The term information society refers to a set of developments in the global human environment that began during the last quarter of the twentieth century. These developments entailed increasingly intensive use of technologies of information and communication, from desktop computers and a plethora of sensing and "smart" devices to mobile telephony and portable hand-held electronics, all progressively interconnected. In a cursory sense, an information society is simply one heavily dependent on these technologies for human interactions and transactions, though no clear threshold exists for classifying a society as informational at any particular stage of technological development. In a more important and complex sense, an information society is one in which use of various technologies has produced or is producing substantial change in the ways people live, learn, work, socialize, and govern themselves.

A New Context for Ethics

As societies around the globe integrate various technologies into...