Assignment #1

Q#1:

Paul Krugman – That 1937 feeling

This is from March 2010, thus, some data is out of date. However, the point of the video is to help you make the connections between the recent/current economic policies and the events of 1937.

The Topic:

The Great Depression was a low probability event. It required several negative economic events to occur at the same time and for policy makers to respond poorly to those events. One of the best books on this topic is John Kenneth Gailbraith’s The Great Crash; you might want to read it.

The events of 1937 are largely forgotten, even by economists. But for those who study the relationships between public policy and economic growth, the lessons of 1937 are some of the most important ones from the 20th century.

Table 7.2 on page 232 of your text shows GDP growth of 12.8% in 1936. In 1937 it was 6.9%, and by 1938, it was -5.5 percent. How does an economy go from the strong growth (admittedly from a relatively low base) of 1936 to another recession by 1938? In this case, the answer is government policy.

For this week’s discussion, go on the web or to the UMUC library and learn the specific monetary and fiscal policy changes (don’t forget taxes) that occurred in 1937. Use what you have learned about GDP, production costs and aggregate demand, and aggregate supply to project the most likely results of those changes.

Next view our current economic condition and the recently proposed tax increases, the ending of the Federal Reserve’s quantitative easing and the proposals for increased government spending that may or may not be offset by spending cuts in other areas. Again using the tools you have learned, what do you think is the most likely result?

In other words, compare 2015 to 1937 and explore what lessons and cautions may be learned from that comparison.

Think in terms of an economic policy advisor.

****Sources you can use: 

• About the Federal Reserve System
• Federal Reserve Banks
• Federal Reserve Board
• Federal Open Market Committee
• The Implementation of Monetary Policy
• Monetary Policy and the Economy

Q#2:

Choose one of the following options: 

Option #1: Digital Ethics

Examine the four issues with an ethical dimension on pages 16-18 of Digital Enlightenment Forum . Security for the Digital World Within an Ethical Framework. IOS Press, 2016 (PLEASE see attached for article). Choose one that most interests you and do the following:  

1. Restate the issue in your own words by paraphrasing it. (Please see tips on paraphrasing here.)
2. Explain what you think the main ethical problem or dilemma is.  
3. Provide one real-life example of some emerging or new technology you think this ethical issue/dilemma applies to. Your real-life example should be from a reliable article in a popular technology publication or an article in the UMGC library.   
4. Explore what you think a possible solution to this ethical issue in your emerging or new technology could be.   
7. Use two quotes from any of your resources to support or explain your points. Make sure to provide in-text citations for both quotes in MLA format.  
10. Provide references for all sources in MLA format.  

 

 

Option #2: Disclosive Computer Ethics

After reading Philip Brey’s article “Disclosive Computer Ethics” (PLEASE see attached for article) in the Learning Materials, please do the following:  

1. Explain how Brey defines disclosive computer ethics and value-sensitive design.  
2. Discuss why Brey thinks the relationship between disclosive computer ethics and value-sensitive design is important.  
3. Provide one real-life example of some emerging or new technology you think either does have or does not have a value-sensitive design. Your real-life example should be from a reliable article in a popular technology publication or an article in the UMGC library.   
4. If you think your example does not have a value-sensitive design, explore and suggest a change that could make it have a better value-sensitive design.  
5. If you think your example does have a value-sensitive design, explain what specific evidence you see that suggests it does.  

Use two quotes from any of your resources to support or explain your points. Make sure to provide in-text citations for both quotes in MLA format.  
Provide references for all sources in MLA format.   

Examples of popular technology publications that can be used for this question include: 

• Wired Magazine
• MIT Technology Review 
• Tech Briefs
• GeekTime 
• ComputerWorld 
• Innovation & Tech Today 
• Digit Magazine
• Trotons Tech Magazine

Option #3: Design for Privacy

After reading the “Improving privacy choice through design” by Terpstra, Schouten and Leenes, please do the following:   

1. Summarize why the authors think reflective thinking is an important aspect of making decisions related to digital technology and privacy. (Please see tips on summarizing here.)
2. Describe what the authors mean when they propose that friction be introduced into technology interfaces.  
3. Choose an app or program you have recently installed on your phone or computer and explain how the programmers could tweak the installation process or the way the app or program works to encourage more reflective thinking about personal privacy by the user.  
4. Finally, do you think that the solution proposed in this article would help personal data be used in more ethical ways by big corporations? Why or why not?  

Use two quotes from any of your resources to support or explain your points. Make sure to provide in-text citations for both quotes in MLA format.  
Provide references for all sources in MLA format.  

3 Values in technology and disclosive
computer ethics

Philip Brey

3.1 Introduction

Is it possible to do an ethical study of computer systems themselves inde-
pendently of their use by human beings? The theories and approaches in this
chapter answer this question affirmatively and hold that such studies should
have an important role in computer and information ethics. In doing so, they
undermine conventional wisdom that computer ethics, and ethics generally,
is concerned solely with human conduct, and they open up new directions for
computer ethics, as well as for the design of computer systems.

As our starting point for this chapter, let us consider some typical examples
of ethical questions that are raised in relation to computers and information
technology, such as can be found throughout this book:

� Is it wrong for a system operator to disclose the content of employee email
messages to employers or other third parties?

� Should individuals have the freedom to post discriminatory, degrading and
defamatory messages on the Internet?

� Is it wrong for companies to use data-mining techniques to generate con-
sumer profiles based on purchasing behaviour, and should they be allowed
to do so?

� Should governments design policies to overcome the digital divide between
skilled and unskilled computer users?

As these examples show, ethical questions regarding information and com-
munication technology typically focus on the morality of particular ways of
using the technology or the morally right way to regulate such uses.

