Introduction

Ethics and Information Technology is a peer-reviewed journal dedicated to advancing the dialogue between moral philosophy and the field of information and communication technology (ICT). Our aims are to foster and promote reflection and analysis which is intended to make a constructive contribution to answering the ethical, social and political questions associated with the adoption, use, and development of ICT. Within the scope of that are also conceptual analysis and discussion of ethical ICT issues which arise in the context of technology assessment, cultural studies, public policy analysis and public administration, cognitive science, social and anthropological studies in technology, mass-communication, and legal studies.

The recent concept of information ethics is related particularly to problems which arose in the last century with the development of computer technology and the internet. A broader concept of information ethics as dealing with the digital reconstruction of all possible phenomena leads to questions relating to digital ontology. The primary aim of an ontological foundation of information ethics is to question the metaphysical ambitions of digital ontology understood as today’s pervading understanding of Being.

Ethics are :

• Moral codes are the rules that establish the boundaries of generally accepted behavior.
• Morality refers to social conventions about right and wrong human conduct.
• Ethics are beliefs regarding right and wrong behavior.
• Virtues are habits that incline us to do what is acceptable.
• Vices are habits that incline us to do what is unacceptable.
• Value System is the complex scheme of moral values that we choose to live by.

Ethical Use of Information Technology :

• Today’s workers are subject to the monitoring of their e-mail and Internet access while at work, as employers and employees struggle to balance the need of the employer to manage important company assets and employees’ work time versus the employees’ desire for privacy and selfdirection.
• Millions of people have used Napster software to download music at no charge and in apparent violation of copyright laws.
• Robert Hanssen, a career F.B.I. agent, was convicted of providing data from classified
  databases to Russia.
• DoubleClick, an advertising network that tracks users as they move around the Internet, was sued after it revealed plans to match a mass mailing marketing list with its anonymous database of Internet users, thus revealing the Web users’ identities.
• Students around the world have been caught downloading material from the Internet and
  plagiarizing content for their term papers.
• Hackers engaged in acts of cyberterrorism defaced hundreds of Web sites and left hate
  messages after a collision between a United States spy plane and a Chinese jet fighter.