This document was written as my submission for the computer science writing course I took in my third year of study at the University of York. It attempts to summarise the privacy issues associated with the development of new technologies in the information communications domain. Please don’t read with too much of a critical eye – it is old now and it was unfortunately a last minute effort, which I may one day improve.

Introduction

In order for one to consider the broad topic of ethics with regard to computer engineering, it is important to be sure that we understand precisely what “ethics” are. In her lecture notes, Susan Stepney defines ethics to be “right and wrong behaviour in a society” [1, p25], a definition expanded upon in Computer Ethics: “the code or set of principles by which people live” [2, p14]. These broad definitions suggest each of us have a good idea what is right and what is wrong, but a question central to the topic of this review is “can we judge the use of the Internet with existing ethical frameworks?” [1, p9]. (more…)