Computing ethics: the case for codes of ethics and privacy policies

Abstract

Ethics and privacy are integral to life although limited research has been conducted relative to global codes of ethics and privacy policies of corporations. This piqued the interest on this research where the first contribution examines codes of ethics worldwide. It compares codes of different societies to IEEE and proposes changes which address issues of diversity, culture, and sociopolitical differences. Four countries have adopted the IEEE codes of ethics, while 28 countries have some variations. A global code of ethics would be useful in a world without borders. The second contribution introduces new guidelines for Canadian corporations regarding privacy policies. It examines the compatibility and compliance of corporate privacy policies with PIPEDA. An examination of the corporations revealed only 1,017 have public-facing privacy policies on their websites and some do not seem to satisfy all PIPEDA principles. New guidelines will help to ensure a better compliance with PIPEDA by corporations.