Taken for granted in such questions, however, are the computer systems
and software that are used. Could there, however, not also be valid ethical
questions that concern the technology itself? Could there be an ethics of
computer systems separate from the ethics of using computer systems? The
embedded values approach in computer ethics, formulated initially by Helen
Nissenbaum (1998; Flanagan, Howe and Nissenbaum 2008) and since adopted
by many authors in the field, answers these questions affirmatively, and aims
to develop a theory and methodology for moral reflection on computer systems
themselves, independently of particular ways of using them.

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AN: 317678 ; Luciano Floridi.; The Cambridge Handbook of Information and Computer Ethics
Account: s4264928.main.edsebook

42 Philip Brey

The embedded values approach holds that computer systems and software
are not morally neutral and that it is possible to identify tendencies in them to
promote or demote particular moral values and norms. It holds, for example,
that computer programs can be supportive of privacy, freedom of informa-
tion, or property rights or, instead, to go against the realization of these val-
ues. Such tendencies in computer systems are called ‘embedded’, ‘embodied’
or ‘built-in’ moral values or norms. They are built-in in the sense that they
can be identified and studied largely or wholly independently of actual uses
of the system, although they manifest themselves in a variety of uses of
the system. The embedded values approach aims to identify such tenden-
cies and to morally evaluate them. By claiming that computer systems may
incorporate and manifest values, the embedded values approach is not claim-
ing that computer systems engage in moral actions, that they are morally
praiseworthy or blameworthy, or that they bear moral responsibility (Johnson
2006). It is claiming, however, that the design and operation of computer
systems has moral consequences and therefore should be subjected to ethical
analysis.

If the embedded values approach is right, then the scope of computer ethics
is broadened considerably. Computer ethics should not just study ethical issues
in the use of computer technology, but also in the technology itself. And if
computer systems and software are indeed value-laden, then many new ethi-
cal issues emerge for their design. Moreover, it suggests that design practices
and methodologies, particularly those in information systems design and soft-
ware engineering, can be changed to include the consideration of embedded
values.

In the following section, Section 3.2, the case will be made for the embed-
ded values approach, and some common objections against it will be dis-
cussed. Section 3.3 will then turn to an exposition of a particular approach
in computer ethics that incorporates the embedded values approach, disclo-
sive computer ethics, proposed by the author (Brey 2000). Disclosive com-
puter ethics is an attempt to incorporate the notion of embedded values
into a comprehensive approach to computer ethics. Section 3.4 considers
value-sensitive design (VSD), an approach to design developed by computer
scientist Batya Friedman and her associates, which incorporates notions of
the embedded values approach (Friedman, Kahn and Borning 2006). The
VSD approach is not an approach within ethics but within computer sci-
ence, specifically within information systems design and software engineer-
ing. It aims to account for values in a comprehensive manner in the design
process, and makes use of insights of the embedded values approach for
this purpose. In a concluding section, the state of the art in these dif-
ferent approaches is evaluated and some suggestions are made for future
research.

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43 Values in technology and disclosive computer ethics

3.2 How technology embodies values

The existing literature on embedded values in computer technology is still
young, and has perhaps focused more on case studies and applications for
design than on theoretical underpinnings. The idea that technology embod-
ies values has been inspired by work in the interdisciplinary field of science
and technology studies, which investigates the development of science and
technology and their interaction with society. Authors in this field agree that
technology is not neutral but shaped by society. Some have argued, specifi-
cally, that technological artefacts (products or systems) issue constraints on
the world surrounding them (Latour 1992) and that they can harbour political
consequences (Wiener 1954). Authors in the embedded value approach have
taken these ideas and applied them to ethics, arguing that technological arte-
facts are not morally neutral but value-laden. However, what it means for an
artefact to have an embedded value remains somewhat vague.

In this section a more precise description of what it means for a technologi-
cal artefact to have embedded values is articulated and defended. The position
taken here is in line with existing accounts of embedded values, although their
authors need not agree with all of the claims made in this section. The idea
of embedded values is best understood as a claim that technological artefacts
(and in particular computer systems and software) have built-in tendencies to
promote or demote the realization of particular values. Defined in this way, a
built-in value is a special sort of built-in consequence. In this section a defence
of the thesis that technological artefacts are capable of having built-in con-
sequences is first discussed. Then tendencies for the promotion of values are
identified as special kinds of built-in consequences of technological artefacts.
The section is concluded by a brief review of the literature on values in infor-
mation technology, and a discussion of how values come to be embedded in
technology.

3.2.1 Consequences built into technology

The embedded values approach promotes the idea that technology can have
built-in tendencies to promote or demote particular values. This idea, how-
ever, runs counter to a frequently held belief about technology, the idea that
technology itself is neutral with respect to consequences. Let us call this the
neutrality thesis. The neutrality thesis holds that there are no consequences
that are inherent to technological artefacts, but rather that artefacts can always
be used in a variety of different ways, and that each of these uses comes with
its own consequences. For example, a hammer can be used to hammer nails,
but also to break objects, to kill someone, to flatten dough, to keep a pile of
paper in place or to conduct electricity. These uses have radically different

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44 Philip Brey

effects on the world, and it is difficult to point to any single effect that is
constant in all of them.

The hammer example, and other examples like it (a similar example could
be given for a laptop), suggest strongly that the neutrality thesis is true. If so,
this would have important consequences for an ethics of technology. It would
follow that ethics should not pay much attention to technological artefacts
themselves, because they in themselves do not ‘do’ anything. Rather, ethics
should focus on their usage alone.

This conclusion holds only if one assumes that the notion of embedded
values requires that there are consequences that manifest themselves in each
and every use of an artefact. But this strong claim need not be made. A
weaker claim is that artefacts may have built-in consequences in that there
are recurring consequences that manifest themselves in a wide range of uses
of the artefact, though not in all uses. If such recurring consequences can be
associated with technological artefacts, this may be sufficient to falsify the
strong claim of the neutrality thesis that each use of a technological artefact
comes with its own consequences. And a good case can be made that at least
some artefacts can be associated with such recurring consequences.

