---
title: "Information ethics"
chunk: 3/3
source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Information_ethics"
category: "reference"
tags: "science, encyclopedia"
date_saved: "2026-05-05T04:23:24.851455+00:00"
instance: "kb-cron"
---

== Security and privacy ==
Ethical concerns regarding international security, surveillance, and the right to privacy are on the rise. The issues of security and privacy commonly overlap in the field of information, due to the interconnectedness of online research and the development of Information Technology (IT). Some of the areas surrounding security and privacy are identity theft, online economic transfers, medical records, and state security. Companies, organizations, and institutions use databases to store, organize, and distribute user's information—with or without their knowledge.
Individuals are far more likely to part with personal information when it seems that they will have some sort of control over the use of the information or if the information is given to an entity that they already have an established relationship with. In these specific circumstances, subjects will be much inclined to believe that their information has been collected for pure collection's sake. An entity may also be offering goods or services in exchange for the client's personal information. This type of collection method may seem valuable to a user due to the fact that the transaction appears to be free in the monetary sense. This forms a type of social contract between the entity offering the goods or services and the client. The client may continue to uphold their side of the contract as long as the company continues to provide them with a good or service that they deem worthy. The concept of procedural fairness indicates an individual's perception of fairness in a given scenario. Circumstances that contribute to procedural fairness are providing the customer with the ability to voice their concerns or input, and control over the outcome of the contract. 
Best practice for any company collecting information from customers is to consider procedural fairness. This concept is a key proponent of ethical consumer marketing and is the basis of United States Privacy Laws, the European Union's privacy directive from 1995, and the Clinton Administration's June 1995 guidelines for personal information use by all National Information Infrastructure participants. An individual being allowed to remove their name from a mailing list is considered a best information collecting practice. In a few Equifax surveys conducted in the years 1994–1996, it was found that a substantial amount of the American public was concerned about business practices using private consumer information, and that is causes more harm than good. Throughout the course of a customer-company relationship, the company can likely accumulate a plethora of information from its customer. With data processing technology flourishing, it allows for the company to make specific marketing campaigns for each of their individual customers. Data collection and surveillance infrastructure has allowed companies to micro-target specific groups and tailor advertisements for certain populations.

=== Medical records ===
A recent trend of medical records is to digitize them. The sensitive information secured within medical records makes security measures vitally important. The ethical concern of medical record security is great within the context of emergency wards, where any patient records can be accessed at all times. Within an emergency ward, patient medical records need to be available for quick access; however, this means that all medical records can be accessed at any moment within emergency wards with or without the patient present.
Ironically, the donation of one's body organs "to science" is easier in most Western jurisdictions than donating one's medical records for research.

=== International security ===
Warfare has also changed the security of countries within the 21st Century. After the events of 9-11 and other terrorism attacks on civilians, surveillance by states raises ethical concerns of the individual privacy of citizens. The USA PATRIOT Act 2001 is a prime example of such concerns. Many other countries, especially European nations within the current climate of terrorism, is looking for a balancing between stricter security and surveillance, and not committing the same ethical concerns associated with the USA Patriot Act. International security is moving to towards the trends of cybersecurity and unmanned systems, which involve the military application of IT. Ethical concerns of political entities regarding information warfare include the unpredictability of response, difficulty differentiating civilian and military targets, and conflict between state and non-state actors.

== Journals ==
The main, peer-reviewed, academic journals reporting on information ethics are the Journal of the Association for Information Systems, the flagship publication of the Association for Information Systems, and Ethics and Information Technology, published by Springer.

== Branches ==
Bioinformatics
Business ethics
Computer ethics
Cyberethics
Information ecology
Library Bill of Rights
Media ethics

== Notes ==

== Further reading ==
Floridi, Luciano (2013). The Ethics of Information. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Froehlich, Thomas (2017). "A Not-So-Brief Account of Current Information Ethics: The Ethics of Ignorance, Missing Information, Misinformation, Disinformation and Other Forms of Deception or Incompetence". BiD: textos universitaris de biblioteconomia i documentacio. Num. 39.
Himma, Kenneth E.; and Tavani, Herman T. (eds.) (2008). The Handbook of Information and Computer Ethics, New Jersey:  John Wiley and Sons, Inc..
Moore, Adam D. ed (2005). "Information Ethics: Privacy, Property, and Power", University of Washington Press.
Spinello, Richard A.; and Herman T. Tavani (eds.) (2004). Readings in Cyberethics, second ed. Mass.: Jones and Bartlett Publishers.
Tavani, Herman T. (2004). Ethics & Technology:  Ethical Issues in an Age of Information and Communication Technology.  New Jersey:  John Wiley and Sons, Inc..

== External links ==

IRIE, The International Review of Information Ethics
Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility
IEG, the Information Ethics research Group at Oxford University
Information Ethicist
International Center for Information Ethics