N Ben
Fairweather
nbf@dmu.ac.uk
No, PAPA: Why Incomplete Codes of Ethics are Worse Than None At All.
In Collste, G (ed) Ethics and Information Technology, pp259-277, ISBN 91-7219-680-7, previously presented to International Conference on Computer Ethics at Linköping University, 9-10 June 1997.
Abstract
here is current interest in Mason's 1986 article "Four Ethical Issues of the Information Age". In it Mason states that "The ethical issues involved are many and varied", before claiming that "it is helpful to focus on just four [Privacy, Accuracy, Property and Accessibility]... summarized by ... an acronym - PAPA." There are good reasons for moral consideration of the 'PAPA' issues. Immorality in those areas can destroy some lives.
The problem is, that by focussing on these four areas of concern, attention may be taken away from other, potentially more important, moral issues. Not all important moral issues in information technology can be put under those headings. Yet focussing on four areas gives the erroneous impression that adherence to the moral requirements in those areas alone could ensure moral rectitude.
The same considerations are highly likely to apply to any moral code that is developed (whether in computing or elsewhere). Authors of incomplete moral codes risk encouraging others to act in immoral ways with the author's apparent sanction.
Related, broader, questions are considered, and it is advocated that there should always be acknowledgment of the existance of 'external', potentially more important, moral issues.
Notes:
Mason's article was published in 'MIS Quarterly' Vol10(1) pp5-12. Among the recent interest in Mason's article are two papers based entirely on the 'PAPA' issues: Platt and Morrison at Ethicomp95, and Professor Porfirio Barroso (director of the conference) at Ethicomp96.