An ordinary gas-engine automobile, for example, can evidently be used
in many different ways: for commuter traffic, for leisure driving, to taxi
passengers or cargo, for hit jobs, for auto racing, but also as a museum piece,
as a temporary shelter for the rain or as a barricade. Whereas there is no single
consequence that results from all of these uses, there are several consequences
that result from a large number of these uses: in all but the last three uses,
gasoline is used up, greenhouse gases and other pollutants are being released,
noise is being generated, and at least one person (the driver) is being moved
around at high speeds. These uses, moreover, have something in common:
they are all central uses of automobiles, in that they are accepted uses that
are frequent in society and that account for the continued production and
usage of automobiles. The other three uses are peripheral in that they are
less dominant uses that depend for their continued existence on these central
uses, because their central uses account for the continued production and
consumption of automobiles. Central uses of the automobile make use of its
capacity for driving, and when it is used in this capacity, certain consequences
are very likely to occur. Generalizing from this example, a case can be made
that technological artefacts are capable of having built-in consequences in
the sense that particular consequences may manifest themselves in all of the
central uses of the artefact.

It may be objected that, even with this restriction, the idea of built-in
consequences employs a too deterministic conception of technology. It sug-
gests that, when technological artefacts are used, particular consequences are
necessary or unavoidable. In reality, there are usually ways to avoid par-
ticular consequences. For example, a gas-fuelled automobile need not emit

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45 Values in technology and disclosive computer ethics

greenhouse gases into the atmosphere if a greenbox device is attached to it,
which captures carbon dioxide and nitrous oxide and converts it into bio-oil.
To avoid this objection, it may be claimed that the notion of built-in con-
sequences does not refer to necessary, unavoidable consequences but rather
to strong tendencies towards certain consequences. The claim is that these
consequences are normally realized whenever the technology is used, unless
it is used in a context that is highly unusual or if extraordinary steps are
taken to avoid particular consequences. Built-in consequences are therefore
never absolute but always relative to a set of typical uses and contexts of use,
outside of which the consequences may not occur.

Do many artefacts have built-in consequences in the way defined above?
The extent to which technological artefacts have built-in consequences can be
correlated with two factors: the extent to which they are capable of exerting
force or behaviour autonomously, and the extent to which they are embedded
in a fixed context of use. As for the first parameter, some artefacts seem
to depend strongly on users for their consequences, whereas others seem to
be able to generate effects on their own. Mechanical and electrical devices,
in particular, are capable of displaying all kinds of behaviours on their own,
ranging from simple processes, like the consumption of fuel or the emission of
steam, to complex actions, like those of robots and artificial agents. Elements
of infrastructure, like buildings, bridges, canals and railway tracks, may not
behave autonomously but, by their mere presence, they do impose significant
constraints on their environment, including the actions and movements of
people, and in this way engender their own consequences. Artefacts that are
not mechanical, electrical or infrastructural, like simple hand-held tools and
utensils, tend to have less consequences of their own and their consequences
tend to be more dependent on the uses to which they are put.

As for the second parameter, it is easier to attribute built-in consequences
to technological artefacts that are placed in a fixed context of use than to
those that are used in many different contexts. Adapting an example by
Winner (1980), an overpass that is 180 cm (6 ft) high has as a generic built-in
consequence that it prevents traffic from going through that is more than
180 cm high. But when such an overpass is built over the main access road
to an island from a city in which automobiles are generally less than 180 cm
high and buses are taller, then it acquires a more specific built-in consequence,
which is that buses are being prevented from going to the island whereas
automobiles do have access. When, in addition, it is the case that buses are
the primary means of transportation for black citizens, whereas most white
citizens own automobiles, then the more specific consequence of the overpass
is that it allows easy access to the island for one racial group, while denying
it to another. When the context of use of an artefact is relatively fixed, the
immediate, physical consequences associated with a technology can often
be translated into social consequences because there are reliable correlations

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46 Philip Brey

between the physical and the social (for example between prevention of access
to buses and prevention of access to blacks) that are present (Latour 1992).

3.2.2 From consequences to values

Let us now turn from built-in consequences to embedded values. An embedded
value is a special kind of built-in consequence. It has already been explained
how technological artefacts can have built-in consequences. What needs to
be explained now is how some of these built-in consequences can be asso-
ciated with values. To be able to make this case, let us first consider what a
value is.

Although the notion of a value remains somewhat ambiguous in philosophy,
some agreements seem to have emerged (Frankena 1973). First, philosophers
tend to agree that values depend on valuation. Valuation is the act of valuing
something, or finding it valuable, and to find something valuable is to find it
good in some way. People find all kinds of things valuable, both abstract and
concrete, real and unreal, general and specific. Those things that people find
valuable that are both ideal and general, like justice and generosity, are called
values, with disvalues being those general qualities that are considered to be
bad or evil, like injustice and avarice. Values, then, correspond to idealized
qualities or conditions in the world that people find good. For example, the
value of justice corresponds to some idealized, general condition of the world
in which all persons are treated fairly and rewarded rightly.

To have a value is to want it to be realized. A value is realized if the
ideal conditions defined by it are matched by conditions in the actual world.
For example, the value of freedom is fully realized if everyone in the world
is completely free. Often, though, a full realization of the ideal conditions
expressed in a value is not possible. It may not be possible for everyone to be
completely free, as there are always at least some constraints and limitations
that keep people from a state of complete freedom. Therefore, values can
generally be realized only to a degree.

The use of a technological artefact may result in the partial realization of a
value. For instance, the use of software that has been designed not to make
one’s personal information accessible to others helps to realize the value of
privacy. The use of an artefact may also hinder the realization of a value or
promote the realization of a disvalue. For instance, the use of software that
contains spyware or otherwise leaks personal data to third parties harms the
realization of the value of privacy. Technological artefacts are hence capable
of either promoting or harming the realization of values when they are used.
When this occurs systematically, in all of its central uses, we may say that
the artefact embodies a special kind of built-in consequence, which is a built-
in tendency to promote or harm the realization of a value. Such a built-in
tendency may be called, in short, an embedded value or disvalue. For example,

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47 Values in technology and disclosive computer ethics

spyware-laden software has a tendency to harm privacy in all of its typical
uses, and may therefore be claimed to have harm to privacy as an embedded
disvalue.

