Technology ethics refers to the principles that guide the development, use, and management of technology, taking into account factors such as risk management and individual rights. These principles are intended to help ensure that technology is used in a responsible and ethical manner, and to address the potential impacts that technology can have on society, the environment, and individuals.
Technology ethics can cover a wide range of issues, including privacy, security, accessibility, accountability, and sustainability. By considering these ethical principles, organizations and individuals can help to ensure that technology is used in a way that is consistent with values such as fairness, transparency, and respect for the rights and dignity of others. The following are common areas of technology ethics.
Access Rights
Access to empowering technology as a right or freedom.
Accountability
The rules of accountability for decisions made by technology.
Digital Rights
Protection of intellectual property rights, privacy and personality rights.
Environment
How to govern technologies that have potential to damage shared resources.
Existential Risk
Technologies that represent a threat to global quality of life or extinction of advanced life on earth.
Freedom
Technology provides tools that can be used to monitor and control societies raising broad questions related to freedom.
Health & Safety
Health and safety risks posed by technologies.
Human Enhancement
Human genetic engineering and human-machine integration.
Human Judgement
When do decisions require human judgement and when can they be automated?
Over-Automation
When does automation decrease quality of life?
Permanent Records
Retention of personally identifiable information.
Precautionary Principle
Who decides that a new technology is safe?
Privacy
Protection of privacy rights.
Security
What due diligence is required to ensure information security?
Self Modifying Technology
The unpredictable nature of certain types of artificial intelligence such as recursive self-improvement.
Self Replicating Technology
Are self replicating systems likely to become grey goo?
Technology Predictability
Questions around algorithms and artificial intelligence that humans may view as largely unpredictable and cryptic. For example, is it a violation of due diligence for an organization to implement technologies that it doesn’t understand?
Technology Proliferation
Ethics, governance and risk management tend to lag the spread of a new technology.
Technology Transparency
Transparency is the practice of clearly explaining how a technology works and what data it collects.
Terms Of Service
Ethics related to legal agreements such as terms of service.
