What is Information Ethics?

Abstract

This paper put forwards a theory of information ethics based on the concept of an 'information access state'; an information access state is a relation between a person or persons and some information. I argue that this framework is preferable to those theories put forward by Luciano Floridi (2002) and Joroen van den Hoven (1995), because it focuses on the importance of information to persons and it allows for the positive ethical value of both access to information and the denial of access to information. This “information access account” allows us to capture a broader range of practical ethical issues with regard to information than either of these rival theories.

Keywords: computer ethics, information ethics, information access