Embedded values approaches often focus on moral values. Moral values
are ideals about how people ought to behave in relation to others and them-
selves and how society should be organized so as to promote the right course
of action. Examples of moral values are justice, freedom, privacy and hon-
esty. Next to moral values, there are different kinds of non-moral values, for
example, aesthetic, economic, (non-moral) social and personal values, such as
beauty, efficiency, social harmony and friendliness.

Values should be distinguished from norms, which can also be embedded
in technology. Norms are rules that prescribe which kinds of actions or state
of affairs are forbidden, obligatory or allowed. They are often based on values
that provide a rationale for them. Moral norms prescribe which actions are
forbidden, obligatory or allowed from the point of view of morality. Exam-
ples of moral norms are ‘do not steal’ and ‘personal information should not
be provided to third parties unless the bearer has consented to such distri-
bution’. Examples of non-moral norms are ‘pedestrians should walk on the
right side of the street’ and ‘fish products should not contain more than
10 mg histamines per 100 grams’. Just as technological artefacts can promote
the realization of values, they can also promote the enforcement of norms.
Embedded norms are a special kind of built-in consequence. They are tenden-
cies to effectuate norms by bringing it about that the environment behaves
or is organized according to the norm. For example, web browsers can be set
not to accept cookies from websites, thereby enforcing the norm that websites
should not collect information about their user. By enforcing a norm, arte-
facts thereby also promote the corresponding value, if any (e.g., privacy in the
example).

So far we have seen that technological artefacts may have embedded values
understood as special kinds of built-in consequences. Because this conception
relates values to causal capacities of artefacts to affect their environment, it
may be called the causalist conception of embedded values. In the literature
on embedded values, other conceptions have been presented as well. Notably,
Flanagan, Howe and Nissenbaum (2008) and Johnson (1997) discuss what they
call an expressive conception of embedded values. Artefacts may be said to be
expressive of values in that they incorporate or contain symbolic meanings
that refer to values. For example, a particular brand of computer may sym-
bolize or represent status and success, or the representation of characters and
events in a computer game may reveal racial prejudices or patriarchal values.
Expressive embedded values in artefacts represent the values of designers or
users of the artefact. This does not imply, however, that they also function
to realize these values. It is conceivable that the values expressed in arte-
facts cause people to adopt these values and thereby contribute to their own

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48 Philip Brey

realization. Whether this happens frequently remains an open question. In
any case, whereas the expressive conception of embedded values merits fur-
ther philosophical reflection, the remainder of this chapter will be focused on
the causalist conception.

3.2.3 Values in information technology

The embedded values approach within computer ethics studies embedded val-
ues in computer systems and software and their emergence, and provides
moral evaluations of them. The study of embedded values in Information and
Communication Technology (ICT) has begun with a seminal paper by Batya
Friedman and Helen Nissenbaum in which they consider bias in computer
systems (Friedman and Nissenbaum 1996). A biased computer system or pro-
gram is defined by them as one that systematically and unfairly discriminates
against certain individuals or groups, who may be users or other stakeholders
of the system. Examples include educational programs that have much more
appeal to boys than to girls, loan approval software that gives negative rec-
ommendations for loans to individuals with ethnic surnames, and databases
for matching organ donors with potential transplant recipients that system-
atically favour individuals retrieved and displayed immediately on the first
screen over individuals displayed on later screens. Building on their work, I
have distinguished user biases that discriminate against (groups of) users of an
information system, and information biases that discriminate against stake-
holders represented by the system (Brey 1998). I have discussed various kinds
of user bias, such as user exclusion and the selective penalization of users,
as well as different kinds of information bias, including bias in information
content, data selection, categorization, search and matching algorithms and
the display of information.

After their study of bias in computer systems, Friedman and Nissenbaum
went on to consider consequences of software agents for the autonomy of
users. Software agents are small programs that act on behalf of the user to
perform tasks. Friedman and Nissenbaum (1987) argue that software agents
can undermine user autonomy in various ways – for example by having only
limited capabilities to perform wanted tasks or by not making relevant infor-
mation available to the user – and argue that it is important that software
agents are designed so as to enhance user autonomy. The issue of user auton-
omy is also taken up in Brey (1998, 1999c), in which I argue that computer
systems can undermine autonomy by supporting monitoring by third parties,
by imposing their own operational logic on the user, thus limiting creativity
and choice, or by making users dependent on systems operators or others for
maintenance or access to systems functions.

Deborah Johnson (1997) considers the claim that the Internet is an inher-
ently democratic technology. Some have claimed that the Internet, because of

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49 Values in technology and disclosive computer ethics

its distributed and nonhierarchical nature, promotes democratic processes by
empowering individuals and stimulating democratic dialogue and decision-
making (see Chapter 10). Johnson subscribes to this democratic potential.
She cautions, however, that these democratic tendencies may be limited if
the Internet is subjected to filtering systems that only give a small group of
individuals control over the flow of information on the Internet. She hence
identifies both democratic and undemocratic tendencies in the technology that
may become dominant depending on future use and development.

