Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
FIGURE 3.1
Far more people in the world have access to cell phones than have access to
electricity or clean water.
(Charles Sturge/Alamy)
newspapers as their primary source. Both of these media were dwarfed by television,
which was the primary source of news for 55 percent of those polled [3].
The Internet has opened up new opportunities for politicians to attract donations.
During his successful run for the presidency in 2008, Barack Obama raised $500 million
from three million donors who contributed over the Internet [4]. A grassroots move-
ment supporting longshot presidential candidate Ron Paul raised $4 million for him in
a single day in 2007 [5].
These stories illustrate how networked communications have become integrated
into our lives. Using these networks can be a double-edged sword, however. The Internet
and cellular networks efficiently support our desire to interact with other people and
accomplish a wide variety of everyday tasks (Figure 3.1). On the other hand, some people
use these technologies to lower the quality of our lives through such activities as trying
to sell us products we don't want to buy, harassing us, or luring us into wasting our time
with frivolous or counterproductive activities.
In this chapter we explore moral issues associated with our use of the Internet and
the telephone system. We begin by focusing on email, the most popular Internet appli-
cation. We discuss how the increase in unsolicited bulk email, or spam, has degraded the
quality of email service.
The World Wide Web has proven to be the most popular way of organizing informa-
tion on the Internet, and millions of people are using the Web-based social networking
service Twitter to communicate with each other. Some governments are threatened by
the way in which the Internet has made it so easy for people to access information and
