Empowerment Technologies Lesson 2 Ethics on the Internet

In this lesson, you will be able to:

1. demonstrate understanding of concepts in internet security and

ethics;
2. utilize online security and safety measures;
3. apply ethical standards and practices in online transactions;
4. assess instances that breach online safety, security, and ethical
5. standards; and value the essence of security and ethics in the
use of internet technology.

EXPAND YOUR KNOWLEDGE

However bene cial the use of internet technology is, people
who use it are also exposed to risks and danger. In fact, crimes
done through the internet and many devices are prevalent.
Hacking, cracking, identity theft, sexual exploitation, defamation,
and bullying are just some of the examples of the crimes that prove
the downside of the internet technology. This can be attributed to
the lack of knowledge and the unethical and unsafe practices of
the internet users. Nevertheless, given enough information and
proper orientation, issues on safety and ethics can be minimized or
avoided.

Online Safety and Security

Online safety, sometimes regarded as e-safety or cyber

safety, refers to the maximization of internet users' knowledge and
awareness of safety protocols, online crimes, and security risks in
the private property and information which are connected to the
use of the internet. Online security, on the other hand, refers to the
"rules that are followed and the actions that are taken to make sure
that online users and data privacy aren't compromised by
cybercriminals," (Mocan, 2019).

Online safety is a user's precautionary measures that he or

she applies to ensure that his or her experience online does not
harm him or her in any way. One example of this is when someone
creates a social media account and sets a strong password with
letters, numbers, and symbols. It is deemed as a strong password
when it is uncommon, unpredictable, or is hard to be determined

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Empowerment Technologies Lesson 2 Ethics on the Internet

by anyone. Online security, on the other hand, is designed by

websites and other internet pages to ensure that the people
accessing their sites and pages are protected from di erent online
risks and danger. For instance, institutions that allow the creation
of online accounts among their employees may employ encryption
techniques on the personal data, so that it will be hard for hackers
to steal such sensitive data.

In this time when the internet is indispensable, everyone must

be knowledgeable and aware of what to do to keep him or her and
others safe.

Online Crimes

While using the internet, it is imperative that one should be

vigilant of possible dangers and harms that may be in icted onto
them. However, he or she must also be aware and intentional that
he or she will not commit any of these harmful actions toward
others. These violations that in ict harm to other people by
internet users are called online crimes.

Online crimes come in the following forms:

1. Cyberbullying. Republic Act 10627 or The Anti-Bullying Act of

2013 de nes bullying as "any severe or repeated use by one or
more students of a written, verbal or electronic expression, or a
physical act or gesture, or any combination thereof, directed at
another student that has the e ect of actually causing or placing
the latter in reasonable fear of physical or emotional harm or
damage to his property; creating a hostile environment at school,
infringing on the rights of another, or materially or substantially
disrupting the education process." Any violation of this act is
considered as cyberbullying. The Sec. 3 of the Implementing Rules
of RA 10627 states that cyberbullying "covers social bullying
aiming to belittle another individual or group or gender-based
bullying that humiliates another on the basis of perceived or sexual
orientation, or gender identity (in dela Cruz, 2017).”

Cyberbullying comes in di erent forms. It can be aming,

harassment, denigration, impersonation, outing, trickery, exclusion,

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Empowerment Technologies Lesson 2 Ethics on the Internet

and cyberstalking. In the article, Cyber Safety: An Interactive Guide

to Staying Safe on the Internet, the following forms of cyberbullying
are de ned

Flaming is an online ght using electronic messages with angry and

vulgar languages.

Harassment is the act of repeatedly sending nasty, mean, and

insulting messages.

Denigration is sending or posting gossip or rumors about a person

to damage his or her reputation or friendships.

Impersonation is when someone is pretending to be someone else

and sending or posting material to get that person in trouble or
danger or to damage that person's reputation or friendships.

Outing is the act of sharing someone's secrets or embarrassing

information or images online.

Trickery is when someone is talking to a person to let him or her

reveal his or her secrets or embarrassing information and then,
shares the sensitive information online. hen one is intentionally or
cruelly excluded from an online group.

