computer ethics

The introduction of the World Wide Web in 1990 has catalyzed the expansion of the Internet, which is still growing today at unprecedented rates. The recent growth of the Internet has resulted not only in an increase in the amount of available knowledge, but in an increase in the problems inherent to its usage and distribution. It has become clear that traditional rules of conduct are not always applicable to this new medium, so new ethical codes are now being developed. Ethics, in the classical sense, refers to the rules and standards governing the conduct of an individual with others. As technology and computers became more and more a part of our everyday lives, we must understand that the problems that have always plagued business and conduct will continue to be a problem. In fact, a new medium can provide even more difficult questions of judgement. In other words, since the introduction of the World Wide Web, the definition of ethics has evolved, too. A new type of ethics known as computer ethics has emerged. Computer ethics is concerned with standards of conduct as they pertain to computers.

http://library.thinkquest.org/26658/cgi-bin/toc.cgi