Information ethics (also known as information ethics) is the sum of behavioral norms that adjust the information relationship between individuals, organizations, organizations, individuals and society, and organizations and society in information activities. It is a code of conduct and ethics that information creators, information service providers and information users generally agree and abide by in information activities, and meets the general requirements of society.
9.2. 1 development of information ethics
The rise and development of information ethics is based on the formation of information society and the need to establish moral order in information society. Since the 1950s, the appearance and development of information technology has brought human society into the information society. In 1970s, American professor W. Manner put forward "computer ethics". 197 1 year, G.M. Weinberg studied the influence of information technology on social ethics. Since the mid-1980s, a large number of information ethics papers and monographs have appeared, which has made a breakthrough in the research of information ethics. 1985, J.H. Moore published a paper in Metaphilosophy magazine, and put forward the concept of "computer ethics". In the same year, Professor Rafael Cappuro, a German information scientist, studied the production, storage, dissemination and use of electronic specialized information, and put forward the concepts of "information science ethics" and "communication ethics". 65438-0986 R.O. Mei Sen, an American expert in management information science, proposed that there are four main ethical issues in the information age: information privacy, information accuracy, information property rights and information resource acquisition.
In 1990s, the research of information ethics broke through the shackles of computer ethics, defined the research object as an ethical problem in the information field more clearly, and directly used the word "information ethics". 1996, British scholar R. Simon and American scholar W. B. Teller * * published the paper "Information Ethics: The Second Generation", pointing out that computer ethics is the first generation of information ethics, and its research scope is limited and its research depth is not enough. It only explains the computer phenomenon and lacks a comprehensive ethical theory. From 65438 to 0999, Professor Raphael Cappuro published a paper "Ethical Issues of Digital Library", which analyzed the ethical issues of libraries under the background of great changes in the information age. In 2000, Professor Raphael Cappuro published the paper "Ethics and Information in the Digital Age", which discussed the ethical issues of libraries in the digital age, and pointed out: "As a descriptive theory, information ethics reveals a right structure, which has influenced the attitudes of information concepts and traditional concepts in different cultures and different times. As an unconstrained theory, information ethics criticizes moral attitudes and traditions. Later, Professor Raphael Cappuro published the article "Ethical Challenges of the Information Society in 2 1 century", which discussed the ethical issues of the information society, especially the information ethical issues raised under the network environment. He distinguished information ethics from computer ethics.
In 2009, China initiated the rectification of bad websites and started the practice of information ethics.
9.2.2 Information ethics content
The content of information ethics includes two aspects: personal information morality and social information morality, and three levels: information moral consciousness, information moral relationship and information moral activity. Personal information morality refers to the moral concept, emotion, behavior and quality expressed by human individuals in the form of psychological activities in information activities, such as the value recognition of information labor and the contempt for illegally stealing other people's information achievements. Social information morality refers to the relationship between people in social information activities and the code of conduct and norms that reflect this relationship, such as promoting good and restraining evil, rights and obligations, contract spirit and so on.
The first level of information ethics is information moral consciousness, including information-related moral concepts, moral feelings, moral will, moral beliefs, moral ideals and so on. It is the deep psychological motivation of information moral behavior. Information moral consciousness is embodied in the principles, norms and categories of information morality.
The second level of information ethics is the information moral relationship, including the relationship between individuals, individuals and organizations, organizations and organizations, individuals and society, and organizations and society. This relationship is based on certain rights and obligations, and it is expressed in a certain form of information ethics.
The third level of information ethics is information moral activities, including information moral behavior, information moral evaluation, information moral education and information moral cultivation. Information moral behavior is a conscious and selective behavior in information exchange. Judging people's information behavior according to certain information moral norms is information moral evaluation. It is information moral education to cultivate people's quality and character according to certain information moral ideals. Information moral cultivation is the self-dissection and self-transformation of people's information consciousness and information behavior.