Cyberstalking is the act of repeated, intense harassment and

denigration that includes threats or creates signi cant fear.
MILT SI

Be cautious when sur ng online as cyberbullying may occur

in di erent online spaces such as in the emails, chat rooms, social
media, blogs, video games, and even cellular phones. Everyone
must be vigilant and careful, as cyberbullying can a ect the victim
in many ways. This may include depression, severe sadness,
lowered self-worth and con dence, stress, absences in school,
and even thoughts of self-harm.

When cyberbullying is observed, it is best to do the following:

a. Inform a trusted person. The best persons to talk to are your

parents or guardians. It can also be your teacher or any adult

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Empowerment Technologies Lesson 2 Ethics on the Internet

whom you trust. Tell them of your situation, as they can guide you
on what to do.

b. Try not to instigate. When there are mean or cruel actions done
to you, try not to ght back with your emotions. This will further the
bullying. Ignore them but be proactive.

c. Block connection with the bully. Try to cut your online

connection with the bully. If you two are connected in social media,
unfriend or block him or her.

d. Always be aware. It is important that you are aware of how

people treat you online. Knowing these forms of bullying gives you
a hint on whether these bullying perpetrators are starting to
victimize you. If this is the case, take the necessary steps such as
the ones mentioned earlier.

e. Logout from online accounts. Forgetting to logout, especially

from public computers, may give the bully the opportunity to
instigate the crime. Always ensure that you have properly logged
out.

f. Be not a cyberbully. The golden rule, "Do not do to others what

you would not want others to do to you," must always be observed
even in the online world. As part of ethical practices in sur ng the
net, never bully other netizens.

2. Identity Theft. US Department of Justice de nes identity theft"

and "identity fraud" as "all types of crimes in which someone
wrongfully obtains and uses another person's personal data in
some way that involves fraud or deception, typically for economic
gain."

The US Department of Justice further explained that identity

theft and fraud may commonly happen in these situations:

a. When "shoulder sur ng" is done by criminals, as you use online

communication in public places This may come in events the
criminal is watching over you as you dial phone numbers, or when
listening over conversations where they get private information like
credit card number, birthday, or home address.

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b. When you receive pre-approved credit cards but discard them

improperly. From here, criminals may be able to activate the
trashed cards at your expense.

c. When you respond to spam mails or unsolicited emails which

require you to input personal data. The collected data will later be
used to steal other information or to hack your online
accounts.

Unfortunately, with the rise of social media technology,

identity theft and fraud have become more rampant. The personal
data that people make available online have increased their privacy
risks. Many people are not aware that making information available
online, such as social security number, credit card information,
bank account number, and personal information found in licenses
and identi cation cards become prominent sources of data to
steal. It is, therefore, advised that internet users must be careful
enough on these data.

There are some practical tips that should be observed to be

protected from online identity theft and fraud. Some of these are
listed as follows:

a. Use Good Password, Ensure that your account password is

strong. Strong password means that; is long enough, makes use of
mixed types of characters, and should be relevant and irrelevant A
password that is relevant and irrelevant means that the password
seems random to other people, but meaningful speci cally to the
owner. For example, MMB1*135 which may mean "My Mothers
Birthday Is*11-23-1975," where only the last digits are taken.

It is also advisable to have di erent relevant and strong

passwords to di erent online accounts. This is to further secure
existing accounts online. When one account is hacked with is
password, the other account may be spared. Also, let your
password pass the SURP test: Strong Unique, Recent, and
Practical. Strong password means that the password is long
enough and is composed of random letters, numbers, and special
characters. Unique password means that it is not related to your
other passwords. Recent means that it has been updated lately.
Lastly, practical password means that it can be easily remembered.

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b. Report Identity Theft. Violations can be reported to the right

authorities that are responsible for dealing with crimes. On social
media, it can be initially reported to the site, but in serious cases,
the victim may avail a legal advice and have this raised to a court.
Identity theft report is helpful in the following situations:

- stopping credit companies from letting you pay fraudulent

transactions at your name;

- removing false accounts;

- extending fraud alert on your account; and

- examining your report to nd out the thief.

