Used in a company with a flatter organization a

used in a company with a flatter organization. A company with a highly stratified hierarchy
may have difficulty adjusting its business processes and structures to an information system
that does not follow the same business hierarchy of information.
Difficulty: Medium Reference: pp. 86–88
Synthesis in terms of organize, formulate

Chapter 4
Ethical and Social Issues in
Information Systems
True-False Questions
1. The cases of Enron, Worldcom, Parmalat, and Bristol-Meyers Squibb are examples of failed
ethical judgment by information systems managers.
Answer: False Difficulty: Easy Reference: pp. 127–128
2. Firms that cooperate with prosecutors may receive reduced charges against the entire firm for
obstructing investigations.
Answer: True Difficulty: Easy Reference: p. 128
3. Political institutions require time to develop new laws and often require the demonstration of
real harm before they act.
Answer: True Difficulty: Easy Reference: p. 130
4. Advances in data storage have made routine violation of individual privacy more difficult.
Answer: False Difficulty: Easy Reference: p. 131
5. The Utilitarian Principle states that if an action is not right for everyone to take it is not
right for anyone to take.
Answer: False Difficulty: Medium Reference: p. 137
6. Privacy is the right to be left alone when you want to be, without surveillance or interference
from other individuals or organizations.
Answer: True Difficulty: Easy Reference: p. 139
7. Standards for ensuring the accuracy and reliability of any corporate information systems
are enforced through the Gramm–Leach–Bliley Act.
Answer: False Difficulty: Easy Reference: p. 140

8. The FIP principles direct Web sites to disclose their information practices before collecting
data.
Answer: True Difficulty: Medium Reference: p. 140
9. “Cookies” are designed to directly obtain the names and addresses of Web site visitors.
Answer: False Difficulty: Medium Reference: p. 142
10. Spyware is software that comes hidden in free downloadable software and can track your
online movements.
Answer: True Difficulty: Easy Reference: pp. 142–143
11. P3P encrypts or scrambles e-mail or data so that it cannot be read illicitly.
Answer: False Difficulty: Medium Reference: p. 144
12. Protection for trade secrets is enforced at the federal level.
Answer: False Difficulty: Hard Reference: p. 145
13. The drawback to copyright protection is that the underlying ideas behind the work are not
protected, only their manifestation in a product.
Answer: True Difficulty: Hard Reference: p. 146
14. According to the courts, in the creation of unique software, similar concepts, general
functional features, and even colors are protectable by copyright law.
Answer: False Difficulty: Medium Reference: p. 146
15. The key concepts in patent law are originality, novelty, and invention.
Answer: True Difficulty: Easy Reference: p. 146
16. Computers and information technologies potentially can destroy valuable elements of our
culture in society even while they bring us benefits.