Information Technology Ethics and Compliance (IEC)

Courses offered in foreign countries by individual or group instruction.

This course introduces students to critical perspectives on emerging information technologies, including data systems, artificial intelligence (algorithms), and security technologies. It provides a forum for critical analysis of these technologies for communities and societies, with particular attention to marginalized populations around the globe. Students will be introduced to the strategies used by activists to ensure new technologies generate just and equitable benefit for all members of society. They will also learn about legal structures for regulating new technologies. Upon successful completion of the course, the students will be able to articulate key ethical and values-based issues associated with data, artificial intelligence and security technologies, as well as strategies for advocacy and policy to create a just society.

Courses offered in foreign countries by individual or group instruction.

This course introduces students to critical perspectives on design in order to promote a more just and equitable society. Students learn about the roles designers play in shaping the systems that ameliorate and exacerbate inequality and environmental degradation, as well as ways to navigate ethical conflicts in design. By learning about critical design theories, students will develop a personal sense of the role of design in society. Critical design theories address issues of inequality based on gender, race, ethnicity, ability, nationality and culture. Students will then apply the theories to analyses of complex technical systems. Students will learn to analyze complex technical systems as layered architectures, with deep interdependencies. Understanding this complexity highlights the multitude of design decisions and policies needed to promote systems of equity and social justice. Students will also learn how organizational, industry and public policies shape these systems. While much attention is typically paid to public policy and law, in IT many decisions are made by private firms. In this way, firm and industry self-regulatory policies play an important role in design. The understanding of critical design theory, layered architectures, and policy is then applied to devise strategies to impact design.

Supervised student activities on research projects identified on an individual or small-group basis.

Creative projects, including research and design, that are supervised on an individual basis and that fall outside the scope of formal courses.

Formal courses offered infrequently to explore, in depth, a comparatively narrow subject which may be topical or of special interest.

Courses offered in foreign countries by individual or group instruction.

Management of data and information are central to all organizations, whether public, private, governmental or civil society. As distinct from IT management, information management encompasses practices and policies focused on the organization of and control over the structure, processing, and delivery of information. Key issues in information management include: knowing and tracking the sources of information, establishing policies for information storage and retrieval, policies related to information access, strategies for analyzing information, and strategies for managing public disclosures. Often, these policies are designed solely for the benefit of the organization holding the information. In this course students will learn the fundamentals of information management but from the perspective of social justice. Key questions include: How should socially desirable information management policies inform organizational practice? How do organizational information management policies promote social responsibility in society? What societal norms, laws, and policies influence organizational data management?

This course introduces students to the conceptual foundations of Information Ethics. It starts by discussing what information is and what is called the information revolution. We address the different approaches to Information Ethics using Floridi's unified approach. The course also discusses privacy, morality in distributed systems, the relation between information and business ethics, and the global nature of information ethics.

Courses offered in foreign countries by individual or group instruction.

Supervised student activities on research projects identified on an individual or small-group basis.

Creative projects, including research and design, that are supervised on an individual basis and that fall outside the scope of formal courses.

Formal courses offered infrequently to explore, in depth, a comparatively narrow subject which may be topical or of special interest.

Courses offered in foreign countries by individual or group instruction.