Non-Profit Tech Blog » IT Ethics

Microsoft, Google and Yahoo! agree to NGO code of conduct

Allan Benamer — Sun, 21 Jan 2007 15:38:02 +0000

NetworkWorld is reporting the following:

Microsoft, Google, and two other technology companies will develop a code of conduct with a coalition of nongovernmental organizations (NGO) to promote freedom of expression and privacy rights, they announced Friday.

The two companies along with Yahoo, and Vodafone Group said the new guidelines are the result of talks with Business for Social Responsibility (BSR) and the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard Law School.

It’s an excellent development and I hope it doesn’t turn into a new media version of greenwashing. This press release has more details than the article you’re seeing on the tech sites. The tech news articles only list Microsoft and Google but Yahoo! is in there as well. Yahoo! certainly needs to reclaim their spot as a good and ethical provider of information since their badly played attempt to impose censorship in China.

Tech support owner gone wild!

Allan Benamer — Wed, 15 Nov 2006 23:40:33 +0000

I figure I might as well add to my “vendist” reputation. Really, I’m not a vendist, many of them are my best friends

Anyway, check out this irate consultant comment at Deborah Finn’s blog. Here’s an excerpt:

You are ill-equipped for something as easy as the tiny little MX record change you reference you [sic] your overstated and wordy dissertation which is so full of garbage I couldn’t stop laughing as I read it.

If you’re wondering about the deleted post, nothing is ever deleted.

The commenter seems positively apoplectic and I can only hope that calm has returned to him or her. I don’t really know who’s in the right or wrong about this and I certainly appreciate everyone’s, er, honesty in the matter but this is why the nptechhelp group makes total sense to me. You can’t be honest in the way that Deborah was trying to be but at the same time help but acknowledge that anything less than a glowing recommendation is bound to result in some blowback.

IT Ethics and the Non-profit Sector

Allan Benamer — Tue, 27 Jun 2006 05:36:27 +0000

Ok, so I’ve tentatively agreed to run a session on IT Ethics in the Non-Profit Sector. It’s a pretty vast subject but I’m going to target the session primarily at non-profit executives who are looking to hire or fire and the IT guys who are looking to get hired and avoid getting fired.

The #1 reason I’ve been thinking about ethics lately is my experience with just about every little non-profit I’ve ever talked to. That’s where I end up trying to pick up the pieces of some just-departed IT worker. Quite frequently, passwords are not handed over, files are kept in proprietary holding areas that only the IT worker had access to and of course, a complete lack of documentation. This is NOT ethical. Even if it was a matter of simple forgetfulness, all IT workers should be expected to keep a central repository of usernames and passwords used in the administration of every IT resource for that non-profit. They should make that repository available to the appropriate executives. As a non-profit IT worker, one has to take greater care than normal in making sure that the keys can be handed over to the executive layer. Not only are you impeding your co-workers when you fail to do this, but you are also impeding the non-profit’s mission. Many non-profits have dramatic missions and constituencies that I think should make an IT worker think twice about screwing the non-profit over but apparently this is not the case.

On the other hand, IT workers should not be used by executives as a weapon in the prosecution of inappropriate behavior at the non-profit. There needs to be a policy that effectively indemnifies an IT worker’s participation in workplace snooping on fellow co-workers. This can result from forensic analysis on hard drives to the installation of Internet usage monitoring software on a co-worker’s workstation, keyloggers, proxies, you name it. And of course, IT workers should be prohibited from actually carrying out these sorts of tasks without the appropriate signatures. In this case, there needs to be a policy and documentation that outlines the scope and duration of the investigation to be engaged in by the IT worker. Don’t let your IT skills be used for evil!

You can see the tricky ethics issues already, no? Well imagine a full hour of this sort of talk. If you have a tricky ethics issue, you can always resort to the SANS IT Code of Ethics. I prefer that to the less socially conscious SAGE System Administrators’ Code of Ethics which doesn’t even begin to address the issue of proprietary knowledge locked in the brain of your average IT tech worker. There’s also a book called IT Ethics Handbook: Right and Wrong for IT Professionals. I haven’t read it, who would read that book anyway??? Anyway, if you’re interested in bringing up ethics issues that you have personally encountered, feel free to e-mail me at confessions [insert an 'at' sign here] nonprofittechblog.org. There is no promise that I can actually help you but at least we can discuss the ethical predicament of “your friend” at the breakout session.