Other studies, within the embedded values approach, have focused on spe-
cific values, such as privacy, trust, community, moral accountability and
informed consent, or on specific technologies. Introna and Nissenbaum (2000)
consider biases in the algorithms of search engines, which, they argue, favour
websites with a popular and broad subject matter over specialized sites, and the
powerful over the less powerful. Introna (2007) argues that existing plagiarism
detection software creates an artificial distinction between alleged plagiarists
and non-plagiarists, which is unfair. Introna (2005) considers values embed-
ded in facial recognition systems. Camp (1999) analyses the implications of
Internet protocols for democracy. Flanagan, Howe and Nissenbaum (2005)
study values in computer games, and Brey (1999b, 2008) studies them in
computer games, computer simulations and virtual reality applications. Agre
and Mailloux (1997) reveal the implications for privacy of Intelligent Vehicle-
Highway Systems, Tavani (1999) analyses the implications of data-mining
techniques for privacy and Fleischmann (2007) considers values embedded in
digital libraries.

3.2.4 The emergence of values in information technology

What has not been discussed so far is how technological artefacts and systems
acquire embedded values. This issue has been ably taken up by Friedman
and Nissenbaum (1996). They analyse the different ways in which biases
(injustices) can emerge in computer systems. Although their focus is on biases,
their analysis can easily be generalized to values in general. Biases, they argue,
can have three different types of origins. Preexisting biases arise from values
and attitudes that exist prior to the design of a system. They can either be
individual, resulting from the values of those who have a significant input into
the design of the systems, or societal, resulting from organizations, institutions
or the general culture that constitute the context in which the system is
developed. Examples are racial biases of designers that become embedded in
loan approval software, and overall gender biases in society that lead to the
development of computer games that are more appealing to boys than to girls.
Friedman and Nissenbaum note that preexisting biases can be embedded in
systems intentionally, through conscious efforts of individuals or institutions,
or unintentionally and unconsciously.

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50 Philip Brey

A second type is technical bias, which arises from technical constraints or
considerations. The design of computer systems includes all kinds of technical
limitations and assumptions that are perhaps not value-laden in themselves
but that could result in value-laden designs, for example because limited
screen sizes cannot display all results of a search process, thereby privileging
those results that are displayed first, or because computer algorithms or models
contain formalized, simplified representations of reality that introduce biases
or limit the autonomy of users, or because software engineering techniques
do not allow for adequate security, leading to systematic breaches of privacy.
A third and final type is emergent bias, which arises when the social context
in which the system is used is not the one intended by its designers. In the
new context, the system may not adequately support the capabilities, values
or interests of some user groups or the interests of other stakeholders. For
example, an ATM that relies heavily on written instructions may be installed
in a neighborhood with a predominantly illiterate population.

Friedman and Nissenbaum’s classification can easily be extended to embed-
ded values in general. Embedded values may hence be identified as preexist-
ing, technical or emergent. What this classification shows is that embedded
values are not necessarily a reflection of the values of designers. When they
are, moreover, their embedding often has not been intentional. However, their
embedding can be an intentional act. If designers are aware of the way in
which values are embedded into artefacts, and if they can sufficiently antic-
ipate future uses of an artefact and its future context(s) of use, then they
are in a position to intentionally design artefacts to support particular val-
ues. Several approaches have been proposed in recent years that aim to make
considerations of value part of the design process. In Section 3.4, the most
influential of these approaches, called value-sensitive design, is discussed. But
first, let us consider a more philosophical approach that also adopts the notion
of embedded values.

3.3 Disclosive computer ethics

The approach of disclosive computer ethics (Brey 2000, 1999a) intends to
make the embedded values approach part of a comprehensive approach
to computer ethics. It is widely accepted that the aim of computer ethics is
to morally evaluate practices that involve computer technology and to devise
ethical policies for these practices. The practices in question are activities of
designing, using and managing computer technology by individuals, groups
or organizations. Some of these practices are already widely recognized in
society as morally controversial. For example, it is widely recognized that
copying patented software and filtering Internet information are morally con-
troversial practices. Such practices may be called morally transparent because

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51 Values in technology and disclosive computer ethics

the practice is known and it is roughly understood what moral values are at
stake in relation to it.

In other computer-related practices, the moral issues that are involved may
not be sufficiently recognized. This may be the case because the practices
themselves are not well known beyond a circle of specialists, or because they
are well known but not recognized as morally charged because they have
a false appearance of moral neutrality. Practices of this type may be called
morally opaque, meaning that it is not generally understood that the practice
raises ethical questions or what these questions may be. For example, the
practice of browser tracking is morally opaque because it is not well known
or well understood by many people, and the practice of search engine use is
morally opaque because, although the practice is well known, it is not well
known that the search algorithms involved in the practice contain biases and
raise ethical questions.

Computer ethics has mostly focused on morally transparent practices, and
specifically on practices of using computer systems. Such approaches may be
called mainstream computer ethics. In mainstream computer ethics, a typical
study begins by identifying a morally controversial practice, like software
theft, hacking, electronic monitoring or Internet pornography. Next, the prac-
tice is described and analysed in descriptive terms, and finally, moral principles
and judgements are applied to it and moral deliberation takes place, resulting
in a moral evaluation of the practice and, possibly, a set of policy recommen-
dations. As Jim Moor has summed up this approach, ‘A typical problem in
computer ethics arises because there is a policy vacuum about how computer
technology should be used’ (1985, p. 266).

The approach of disclosive computer ethics focuses instead on morally
opaque practices. Many practices involving computer technology are morally
opaque because they include operations of technological systems that are very
complex and difficult to understand for laypersons and that are often hidden
from view for the average user. Additionally, practices are often morally
opaque because they involve distant actions over computer networks by sys-
tem operators, providers, website owners and hackers and remain hidden from
view from users and from the public at large. The aim of disclosive ethics is
to identify such morally opaque practices, describe and analyse them, so as
to bring them into view, and to identify and reflect on any problematic moral
features in them. Although mainstream and disclosive computer ethics are
different approaches, they are not rival approaches but are rather comple-
mentary. They are also not completely separable, because the moral opacity
of practices is always a matter of degree, and because a complex practice may
include both morally transparent and opaque dimensions, and thus require
both approaches.

