Managing Information Technology, 7e (Brown)
Chapter 15 Social, Ethical, and Legal Issues
1) Which is not a social problem that is perceived to have increased due to information
technology?
A) the theft of personal information
B) increased potential for exploitation of children (child pornography)
C) theft of an organization’s intellectual property
D) difficulties in connecting with people in other regions of the world
2) Which of the following is not a reason that legal systems in developed countries have not kept
up with available information technologies?
A) Technology changes very quickly.
B) Those who create laws generally have little expertise with complex IT issues.
C) The existing laws can easily be reinterpreted to apply to new technologies.
D) Laws are difficult to create in an Internet age when it is difficult to determine which country
has legal jurisdiction.
3) Ethical problems associated with the use of IT may affect all of the following except:
A) managers.
B) stockholders.
C) customers.
D) all of the above
4) Approximately what percentage of the U.S. public is quite sensitive to the loss of privacy of
their personal information?
A) 5%
B) 10%
C) 25%
D) 50%
5) Which large Internet advertising company has caused concerns among privacy organizations
due to its purchase or alliance with other companies?
A) DoubleClick
B) ClickTrack
C) AdClick
D) Google
6) What is a reason for including ethics discussions in an IT management forum?
A) IT is having a growing impact on people’s lives.
B) Managers are making decisions about how IT is being used within an organization and with
suppliers and customers.
C) none of the above
D) both A and B
7) According to the textbook, which of the following is also an ethical behavior that is
recognized by most world religions?
A) do no harm
B) treat others as you would like them to treat you
C) forbid killing
D) no stealing
8) In the context of developing and using IT, what is the common flaw in ethical reasoning?
A) ignoring the developers
B) ignoring members of your organization
C) ignoring members of your segment of society
D) ignoring some affected parties
9) Sending an e-mail that falsely claims to be a legitimate enterprise in an attempt to scam the
user into providing private information is called:
A) spoofing.
B) cracking.
C) hacking.
D) phishing.
10) Which is not true about the impacts of identity theft today?
A) the number of Americans affected is on the increase
B) financial losses due to identity theft of Americans is on the increase
C) losses by credit card companies have increased because these companies absorb the cost if
your credit card is misused
D) none of the above
11) Which of the following is true about investigations of identity theft in the U.S. today?
A) Banks don’t pursue all potential cases because of the high cost of investigating.
B) Police don’t vigorously pursue cases even though money has been taken from the victim.
C) It is a U.S. federal crime.
D) both A and C
12) Which statement is true concerning privacy in the U.S.?
A) a great deal of legislation that purports to offer some privacy protection
B) there are not laws concerning legal rights to privacy
C) a government agency is allowed to gather information for one purpose and use it for another
purpose
D) the federal protection of private healthcare information is not a concern of the government
because of the need to learn more about the effectiveness of pharmaceuticals
13) Which of the following is not a characteristic of intellectual property (IP)?
A) it can be shared without losing it
B) what IP can be owned differs from one society to another
C) IP ownership rights are generally limited by time
D) sharing IP has become more difficult over the years
14) When a customer wants to “opt-out” from a U.S. company sharing his or her information
with third parties:
A) the financial institution has no obligation to comply with this request.
B) it often takes a lot of effort and time for customers to understand how to accomplish it.
C) a written request from a government official is required.
D) all of the above
15) The U.S. position on privacy can be characterized as being favorable toward:
A) a restricted flow of data among companies.
B) consumer data are primarily viewed as a saleable, usable asset that belongs to the corporation
that collected the data.
C) having its citizens be in control of their personal data.
D) a more protective position of personal rights with respect to data about individuals than the
European position.
16) According to the Federal Trade Commission, “someone appropriating your personal
information without your knowledge to commit fraud or theft” is called:
A) an identity theft.
B) a credit information theft.
C) an intellectual property theft.
D) internet file sharing.
17) Advances in artificial intelligence can raise social and ethical issues because:
A) computers can sift through mountains of data better than humans.
B) computers can be programmed to replace human experts in the workplace.
C) the degree to which a robot acts ethically depends on how it is programmed.
D) all of the above
18) A “cookie” is:
A) a small record stored on the user’s computer that identifies the user to a Web site.
B) a worm.
C) always harmful to your personal computer.
D) all of the above
19) In the U.S., the only federal law that limits employer surveillance of its workers is related to:
A) eavesdropping on spoken personal conversation.
B) reading employees e-mails.
C) videotaping workers.
D) recording employee phone calls.
20) Which of the following regions has the lowest rate of software piracy?
A) North America
B) Western Europe
C) Asia/Pacific
D) Latin America
21) Which of the following prevents someone else from creating another computer program that
does the same thing as a copyrighted program?
A) patents.
B) copyrights.
C) all of the above
22) What type of impact on the software industry from awarding a large number of patents to IT
industry giants such as Microsoft has been documented?
A) the overall number of infringement lawsuits is decreased
B) it accelerates innovations among smaller firms
C) the growth of small software firms is inhibited
D) none of the above
23) Software piracy:
A) has caused the software industry to become unprofitable.
B) is fairly consistent across countries throughout the world.
C) typically is not rigorously deterred by governments in less developed countries.
D) has a very low rate in former communist countries.
24) Which of the following is true of patents?
A) provides effective protection against software piracy
B) makes it illegal to copy software and use it without the software vendor’s permission
C) gives the creator the exclusive right to the manufacture and uses what has been patented for a
limited period of time
D) all of the above
25) Recent piracy rates for music CDs were highest in:
A) African countries.
B) Indonesia and Paraguay.
C) Western Europe.
D) United States.
26) Swapping or sharing music on the Internet:
A) first gained widespread popularity with the advent of Napster.
B) was upheld by U.S. courts, which meant Napster was able to remain in business.
C) was first made possible with the use of B2C files.
D) cannot be traced so people cannot be prosecuted.
27) In 2007, Microsoft asserted that 235 company patents were infringed upon by open source
programs. What effect did this announcement have?
A) IBM also filed dozens of lawsuits to enforce these patents
B) open source organizations filed lawsuits alleging that Microsoft is infringing upon their
patents
C) it slowed down the growth of open source communities.
D) public backlash caused Microsoft to withdraw the statements
28) Which of the following is true regarding personal financial credit reports?
A) they rarely contain inaccurate data
B) inaccuracies are not usually spotted because many individuals do not review their reports
regularly
C) there are no laws that govern them
D) they are easily corrected if found inaccurate
29) In a recent survey, what percentage of students studying in a sample of U.S. colleges and
universities said it is always wrong to pirate music and movies?
A) 10%
B) more than 10% but less than 25%
C) about 50%
D) 90%
30) Amazon.com settled a lawsuit with Barnes and Noble in March 2002 that centered on the
infringement of what patent?
A) the personalization of content on an e-commerce site
B) the use of cookies to track patterns across visits
C) its “one-click-ordering” process
D) the “buy it now” feature
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31) The U.S. has much stronger privacy laws and practices than Europe.
32) U.S. copyright laws make it illegal to copy software and use it without the software vendor’s
33) A patent gives its creator the exclusive right to the manufacture and use of a new design or
method for a limited period of time.
34) Some ethical issues are viewed differently depending upon the culture in which they arise.
35) According to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), identify theft is “someone appropriating
your personal information without your knowledge to commit fraud or theft.”