Under what circumstances is it either permissible or required for a technician repairing a computer to report the contents of files found there? A recent case of the firing of a Harvard administrator who had pornographic files on his university-owned computer raises questions of privacy and whistle-blowing.
Austin's decision to blow the whistle on unsafe waste pumping procedures causes her superiors to instigate an overwhelming amount of organized, systematic harassment against her.
Relevant Literature on this Topic
Controlling Technology: Ethics and the Responsible Engineer, by Stephen H. Unger.
(From the back cover): This valuable guide provides an in-depth treatment of what constitutes ethical behavior on the part of engineers. It carefully examines the various conflicts faced by engineers and offers practical, proven advice on what to do in such situations. Stephen H. Unger, Controlling Technology: Ethics and the Responsible Engineer, Second Edition, John Wiley & Sons, New York, 1994. Other keywords for this book: code violations, ethical codes and guidelines, conscientious objection, engineering ethics, the media, professional societies, professional responsibility, ethics support, technological disasters, unions.
Stephen H. Unger, "Would Helping Ethical Engineers Get Professional Societies into Trouble?", IEEE Technology and Society Magazine, V. 6, No. 3, Sept, 1987, pp. 17-21.
Reprinted in Johnson, "Ethical Issues in Engineering", 1991, Prentice-Hall. Other keywords for this article: conscientious objection, ethics and the law, professional societies, ethics support.
Gunsalus, C. K., "How to Blow the Whistle and Still have a Career Afterwards", Science and Engineering Ethics, V. 4 (1998): Issue 1, pp. 51-64.
Other keywords for this article: conscientious objection, research misconduct, professional responsibility, self-preservation.
Joseph R. Herkert, ed. 1999. Social, Ethical and Policy Implications of Engineering: Selected Readings.
Piscataway, New Jersey: IEEE Press (in press). Other keywords for this: consumer safety; design and the environment; ethical codes and guidelines from professional societies; ethics and economics; ethics and the law; ethics support; global environmental issues; medical information; negligence; privacy; product quality; professional responsibility; professional societies; technical and scholarly societies; professionalism in computing; public safety; risk assessment; safety & performance; system security.
Joseph R. Herkert. 1999. "Ethics and Professional Responsibility." In John G. Webster, ed., Encyclopedia of Electrical and Electronics Engineering.
New York: John Wiley & Sons, Inc. (in press). Other keywords for this: engineering ethics courses, ethical codes and guidelines from professional societies, ethics support, pedagogy, product quality, professional responsibility, professional societies; technical and scholarly societies.
John M. Staudenmeier, sj, The Politics and Ethics of Engineering
In press with pilot-project version for use in NSF-supported Greenfield Coalition ethics component at Focus: Hope, Detroit, MI. Other keywords for this: ethics and prudence; lying, deception; self-deception; moral ambiguity; pedagogy and the use of cases in teaching; incompetent superiors; professional responsibility; consulting relationships; professional societies; ethics support; workplace relationships; communication; research and cultural diversity; research misconduct; research integrity; correcting errors in databases.