The shortest definition of ethics is "moral decision making." What is moral? Morality encompasses people's beliefs and practices about good and evil. If something is moral, that implies conformity to the sanctioned codes or accepted notions of right and wrong, the basic moral values of a community. Morals can be local and/or universal. When individuals use reason to discern the most moral behavior, then they are practicing ethics.

Information ethics focuses on information, not just life. Information gains a prominent role because of its crucial importance to the health of human cultures. In other forms of ethics, only animals and people deserve to be the proper center of moral claim. However, with information at the focal point, the privacy, security, ownership, accuracy, and authenticity of information, as well as access to information, become values in themselves.

The rise in information ethics has not...