Many computer-related practices that are morally opaque are so because
they depend on operations of computer systems that are value-laden without

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52 Philip Brey

it being known. Many morally opaque practices, though not all, are the result
of undisclosed embedded values and norms in computer technology. A large
part of the work in disclosive computer ethics, therefore, focuses on the iden-
tification and moral evaluation of such embedded values.

3.3.1 Methodology: multi-disciplinary and multi-level

Research typically focuses on an (alleged) morally opaque practice (e.g., pla-
giarism detection) and optionally on a morally opaque computer system or
software program involved in this practice (e.g., plagiarism detection software).
The aim of the investigation usually is to reveal hidden morally problematic
features in the practice and to provide ethical reflections on these features,
optionally resulting in specific moral judgements or policy recommendations.
To achieve this aim, research should include three different kinds of research
activities, which take place at different levels of analysis. First, there is the
disclosure level. At this level, morally opaque practices and computer systems
are analysed from the point of view of one or more relevant moral values, like
privacy or justice. It is investigated whether and how the practice or system
tends to promote or demote the relevant value. At this point, very little moral
theory is introduced into the analysis, and only a coarse definition of the
value in question is used that can be refined later on into the research.

Second, there is the theoretical level at which moral theory is developed
and refined. As Jim Moor (1985) has pointed out, the changing settings and
practices that emerge with new computer technology may yield new values, as
well as require the reconsideration of old values. There may also be new moral
dilemmas because of conflicting values that suddenly clash when brought
together in new settings and practices. It may then be found that existing moral
theory has not adequately theorized these values and value conflicts. Privacy,
for example, is now recognized by many computer ethicists as requiring more
attention than it has previously received in moral theory. In part, this is
due to reconceptualizations of the private and public sphere, brought about
by the use of computer technology, which has resulted in inadequacies in
existing moral theory about privacy. It is part of the task of computer ethics
to further develop and modify existing moral theory when, as in the case of
privacy, existing theory is insufficient or inadequate in light of new demands
generated by new practices involving computer technology.

Third, there is the application level, in which, in varying degrees of speci-
ficity and concreteness, moral theory is applied to analyses that are the out-
come of research at the disclosure level. For example, the question of what
amount of protection should be granted to software developers against the
copying of their programs may be answered by applying consequentialist or
natural law theories of property; and the question of what actions governments

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53 Values in technology and disclosive computer ethics

should take in helping citizens have access to computers may be answered
by applying Rawls’ principles of justice. The application level is where moral
deliberation takes place. Usually, this involves the joint consideration of moral
theory, moral judgements or intuitions and background facts or theories, rather
than a slavish application of preexisting moral rules.

Disclosive ethics should not just be multi-level, ideally it should also be
a multi-disciplinary endeavour, involving ethicists, computer scientists and
social scientists. The disclosure level, particularly, is best approached in a
multi-disciplinary fashion because research at this level often requires con-
siderable knowledge of the technological aspects of the system or practice that
is studied and may also require expertise in social science for the analysis of
the way in which the functioning of systems is dependent on human actions,
rules and institutions. Ideally, research at the disclosure level, and perhaps
also at the application level, is best approached as a cooperative venture
between computer scientists, social scientists and philosophers. If this cannot
be attained, it should at least be carried out by researchers with an adequate
interdisciplinary background.

3.3.2 Focus on public values

The importance of disclosive computer ethics is that it makes transparent
moral features of practices and technologies that would otherwise remain
hidden, thus making them available for ethical analysis and moral decision-
making. In this way, it supplements mainstream computer ethics, which runs
the risk of limiting itself to the more obvious ethical dilemmas in computing.
An additional benefit is that it can point to novel solutions to moral dilemmas
in mainstream computer ethics. Mainstream approaches tend to seek solu-
tions for moral dilemmas through norms and policies that regulate usage.
But some of these moral dilemmas can also be solved by redesigning, replac-
ing or removing the technology that is used, or by modifying problematic
background practices that condition usage. Disclosive ethics can bring these
options into view. It thus reveals a broader arena for moral action, in which
different parties responsible for the design, adoption, use and regulation of
computer technology share responsibility for the moral consequences of using
it, and in which the technology itself is made part of the equation.

In Brey (2000) I have proposed a set of values that disclosive computer
ethics should focus on. This list included justice (fairness, non-discrimination),
freedom (of speech, of assembly), autonomy, privacy and democracy. Many
other values could be added, like trust, community, human dignity and moral
accountability. These are all public values, which are moral and social values
that are widely accepted in society. An emphasis on public values makes it
more likely that analyses in disclosive ethics can find acceptance in society

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54 Philip Brey

and that they stimulate better policies, design practices or practices of using
technology. Of course, analysts will still have disagreements on the proper
definition or operationalization of public values and the proper way of bal-
ancing them against each other and against other constraints like cost and
usability, but such disagreements are inherent to ethics.

The choice for a particular set of values prior to analysis has been criticized
by Introna (2005), who argues that disclosive computer ethics should rather
focus on the revealing of hidden politics, interests and values in technological
systems and practices, without prioritizing which values ought to be real-
ized. This suggests a more descriptive approach to disclosive computer ethics
opposed to the more normative approach proposed in Brey (2000).

3.4 Value-sensitive design

The idea that computer systems harbour values has stimulated research into
the question how considerations of value can be made part of the design
process (Flanagan, Nissenbaum and Howe 2008). Various authors have made
proposals for incorporating considerations of value into design methodology.
Value-sensitive design (VSD) is the most elaborate and influential of these
approaches. VSD has been developed by computer scientist Batya Friedman
and her associates (Friedman, Kahn and Borning 2006, Friedman and Kahn
2003) and is an approach to the design of computer systems and software that
aims to account for and incorporate human values in a comprehensive manner
throughout the design process. The theoretical foundation of value-sensitive
design is provided in part by the embedded values approach, although it is
emphasized that values can result from both design and the social context in
which the technology is used, and usually emerge in the interaction between
the two.

