PROPOSAL FOR A COMPUTER ETHICS FRAMEWORK

Abstract

The current society is immersed in technological means, with numerous inventions created since the last century, which have brought with them unprecedented ethical dilemmas. From the advent of computers to their popularisation, and routine use, many aspects of human life have been transformed, as the form of interaction between individuals and the way of working – just to cite examples –, have changed in a short period, if compared with the time between the first civilisation and the present one. The speed with which computer means were introduced into society was not accompanied by a solid and consistent ethical analysis so that their use could be correctly evaluated, in the sense of using them for the prosperity of civilisation, and, under no circumstances using them for ends that do not contribute to good purposes. Within this context, this work aims to present a Computer Ethics Framework, comprising the ethical principles of respect, tolerance, freedom, responsibility, justice and privacy, to be used to help professionals in this field verify the ethicality of their projects, evaluating them from conception until after its conclusion. For this, end a narrative review of the literature was undertaken, as well as consideration of some ethical principles of Logosophical Science. After that, with the purpose of testing the Computer Ethics Framework, it was applied to verify if a Web Application can be considered ethical under the perspective of the proposed framework, which was found that the application needs to improve in some points to meet the principles of respect, freedom and privacy.