The distinction between what is legal and what is illegal is usually clear, but  drawing a line between what is ethical and what is unethical can be more  difficult. Let's take a look at the ethical issues of IT. Some information systems  professionals believe that information technology offers many opportunities for  unethical behavior, particularly because of the ease of collecting and  disseminating information. Cyber crime, cyber fraud, identity theft and  intellectual property theft are on the rise nearly 15 million US residents have  their identity stolen every year, with a total loss of over $50 billion this means  that one identity is stolen every two seconds with an average loss of $3,500.16  no organization controls the whole web. So who decides what content should be put on it? Two types of information are available on the web, public and private,  although US citizens do not want the government controlling web access, many  parents are concerned about what their children are exposed to while using the  web, such as pornography, violence and adult language. Intellectual property is  the legal umbrella covering protections that involve copyrights, trademarks,  trade secrets and patents for the creation of the mind developed by people or  businesses. Generally, copyright laws protect tangible materials such as books,  drawings and so forth. Copyright laws do have some exceptions, however,  usually under the fair use doctrine, this exception means that you can use  copyrighted material for certain purposes, such as quoting passages of a book  and literary reviews. One aspect of intellectual property that has attracted  attention recently is cyber squatting, which is registering, selling or using a  domain name to profit from someone else's trademark. Some believe that  information technology in the internet have created a digital divide between the  information rich and the information poor. Although prices have been decreasing steadily. Computers still are not affordable to all people. Children in particular,  are often victims of this digital divide. Those without computers or web access at home, as well as students who cannot afford computer equipment, are at a  disadvantage and can often fall behind in their education. Students without  access to a wide array of resources on the web have more difficulty writing  papers and learning about topics of interests 



Last modified: Monday, February 3, 2025, 9:05 AM