3. Phishing. Oxford Lexico de nes phishing as, "the fraudulent

practice of sending emails purporting to be from reputable
companies in order to induce individuals to reveal personal
information such as passwords and credit card numbers." These
massages and emails can camou age as congratulatory message
for winning. Many o cial correspondence texts ask for digital
signature. Some are o cial correspondences that are generic, or
urgent mails. Be always on the lookout for these phishing
schemes.
Nevertheless, there are ways to be secured from phishing
attacks. One might consider the following:

a. Be scrutinizing of the website that you are logged in. Many

websites that intend to scam internet users imitate the original
sites.

b. Be cautious on giving information online. If you are not sure of

the security, do not provide essential and sensitive information that
are unique to you like your birth date, nancial data, passwords, or
home address.

c. Be alert with links sent via messages and emails. These maybe
schemes to steal your personal information.

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Empowerment Technologies Lesson 2 Ethics on the Internet

4. Plagiarism and Copyright Infringement. The University of Oxford

in the UK states that "plagiarism is presenting someone else's
work or ideas as your own, with or without their consent, by
incorporating it in your work without full acknowledgment. All
published and unpublished material, whether in manuscript,
printed or electronic form, is covered under this de nition.
Plagiarism may be intentional, or reckless, or unintentional. Under
the regulation for examinations, intentional or reckless plagiarism is
a disciplinary o ense." On the other hand, copyright infringement,
as de ned by the US O ce of Copyright, "occurs when a
copyrighted work is reproduced, distributed, performed, publicly
displayed, or made into a derivative work without the permission of
the copyright owner." Broadly, copyright laws cover works in
literary, musical, dramatics, pantomimes and choreographies,
pictorial, graphics and sculptural, motion pictures and audio-visual,
and sound recordings. copyright owner." Broadly, copyright laws
cover works in literary, musical, dramatics, pantomimes and
choreographies, pictorial, graphics and sculptural, motion pictures
and audio-visual, and sound recordings.

As to plagiarism, the violation may be one or a combination of

these forms: verbatim quotation without clear acknowledgment,
cutting and pasting ideas from the internet without proper citation,
paraphrasing without due acknowledgement of the source,
collusion, and failure to attribute assistance made, and
autoplagiarism or resubmission of works already submitted.

The best way that you can avoid these crimes is to be

respectful of others' intellectual properties. When you use any of
other people's works, be sure that you will su ciently
acknowledge them and/or secure permission for using a particular
text or media.

However, there are times when fair use is applicable. This is a

copyrighting method where citation is not necessary or obligated,
such as (1) works that lack originality, (2) public domains or those
which copyrights have expired, or the creator had not registered
the copyright of his or her work, or it is owned by the government,
or it has been published before December 31, 1922, (3) freeware,
and (4) general facts. Also, fair use applies to teachers and
educators as long as the use of works adheres to these standards:

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- Purpose of use: Is it strictly for educational purposes?

- Proportion or extent of materials used: Is it only an excerpt or

segment of the work?

- The e ect on marketability: Did the use of the work not a ect the
sales of that work?

Common Internet Security Threats

Many threats are present on the internet. Internet security

threats are dangers that are associated with using the internet.
There are multitude of concepts related to internet threats, but here
are the most common forms identi ed by McAfee Corporation,

1. Malwares, This is the shortened torn of malicious software,

some of the examples of malwares are computer viruses,
worms, and dishonest spyware.

2. Computer Worms, These are programs that can replicate

themselves from one computer to another in great volume and can
spread themselves rapidly without human intervention.

3. Spam, Generally, spam or unwanted messages are harmless.

They are usually junk mails sent in your email, but there are times
that they contain links that put you at risk. These links may be
connected to malwares that intend to steal your data.

4. Phishing. These scams are created by of cybercriminals who

intend to ask for private or elicit information from their victims.

