Information System - Social And Ethical Issues

Essay by PaperNerd ContributorUniversity, Master's August 2001

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Social and Ethical Issues The social and ethical issues of an information system are dependent on a number or things including the specific information system described and each of the elements that are needed to make it all work.

Recently the social and ethical issues of the Ameritech Cable Services were challenged as they experienced a flaw in their online billing system called ¡¥E-Bill¡¦.

The Participants within the Information System The participants within the information system which carry out the information processes can be effected by these social and ethical issues.

The accuracy of the data is an important issue within this kind of system due to the handling of money via electronic means. A mistype from anyone of the participants can be recognised by the computer as a huge amount of money begin transferred by mistake. For example, a customer paying their phone bill via this information system¡¦s E-Bill program and typing in an amount of $200.00

can be misinterpreted by anyone of the participants as a $20,000 transaction by just leaving out one dot! Data accuracy can also be affected by software errors and database corruption. So making sure the participants do their job by having data backed up regularly can be a very important issue.

Data Security is very important to this online billing system due to its ¡¥online¡¦ nature. Being online means having a major database of sensitive material open to the public. Securing this database and only allowing the proper participants to access this database is a major issue in any online information system. This system must also be secure in only allowing people with proper permission to modify its database, software, security implements, and the entire processes themselves. For example, the system must be not allow participants in this information system to get copies...