Cyberethics
Cyberethics focuses on right and wrong uses of digital media and on various claims for the special status of the internet.
It investigates the impact that information and communication technologies (ICTs) have on our social, legal, and moral systems and it is also concerned with the assessment of social policies and laws that have been defined to address issues generated by the development and use of ICTs.
At the same time cyber ethics focuses on the impact of ICTs on private and social lives. As activities in the digital domain acquire increasing importance in contemporary information societies, issues concerning social interaction via the digital media, such as cyber-bullying, online friendships, political participation, and activism have become important research topics.
Cyber ethics focuses on problems concerning;
- privacy
- anonymity
- internet neutrality
- on-line trust
- security
- data ownership
- data sharing
- cyberstalking
- activity by bots
- online harms
- fake news
Digital Risk Management Certificate
IERG (Tom Sorell and Duncan Hine) have contributed teaching material to a distance taught course offered by the Institute of Risk Management on Digital Risk Management.
Assuming Identities Online
Undercover police work increasingly takes place online. The online arena creates new ethical issues, since the network of those investigated is both highly connected and highly fluid, and the costs of infiltrating are comparatively low.
This project will systematically identify the ethical risks of using certain covert online techniques. In particular, it is possible for officers to mimic either victims of crime, or perpetrators of crime.
What proportionality criteria should apply to the assumption and deployment of an online identity? In what ways does the efficacy of existing techniques for identity assumption affect their permissibility? What new issues concerning entrapment or agents provocateurs arise? Under what circumstances can those operating as undercover officers commission what would otherwise be a crime, and under what circumstances ought they to intervene in order to prevent crime from occurring?