Internet Security Strategies

There is no one way to secure any network or computer

connected to the internet. It is best, therefore, that internet security
must require product and technology combinations to give utmost
security for the network and the users. These strategies may come
in the following forms:

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1. Browser Selection. Be sure that the browser that you are using
is secured. The browser employs di erent control settings that
protect its users. Also, the browser uses security architecture
that protects it and its users from various cyber-attacks. Among
the most trusted browsers that one can use are Mozilla Firefox,
Iridium, Microsoft Edge, Opera, Apple Safari, Google Chrome,
Brave, and Tor.

2. Email Security. Try to establish a multilavered and

comprehensive email security because this will signi cantly
increase protection from threats associated with email use.
Exposure to hacking, worms, viruses, and other unwarranted
programs may put you at risk. Messages via email can be
protected by encrypting the message and by encrypting the
communication between servers through cryptography.

3. Multifactor Authentication (MFA), This is a process by which

computer access is controlled by requiring several
authentication mechanisms. For instance, before one can
transfer funds online from one bank account to another, he or
she is required to login to an online account that requires a
password. Afterward, an OTP or one time password is sent to
the registered cell phone number of the account owner, and
this is required to be encoded in the system before it proceeds
to transfer the funds.

4. Firewalls. Firewalls are the rst line of defense among networks.

These are security tools that prevent unauthorized access to a
network. Thus, it has the capacity to allow or deny access to
the system. By doing so, it protects the network by being
embedded with unwanted data, and it protects the data in the
network from being stolen.

Online Ethics and Etiquette

The crimes, threats, and violations previously discussed are

so rampant that many internet users have been victimized. Looking
at it, we might wonder why those malicious acts were perpetuated
by some people using internet platforms. One associated reason

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that can be linked to these crimes is disrespecting and neglecting

the ethical principles expected from internet users.

Generally, ethics deals with what is good and bad. It is a set

of moral principles that can be taken as a guiding philosophy in
life. In the context of internet use, the Markkula Center for Applied
Ethics of Santa Clara University de nes ethics as, "the analvsis of
the role that the internet plays in what philosophers call the
development of good life-the kind of life that we want for
ourselves, for society overall, the kinds of people we want to be."
This means that internet ethics maintains a space that respects
and promotes the rights and humanity of its users.

Internet ethics may deal with issues on privacy, big data, net
neutrality, and access to the internet. Ethical questions related to
these issues may fall on but not limited to the following:

Privacy - While internet users are required to provide data for online
transactions, how secure would these data be that these cannot be
used against them? Can the government or private organizations
use internet for doing surveillance on private individuals or entities
without their knowledge of the matter?

Big Data - Because of the great number of internet users, be it

individually, organizational, governmental, or corporate, big
amounts of data are being collected, managed, and maintained.
These data are important in making thoughtful decisions. Inquiries
on how data are collected, from whom they are collected, for what
purpose these will be used, or what exclusions are made. These
are just some of the many ethical questions to consider.

Net Neutrality - This means that all internet providers should give
equal treatment to all contents that ow in their network.

Access to the Internet - If internet is a right, then, how do we view

the large portion of humanity that does not have or have limited
access to it?

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Online Etiquette

Having considered internet ethics as guiding principles in

using the internet, speci c and acceptable conduct must be
observed by the internet users. This acceptable conduct that
adheres to polite behaviors and respectful manners is called online
etiquette.
Here are the ways on how to behave and present yourself
when you are online.

1. Be always courteous.

2. Do not use foul language and incite anger by writing in

uppercase and overusing the exclamation mark.

3. Appropriate your humor and avoid sarcasm.

4. Do not share or post o ensive materials.

5. Always acknowledge owners of ideas and materials used.

6. Try to be understanding to a maximum tolerance. Be kind.

7. Respect others' opinions. Deal with everyone with a

humanitarian approach.

To sum it up, always be humanitarian to your fellow netizens.

Show love, respect, kindness, compassion, and acceptance, but
do not forget what is just. Approach everyone in the best possible
ways available. Try rst to put your feet in their shoes and act
accordingly. It always pays o to think before you act.

