cover internet applications.
In this paper telecommunications issues are recalled to aid the on-going debate.
Cellular mobile phones have recently be introduced. Cellular networks process a particular category of traffic data namely location data, thereby introducing the issue of territorial privacy into the telecommunications domain. Location data are bound to be used for pervasive future services. Designs for future services are discussed and evaluated for their impact on privacy protection.</p
Regulating Child Sex Robots: Restriction or Experimentation?
In July 2014, the roboticist Ronald Arkin suggested that child sex robots could be used to treat those with paedophilic predilections in the same way that methadone is used to treat heroin addicts. Taking this onboard, it would seem that there is reason to experiment with the regulation of this technology. But most people seem to disagree with this idea, with legal authorities in both the UK and US taking steps to outlaw such devices. In this paper, I subject these different regulatory attitudes to critical scrutiny. In doing so, I make three main contributions to the debate. First, I present a framework for thinking about the regulatory options that we confront when dealing with child sex robots. Second, I argue that there is a prima facie case for restrictive regulation, but that this is contingent on whether Arkinâs hypothesis has a reasonable prospect of being successfully tested. Third, I argue that Arkinâs hypothesis probably does not have a reasonable prospect of being successfully tested. Consequently, we should proceed with utmost caution when it comes to this technology
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