590 Part IV • The Information Management System
world, but are making progress. The growth rates in
Internet use for the last decade are over 1,000 percent
in Africa and the Middle East, and nearly 1,000 percent in
Latin America. However, in the underdeveloped countries,
the situation is compounded by low literacy rates in
general, as well as huge numbers of people who have no
access to any technology.
Freedom of Speech
The Internet is such a powerful and pervasive technology
for presenting information that the question arises: Is there
information that is so harmful or dangerous that for the
good of society it should be prohibited from being posted
on the Internet? How about detailed plans for an atomic
bomb? Or instructions for making a bomb from readily
available materials such as the one used in the Oklahoma
City bombing? Or several different suggestions for how to
poison a city’s water supply? Or the names and addresses
of physicians who perform abortions along with assertions
that they are murderers who must be punished? Or child
pornography? Or the spam that jams your e-mail inbox and
consumes vast amounts of bandwidth? Or blogs that
spread vicious rumors? Or cyberbullying?
The increasingly pervasive use of the Internet and
the World Wide Web has led to renewed controversy over
the conflicts between our right to freedom of speech and
the right of society to protect itself against terrorists or
criminals or those who would tear down the moral basis on
which our society depends. It is clear that there are limits
to free speech—you cannot libel someone or threaten to
harm someone without risking legal action. However,
when it comes to prohibiting other types of speech, the
U.S. courts have generally upheld the free speech rights
granted by the First Amendment. Furthermore, the legal
status might be moot because of the practical difficulties of
policing the Internet, as the offender’s identity might be
concealed or he or she might be anywhere in the world and
therefore out of the jurisdiction of U.S. law.
Hazards of Inaccuracy
As mentioned earlier, comprehensive data about individu-
als are contained in numerous large databases that are
used to make important decisions that affect the individ-
ual. Unfortunately, some of this data can be highly inaccu-
rate or incomplete, or both. When these erroneous data
items are used to make decisions about individuals, the
results can have serious consequences for those unfortu-
nate persons.
For example, the FBI’s National Crime Information
Center (United States) maintains an integrated, real-time
transaction processing and online fingerprint-matching
database that includes data about suspected terrorists, fugi-
tives, outstanding arrest warrants, missing people, gang
members, and stolen vehicles, guns, or boats. This system
handles millions of transactions a day while serving law
enforcement officials at all levels by providing information
on people who have been arrested or who have arrest war-
rants outstanding, stolen cars, and other items. It is used at
airports to screen people who are boarding airplanes.
Many police agencies have terminals in police cars so that
when a police officer stops a car for a traffic violation, the
officer can check whether the driver is potentially danger-
ous or the car is stolen before approaching the car. You can
imagine the problems that result when these data are not
accurate.
The three large credit reporting services in the
United States—Experian (formerly TRW), Equifax, and
TransUnion LLC—maintain databases on 90 percent of
American adults. These services purchase computer
records from banks and other creditors and from public
records of lawsuits, tax liens, and legal judgments. These
records are compiled and then sold to credit grantors,
rental property owners, employers, insurance compa-
nies, and many others interested in a consumer’s credit
record. If a person’s records are not accurate, he or she
might be unable to get a credit card or a loan to buy a
home or an automobile or might even be denied employ-
ment. A person usually does not know what is in his or
her credit report until something bad happens, and then it
is the individual’s responsibility to go through a long and
involved process to remove the erroneous information
(U.S. PIRG, 2004).
Businesses also maintain data whose accuracy might
affect many people and whose accuracy and security might
be very important to those affected. Thus, there are many
legal and ethical issues associated with accuracy. These are
particularly difficult issues because accuracy is quite costly
for those maintaining the data, while others are the ones
being harmed by the inaccuracies. How much accuracy is
reasonable and who should pay the associated costs are
difficult social, ethical, and legal issues.Impact on Workers
Information technology has tremendous impacts on
workers. A major advantage of IT is that it increases pro-
ductivity, in some cases by replacing workers. And the
jobs of those workers that are not replaced are often radi-
cally altered. Sometimes the new jobs are more challeng-
ing and rewarding, but in other cases the remaining jobs
might require lower skills. Ethical issues arise here
because managers are responsible for the design of work