What Is Information Ethics?

Information ethics refers to the ethical requirements, ethical guidelines, ethical protocols, and new ethical relationships formed on the basis of information development, information dissemination, information management and utilization. Information ethics, also known as information ethics, is the sum of behavioral norms that regulate information relationships between people and between individuals and society.

Information ethics

Information ethics is not enforced and enforced by the state. It is based on the standard of good and evil in information activities and is maintained by people's inner convictions and special social means. The content of the information ethics structure can be summarized into two aspects and three levels.

The rise and development of information ethics

The formation of information ethics began with the study of the social impact of information technology. The rise and development of information ethics is rooted in the conflict of interest and moral dilemma caused by the widespread application of information technology, and the need to establish a new moral order in the information society. After the Second World War, the application and development of electronic computers, communication technologies, and network technologies prompted western developed countries to take the lead in entering the information society. In the research process of informationization and information society theory, western academic circles have gradually discovered a series of ethical issues caused by new information technology conditions, and have opened up a new applied ethics-information ethics. learn. It originated from the study of computer ethics. In the 1970s, American professor W. Manner first invented and used the term "computer ethics." In the book, the impact of information technology on social ethics is first studied. Since the mid-1980s, the emergence of a large number of information ethics papers and monographs has made breakthroughs in the research of information ethics. In 1985, J. Moore's dissertation in the "Philosophy" magazine proposed the concept of "computer ethics." In the same year, German information scientist Professor Raphael Kapro published a paper entitled "The Ethical Issues of Information Science" and studied the production, storage, dissemination and use of specialized information in electronic form. He proposed in his thesis "Information science ethics", "communication ethics" and other concepts, he explored the issues of information ethics from both macro and micro perspectives, including ethical issues in the fields of information research, information science education and information work. The study of ethics is carried out in the context of science, technology, economics, and social knowledge. He believes that any ethical theory is a reflection of human freedom, as is the ethical theory in the field of communication and information. This is the earliest thesis on information science as the object of ethics research. In 1986, American management information science expert R.O. Mason proposed that there are four main ethical issues in the information age: information privacy, information accuracy, information property rights, and access to information resources.

Deep changes in information ethics

In the 1990s, the study of information ethics has undergone profound changes. It has broken the shackles of computer ethics, more clearly identified the research objects as ethical issues in the field of information, and is more straightforward in the use of concepts and names. The term "information ethics" is used directly. In 1996, British scholar R. Simon and American scholar W.B. Trier published an article entitled "Information Ethics: The Second Generation." They believed that computer ethics was the first generation of information ethics. The scope of research is limited and the depth of research is not enough. It only explains computer phenomena and lacks comprehensive ethics theory. In 1999, Professor Raphael Capro published a dissertation entitled "The Ethical Aspects of Digital Libraries." This article analyzes and discusses the ethical issues arising from the library aspects that have undergone tremendous changes in the information age. In 2000, Professor Raphael Capulo also published a paper "Ethics and Information in the Digital Age". The theme of this thesis is to discuss the ethics of libraries in the digital age, but he pointed out: "As a descriptive theory, Information ethics reveals a rights structure that influences attitudes to information and traditional ideas in different cultures and times. As an unconstrained theory, information ethics has created a moral attitude and tradition Critique. " Then Professor Raphael Capro published a paper entitled "Ethical Challenges of the Information Society in the 21st Century". The article specifically discussed the ethical issues of the information society, and especially discussed the information ethics issues raised in the network environment. Science is distinguished from computer ethics and emphasizes information ethics. He believes that new information technology poses a challenge to ethics, and there is a threat to traditional ethical relationships in virtual reality. The change of the information ethics viewpoint of Professor Raphael Capulo reflects the development and change of the theory of information ethics.

Information ethics industrialization information integration

In the global wave of information, China must combine industrialization and informatization, fully absorb the successful experience of informatization in western developed countries, and strive to achieve a leap-forward transition to an information society. To successfully complete China's informationization tasks and build an orderly information society, in addition to accelerating the development of information technology and information resources, building an information ethics system suitable for China's national conditions is bound to become a top priority. China is an ancient civilization with a long history, and its native cultural resources are extremely rich and far-reaching. In this context, it is even more necessary to correctly grasp and handle the relationship between cultural traditions and new types of information ethics.