Information ethics

Information ethics has been defined as "the branch of ethics that focuses on the relationship between the creation, organization, dissemination, and use of information, and the ethical standards and moral codes governing human conduct in society".[1] It examines the morality that comes from information as a resource, a product, or as a target.[2] It provides a critical framework for considering moral issues concerning informational privacy, moral agency (e.g. whether artificial agents may be moral), new environmental issues (especially how agents should behave in the infosphere), problems arising from the life-cycle (creation, collection, recording, distribution, processing, etc.) of information (especially ownership and copyright, digital divide, and digital rights). It is very vital to understand that librarians, archivists, information professionals among others, really understand the importance of knowing how to disseminate proper information as well as being responsible with their actions when addressing information.[3]

Information ethics has evolved to relate to a range of fields such as computer ethics,[4] medical ethics, journalism[5] and the philosophy of information. As the use and creation of information and data form the foundation of machine learning, artificial intelligence and many areas of mathematics, information ethics also plays a central role in the ethics of artificial intelligence, big data ethics and ethics in mathematics.

  1. ^ Joan, Reitz M. "Information Ethics." Online Dictionary For Library And Information Science. N.p., 2010. Web. <http://www.abc-clio.com/ODLIS/odlis_i.aspx>.
  2. ^ Froehlich, Thomas (December 2004). "A brief history of information ethics". bid.ub.edu. Kent State University.
  3. ^ Carbo, Toni; Almagno, Stephen. "Information Ethics: The Duty, Privilege and Challenge of Educating Information Professionals" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 10 September 2021. Retrieved 28 February 2017.
  4. ^ Floridi, Luciano (1999). "Information Ethics: On the Theoretical Foundations of Computer Ethics" (PDF). Ethics and Information Technology. 1 (1): 37–56. doi:10.1023/A:1010018611096. S2CID 1071794. Archived from the original (PDF) on 9 November 2005.
  5. ^ Floridi, Luciano (June 2005). "Information ethics, its nature and scope". ACM SIGCAS Computers and Society. 35 (2): 3. doi:10.1145/1111646.1111649. hdl:2299/3001. S2CID 25230743.