Part 1: Core Concepts (2 Marks)
- Ethics in Information Technology: The moral principles and values governing the design, implementation, management, and use of information technologies.
- Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR): The continuing commitment by businesses to behave ethically and contribute to economic development while improving the quality of life of the workforce, local community, and society at large.
- Ethical Decision-Making Framework: 1. Develop problem statement
2. Identify alternatives 3. Evaluate alternatives (Virtue, Utilitarian, Fairness, Common Good) 4. Choose and implement 5. Monitor results.
Part 2: Structural Frameworks (10 Marks)
Ethical Philosophies in Technology
| Philosophy | Principle | IT Application |
|---|---|---|
| Utilitarianism | Produce the greatest good for the | Data analytics optimizing |
| (Bentham/Mill) | greatest number of people | public healthcare systems |
| Deontology (Kant) | Act based on universal moral duty regardless of consequences | Respecting user privacy even when surveillance aids sales |
| Virtue Ethics | Cultivate moral character habits | Professional honesty in code |
| (Aristotle) | (honesty, courage, integrity) | reviews and bug disclosures |
Part 3: Distinction Tables
| Basis of Comparison | Law | Ethics |
|---|---|---|
| Enforcement | Formally codified by legislature; enforced via state sanctions and police power. | Internal moral conscience, professional codes of conduct, and social pressure. |
| Scope | Sets minimum acceptable baseline behavior. | Reaches beyond legal minimums toward optimal moral conduct. |
| Applicability | Bound to national territorial jurisdictions (e.g. Nepal). | Universal philosophical principles across global human society. |
Part 4: Worked Problems & Exam Traps
Evaluating Conflict of Interest in IT Procurement
An IT manager receives an invitation for an all-expenses-paid international holiday from an enterprise cloud vendor bidding on a TU FoM infrastructure contract.
- Identification: Personal gratuity creates a conflict of interest violating professional procurement ethics.
- Resolution: Decline the gift immediately, disclose the vendor’s offer to the evaluation committee, and recuse oneself from scoring if impartiality is compromised.
“Legal” does NOT equate to “Ethical”. An action may be legally permissible due to regulatory loopholes (e.g., harvesting public social data without consent) while being severely unethical.