The VSD approach proposes investigations into values, designs, contexts of
use and stakeholders with the aim of designing systems that incorporate and
balance the values of different stakeholders. It aims to offer a set of methods,
tools and procedures for designers by which they can systematically account
for values in the design process. VSD builds on previous work in various
fields, including computer ethics, social informatics (the study of information
and communication tools in cultural and institutional contexts), computer-
supported cooperative work (the study of how interdependent group work
can be supported by means of computer systems) and participatory design (an
approach to design that attempts to actively involve users in the design process
to help ensure that products meet their needs and are usable). The focus of
VSD is on ‘human values with ethical import’, such as privacy, freedom from
bias, autonomy, trust, accountability, identity, universal usability, ownership
and human welfare (Friedman and Kahn 2003, p. 1187).

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55 Values in technology and disclosive computer ethics

VSD places much emphasis on the values and needs of stakeholders. Stake-
holders are persons, groups or organizations whose interests can be affected
by the use of an artefact. A distinction is made between direct and indirect
stakeholders. Direct stakeholders are parties who interact directly with the
computer system or its output. That is, they function in some way as users
of the system. Indirect stakeholders include all other parties who are affected
by the system. The VSD approach proposes that the values and interests of
stakeholders are carefully balanced against each other in the design process.
At the same time, it wants to maintain that the human and moral values it
considers have standing independently of whether a particular person or group
upholds them (Friedman and Kahn 2003, p. 1186). This stance poses a possible
dilemma for the VSD approach: how to proceed if the values of stakeholders
are at odds with supposedly universal moral values that the analyst indepen-
dently brings to the table? This problem has perhaps not been sufficiently
addressed in current work in VSD. In practice, fortunately, there will often be
at least one stakeholder who has an interest in upholding a particular moral
value that appears to be at stake. Still, this fact does not provide a principled
solution for this problem.

3.4.1 VSD methodology

VSD often focuses on a technological system that is to be designed and
investigates how human values can be accounted for in its design. However,
designers may also focus on a particular value and explore its implications for
the design of various systems, or on a particular context of use, and explore
values and technologies that may play a role in it. With one of these three aims
in mind, VSD then utilizes a tripartite methodology that involves three kinds
of investigations: conceptual, empirical and technical. These investigations are
undertaken congruently and are ultimately integrated with each other within
the context of a particular case study.

Conceptual investigations aim to conceptualize and describe the values
implicated in a design, as well as the stakeholders affected by it, and consider
the appropriate trade-off between implicated values, including both moral
and non-moral values. Empirical investigations focus on the human context
in which the technological artefact is to be situated, so as to better anticipate
on this context and to evaluate the success of particular designs. They include
empirical studies of human behaviour, physiology, attitudes, values and needs
of users and other stakeholders, and may also consider the organizational con-
text in which the technology is used. Empirical investigations are important
in order to assess what the values and needs of stakeholders are, how techno-
logical artefacts can be expected to be used, and how they can be expected
to affect users and other stakeholders. Technical investigations, finally, study

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56 Philip Brey

how properties of technological artefacts support or hinder human values and
how computer systems and software may be designed proactively in order
to support specific values that have been found important in the conceptual
investigation.

Friedman, Kahn and Borning (2003) propose a series of steps that may be
taken in VSD case studies. They are, respectively, the identification of the
topic of investigation (a technological system, value or context of use), the
identification of direct and indirect stakeholders, the identification of benefits
and harms for each group, the mapping of these benefits and harms onto
corresponding values, the conduction of a conceptual investigation of key
values, the identification of potential value conflicts and the proposal of
solutions for them, and the integration of resulting value considerations with
the larger objectives of the organization(s) that have a stake in the design.

3.4.2 VSD in practice

A substantial number of case studies within the VSD framework have been
completed, covering a broad range of technologies and values (see Friedman
and Freier 2005 for references). To see how VSD is brought into practice, two
case studies will now be described in brief.

In one study, Friedman, Howe and Felten (2002) analyse how the value of
informed consent (in relation to online interactions of end-users) might be bet-
ter implemented in the Mozilla browser, which is an open-source browser. They
first undertook an initial conceptual investigation of the notion of informed
consent, outlining real-world conditions that would have to be met for it, like
disclosure of benefits and risks, voluntariness of choice and clear communi-
cation in a language understood by the user. They then considered the extent
to which features of existing browsers already supported these conditions.
Next, they identified conditions that were supported insufficiently by these
features, and defined new design goals to attain this support. For example,
they found that users should have a better global understanding of cookie uses
and benefits and harms, and should have a better ability to manage cookies
with minimal distraction. Finally, they attempted to come up with designs of
new features that satisfied these goals, and proceeded to implement them into
the Mozilla browser.

In a second study, reported in Friedman, Kahn and Borning (2006), Kahn,
Friedman and their colleagues consider the design of a system consisting
of a plasma display and a high-definition TV camera. The display is to be
hung in interior offices and the camera is to be located outside, aimed at a
natural landscape. The display was to function as an ‘augmented window’
on nature that was to increase emotional well-being, physical health and
creativity in workers. In their VSD investigation, they operationalized some of

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57 Values in technology and disclosive computer ethics

these values and sought to investigate in a laboratory context whether they
were realized in office workers, which they found they did. They then also
identified indirect stakeholders of the system. These included those individuals
that were unwittingly filmed by the camera. Further research indicated that
many of them felt that the system violated their privacy. The authors concluded
that if the system is to be further developed and used, this privacy issue must
first be solved. It may be noted, in passing, that, whilst in these two examples
only a few values appear to be at stake, other case studies consider a much
larger number of values, and identify many more stakeholders.