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Empowerment Technologies Lesson 2 Ethics on the Internet

TEST YOUR UNDERSTANDING

A. Test What You Know
TRUE or FALSE: Read each statement and assess if it is correct or
not. Write TRUE if it is correct; otherwise, write FALSE if it is
incorrect. Write your answer in the space before each number.

__________1. It is good to use your actual birth date as password

because it is easy to remember.

__________2. Online security can be remedied by using rewalls.

__________3. Plagiarism only happens when there is intentionality

in the act.

__________4. By regularly updating your antivirus software, your

computer will be safer from malware intrusion.

__________5. Whatever browser to be used in sur ng the net is

advisable since all browsers are safe.

__________6. Conversations that are audible or visible in public can

be a cause of phishing.

__________7. Spam mails can be harmful if the message contains

links that may lead to data theft.

____________________8. It is secure to post your identi cation card

online because we are protected by laws.

__________9. It is a wise move to inform your parents when

someone bullies you.

__________10. Huge amount of data poses ethical issues, as this

can be used maliciously by the ones controlling this data.

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Empowerment Technologies Lesson 2 Ethics on the Internet

B. Explore What You Know with Your Peers

The activities that follow should be teacher-facilitated. The

teacher can also give speci c instructions for each activity.

1. Team Narrative Report: Create a group of ve members.

Choose a blog site that discusses social issues in the Philippines.
Analyze the exchange of discourses. Find out the ethical violations
committed on that site. Make a short narrative report of your
ndings. Share it in class.

2. Team Re ection: Find ve classmates who have the same

social media, emailing platform, or any internet-based account as
you do. Re ect individually on what ethical violations or safety
breach that you had unknowingly done in the past. Then, share
your re ection to the group, and try to give deliberate on how to
improve one's behavior online.
Create a simple two-column table (Breach and Violations;
Alternative Action) where you write the key points from your group
sharing.

3. Digital Poster-making: Together with your group mates, create

a digital poster with slogan that centers on internet safety and
etiquette. Share it in your social media accounts to help
disseminate information on internet safety and etiquette.

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EVALUATE YOUR UNDERSTANDING

I. TRUE or FALSE: Read the statements in each item carefully.
Evaluate each statement and write the letter:
A. if both statements are TRUE;
B. if both statements are FALSE;
C. if the rst statement is TRUE and the second statement is
FALSE; or
D. if the rst statement is FALSE and the second statement is
TRUE.

__________1. Malwares are considered computer crimes. These

can be prevented by multiple factor authenticity.
__________2. Cyberbullying is a crime that is penalized by law.
Outing is a form of this crime.
__________3. Denigration is a form of identity theft. Denigration can
be prevented using rewalls.
__________4. Privacy can be secured using passwords. Strong
passwords should be practical.
__________5. In dealing online, one must be kind. This means that
even when bullied, one must keep it to himself or herself.
__________6. Stalking someone online is unethical. Sending sweet
messages anonymously to the one being stalked, however, is not
bad.
__________7. Securing log o in public computer terminals is
essential. Having not properly logged out may cause data theft.
__________8. Using other's work solely for educational purposes
does not warrant plagiarism. However, if using the work generates
personal income, it becomes unlawful.
__________9. Online security is usually employed on the side of the
network, system, or application. Online safety is on the user's side.
__________10. Copying the entire work for educational purposes is
covered by fair use. One needs to cite the owner properly when his
or her work is used.

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II. Short Essays. Propose a solution to the following problematic

situations.

1. Marvin Jade uses edaJnivraM as password to his email account

to easily remember it. Suggest a strong password that passes the
SURP test

2. April Jane's computer was infected with a virus. What should

she do?

3. Garry has been encouraging his friends to exclude Dindin and

Macy, his friends, too, from their weekly online kumustahan. What
should Dindin and Macy do?

4. You have found out that a second Twitter account was made
anonymously that bears your name and picture. What should you
do?

5. Marc John received an email that was allegedly sent by his

university, but upon checking, the email address was not o cially
from his school. What should Marc John do?

SOURCE:

Ravina, E. (2022). Empowerment technologies. Rex Book Store.

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