Milestone: Case Background & Digital Impact

What Happened

Horizon IT, the Japanese IT service provider Fujitsu's development, is a software system developed for accounting in the UK by the Post Office for its IT services. The software was responsible for numerous inaccuracies when it began in the late 1990s, and was in use for many years, these mistakes presented financial deficits for local Post Offices. The Post Office took no action on the software, and just blamed the sub-postmasters and sub-postmistresses for the missing money.

Hence hundreds of innocents were faced with charges of theft, fraud and false accounting. Not only were jobs lost, many reputations, savings and even freedom lost as a result of the wrongful prosecutions. Extremet torturous emotions, financial distress and relationship problems were experienced by the victims. Over the years issues in the Horizon system were unearthed and accounted for the discrepancies in the accounting. Later, through other public investigation and judicial decisions, many examples of practices with opaque, not transparent and non-accompanied by good moral fibre emerged.

Who Was Involved

This case engaged the cooperation of various parties. The key organisations included were the UK Post Office and Fujitsu who are building and operating the Horizon software system. Sub-postmasters and sub-postmistresses throughout the UK were the main sufferers as data produced by the computers improperly led to accusations and legal actions against them.

This was increasingly taken up as a 'national scandal' participation was extended to include the government, legal investigators, journalists and the public. Unfortunately, courts learnt that the software system were unreliable and have changed many of the wrongful convictions.

Technology Involved

For Horizon, technology would be playing a key role as the entire incident was dependent upon an accounting system that was computerised. It has been established with the sole purpose of accounting for the various financial transactions, and pushed further to use a computer system for the operations connected to accounting in branches. Financial information allegedly was missing and was a result of a computer bug or "system error," and was misleading.

It caused some "human testimony" problems not considered reliable to digital systems. The case also provides an example of an organization that had grown too dependent on an automated solution, but didn't sufficiently question the validity of software systems. Subsequent communication technology and media helped raise awareness and to bring the scandal to the public agenda.

The reasons why this case matters.

Key learning points from this case: Assess and monitor technology with care; don't take the technology for granted without oversight or accountability! The above mentioned Horizon scandal is an example of the insidious nature of bad software when organizations will not even take the time to investigate unethical behaviour, much less getting involved with ensuring the ethics of their programs.

This case reflects problems to consider in computer Algorithmic Responsibility, transparency, non-discrimination and professional ethics. It also serves as a reminder of the importance of carefully testing digital systems, and for all organisations to have to account for their actions when digital technology harms.

Part 2: Digital Communication & Platform Impact 

A. Platform Influence

There was a need to raise awareness of the Horizon scandal, and social media played an important role as one of the media. The excellent information was shared via a variety of media such as reports on news websites, online investigations, documentaries and social media, and has continued to shed light on the lived reality of sub-postmasters who had been falsely accused. Journalists and online communities exposed information that cast doubt to the reliability of the software system system called "Horizon".

Internet media also affected opinions and the victim narrates his/her story directly to a large audience. The greater spread of information in the web resulted in increased pressures on the Post Office/ Government officials to investigate thoroughly. This demonstrates unethical attitudes of individuals and society towards technologies that can be affected by digital communication systems.

B. Scale of Harm

There were hundreds of innocent people and families affected by this wrong doing that happened with Horizon, and they were in the United Kingdom. Many victims have experienced not just financial losses, but other problems like emotional, reputation and prison time as well. Many people were disappointed, socially isolated, depressed and experience long term consequences from prosecution on baseless accusations.

The repercussions of the larger effects are more benign than the individuals that would come and go; they are a loss of confidence in digital systems, efforts at automation, and institutional accountability. If such harms persist for the many more individuals that continue to rely upon an untransparent and unethical technological system, it could do so in the future as well.

C Initial  Ethical Issues

There are a few moral issues apparent in this case. One problem was the-PO's continued fall-back on reliance on the Horizon system of accountability while knowing there was software error on the system. The next problem was the issue of fairness since the ones who weren't there were getting the blame by inaccurate digital numbers.

The second dimension of the case is the transparency and honesty – how could many years pass by with such important information regarding software defects being greater of being hidden? Trust is also a major ethical issue because in society people trust the organizations and members of the technology professions in their interaction with digital systems. In the case of the scandal of the Horizon, it becomes clear that one can face certain dangers when a technology system design and control is not handled ethically.