9.2.3 Ethical norms of information subjects
The three pillars of society are material, energy and information. Information activities are the guarantee for the continuous progress and orderly development of human society, and the prerequisite for the harmony and prosperity of human society. Especially in today's information society, information overload, information pollution, inequality between the rich and the poor, borderless information dissemination or cross-border data flow have aroused people's concern and research interest in information ethics. When faced with information pollution, information differentiation, information fraud and other issues, we need to think deeply from the perspective of information ethics. According to the Network Ethics Association of the University of California, the following behaviors belong to network unethical behaviors:
(1) Deliberately causing network traffic confusion or breaking into the network and its connected systems without authorization;
(2) Commercial or deceptive use of university computer resources;
(3) Stealing data, equipment or intellectual achievements;
(four) unauthorized access to other people's files;
(5) Acts that cause confusion or damage to public users;
(6) Forging e-mail information.
Among the information ethics relations, social ethics relations with information as the main body occupy an important position and need corresponding ethical norms to regulate and guide them. Information subjects are generally divided into information producers, information service providers and information users.
9.2.3. 1 code of ethics for information producers
In today's information society, information is not only used for communication, but also operated as a commodity. In this case, the moral control of information production is very important. If information producers do not have correct information ethics, it will be difficult to guarantee the quantity and quality of information products they produce, which will lead to information pollution and even great disasters and hinder social progress. At present, the immoral behavior of information producers is very worrying, such as creating false information, blocking information achievements, producing a lot of junk information without restraint, producing information for improper purposes, etc.
The ethics of information producers mainly include: first, accuracy, objectivity and truthfulness. Respect objective facts, reflect objective laws, make information accurate, true and complete, and do not resort to deceit, mystifying and grandstanding. We should bear moral responsibility for the negative effects brought by the use of information achievements. Second, timely. Information is timely, and a lot of information becomes invalid when it expires. As an information producer, we should provide users with corresponding information in time. Third, moderate confidentiality. For one's own invention, patent, technology, etc. , allowing information producers to have a certain degree of confidentiality within a certain range to safeguard their own interests. However, if the scope of confidentiality is expanded at will, it will hinder the normal information exchange of human beings, so it should be criticized by social morality.
Code of Ethics for Information Service Providers in 9.2.3.2
Due to the rapid development of the Internet, the information service industry is booming. The rapid development of information service industry should establish a complete system of ethics to ensure the correct behavior of information practitioners. In a narrow sense, the morality of information service providers is the professional ethics of information practitioners. Information professional ethics is a moral standard and code of conduct gradually formed by information workers in their information professional activities. Information professional ethics is a powerful weapon to optimize information exchange and information behavior among information service providers, information users and information producers, and an important part of information professional construction.
Code of Ethics for Information Users in 9.2.3.3
The end point of information life cycle is the use of information. The role of information in human society mainly depends on the moral standards and beliefs of information users. The same information, some people use it to benefit mankind, others use it to create disasters. The moral standards of information users should include respecting others' rights of information creation, ownership and privacy, not distorting or tampering with others' information, not using information for unfair competition and other illegal and criminal acts, and using information to serve social progress and human happiness. Information user ethics mainly includes:
First, the basic principles of information ethics. (1) The principle of national equality. All information behaviors need to obey the overall interests of the information society. Every information user enjoys equal social rights and obligations, and the information network should treat every user equally. ② The principle of social compatibility. The behavior between information subjects should conform to mutually recognized norms and standards, individual information behavior should be accepted by the society, and the information exchange between information users should be standardized, easy to understand and accessible. (3) * * * enjoy the principle of reciprocity. As information users, we need to realize that we are not only users and users of information and services, but also producers and providers of information. When he enjoys all the rights of social information dissemination, he should also bear the responsibilities required by society.
Second, the basic information code of conduct and information etiquette. For example, the basic etiquette of network communication is: keep the information concise; Each message focuses on a theme; Don't doubt the social identity of information publishers too much, it's best to tell the truth; Don't use academic network to engage in commercial or profit-making activities; The signature can include name, occupation, company and website, but it cannot exceed 4 lines. Optional information in the signature can include address and telephone number; Capitalized words are only used to highlight the main points or make the topics and titles more eye-catching. You can also circle a word with an asterisk (*) to make it more prominent. Pay attention to irony and humor. Without direct communication and necessary ideograms, your joke may be regarded as a kind of criticism. If necessary, use abbreviations, etc.