3.5 Conclusion

This chapter focused on the embedded values approach, which holds that
computer systems and software are capable of harbouring embedded or ‘built-
in’ values, and on two derivative approaches, disclosive computer ethics and
value-sensitive design. It has been argued that, in spite of powerful arguments
for the neutrality of technology, a good case can be made that technological
artefacts, including computer systems, can be value-laden. The notion of an
embedded value was defined as a built-in tendency in an artefact to promote
or harm the realization of a value that manifests itself across the central
uses of an artefact in ordinary contexts of use. Examples of such values in
information technology were provided, and it was argued that such values
can emerge because they are held by designers or society at large, because
of technical constraints or considerations, or because of a changing context
of use.

Next, the discussion shifted to disclosive computer ethics, which was
described as an attempt to incorporate the notion of embedded values into
a comprehensive approach to computer ethics. Disclosive computer ethics
focuses on morally opaque practices in computing and aims to identify,
analyse and morally evaluate such practices. Many practices in computing
are morally opaque because they depend on computer systems that contain
embedded values that are not recognized as such. Therefore, disclosive ethics
frequently focuses on such embedded values. Finally, value-sensitive design
was discussed. This is a framework for accounting for values in a comprehen-
sive manner in the design of systems and software. The approach was related to
the embedded values approach and its main assumptions and methodological
principles were discussed.

Much work still remains to be done within the three approaches. The embed-
ded values approach could still benefit from more theoretical and conceptual
work, particularly regarding the very notion of an embedded value and its
relation to both the material features of artefacts and their context of use. Dis-
closive computer ethics could benefit from further elaboration of its central

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58 Philip Brey

concepts and assumptions, a better integration with mainstream computer
ethics and more case studies. And VSD could still benefit from further devel-
opment of its methodology, its integration with accepted methodologies in
information systems design and software engineering, and more case studies.
In addition, more attention needs to be invested into the problematic tension
between the values of stakeholders and supposedly universal moral values
brought in by analysts. Yet, they constitute exciting new approaches in the
fields of computer ethics and computer science. In ethics, they represent an
interesting shift in focus from human agency to technological artefacts and
systems. In computer science, they represent an interesting shift from utili-
tarian and economic concerns to a concern for human values in design. As
a result, they promise both a better and more complete computer ethics as
well as improved design practices in both computer science and engineering
that may result in technology that lives up better to our moral and public
values.

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16

Ethics Can Help: Towards a Framework
for Digital Ethics

5.1 The contribution of ethics

What can ethics contribute to this debate? What are the ethical issues relating
to cybersecurity, privacy and big data?

Digital ethics aims to understand how subjects – human beings, organisations,
computers, software, connected objects, drones and robots, etc. – must act and
behave towards each other and those around them. As noted in the Introduction,
digital ethics will also have to deal with decisions made by autonomous systems.

Increasingly, the digital world throws up issues that challenge our most
fundamental conceptions of human rights, such as the right to security, to privacy
and human dignity, and to freedom of expression and information. It is not simply
a matter of needing to balance one right against another. Arguably, the challenges
are now so profound and wide-ranging that we need to radically rethink our
approach to human rights for the digital age.

Digital ethics precedes and extends law, which largely tracks the evolution of
digital behaviour with regulation, more often than not endorsing fait accompli
usage.28 We need to think more deeply than that. It is necessary to create rules very
early on, for example on whistleblowers and other forms of behaviour that
challenge accountability and transparency, in order that everyone acts with best
intentions in the digital world, without disturbing others and the environment.

In its debates around security and privacy DigEnlight has identified many
issues and relationships with an ethical dimension. Some of the most significant
are:

1) Disempowerment and loss of human agency: In our technologically-
oriented society, almost every action we are able to take (what ethicists call
our ‘agency’) is mediated, either through technology, such as computers,
phones etc., or through third parties, such as banks, the retail supply chain,
telcos, Internet service providers, identity providers, and so on. Ethically,
the fact that what we do is mediated often moves us further from the

28 Floridi (2013)

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Ethics Can Help: Towards a Framework for Digital Ethics

17

consequences of our decisions and actions. Even more fundamentally, the
prevalence of technology-mediated phenomena distances us from societal
norms such as equality, fairness, and justice, and so challenges our core
understanding of what it means to be human. The asymmetry in power
between individuals/users and service providers (both commercial and
public) leaves us feeling disempowered and that we are losing our human
agency. Can we design systems that empower users and so restore human
agency, and what does this mean in reality?

2) The ethics of non-human agents: A growing number of digital agents are
non-human and in some cases are increasingly capable of autonomy
(robots, drones, self-driving cars, etc.). Algorithms are responsible for
decisions in a wide range of areas these days (for example in stock
marketing trading), and any algorithm that makes decisions is not ethically
neutral. Some algorithms are adaptive, able to learn and adjust their
behaviour over time. We have to understand how such actors affect us and
our societies. Autonomous systems, such as self-driving cars will react to
changing conditions and deal with circumstances that they have never
encountered before, without human intervention. Does it make sense to
think of these technological systems as ethical agents in their own right? Is
there a fundamental ethical principle based on ‘global’ human values?
What is the ethical status of machines that are increasingly autonomous
and might even, at some point, be described as conscious?

3) The ethics of platforms and eco-systems: As more and more activities come
to be mediated by technology, the platforms by which that mediation takes
place are increasingly influential. They articulate themselves carefully to
users, clients, advertisers and policy-makers, making strategic claims for
what they do and do not do, and how their place in society should be
understood. In effect, platforms are becoming curators of public discourse
and values. Yet the ethical implications of this change have received little
attention.
Again, much of the influence of platforms is due to the power of hidden –
and unknowable – algorithms. Algorithms are not the same as software
code, which is (or can be) made visible and subject to intellectual property
laws. They underlie the methodologies and business models of the digital
world. Facebook’s algorithms, for example, choose which pictures and
adverts users are shown when they login, giving them enormous power
over users. This has important consequences as Facebook evolves from a
social media network to a commercial platform funded primarily by
advertising. There is a risk that we are unable to define the ownership of

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