Ethics has to do with moral principles that control or influence a person’s behavior. Research ethics has taken a prime position in the process of research. Digital watermarking as a technology that embeds information, in machine-readable form, within the content of a digital media file could raise privacy issues if deployed in ways that fail to take privacy into account. Digital watermarking can be applied to different applications including digital signatures, fingerprinting, broadcast and publication monitoring, authentication, copy control, and secret communication. This paper brings to view various ethical concerns of digital watermarking such as privacy, piracy, deception and anonymity.

1. INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF TECHNOLOGICAL EXPLORATION AND LEARNING (IJTEL)
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Overview of Ethical Issues in Digital Watermarking
Agbaje, M.O,
Department of Computer Sc.Babcock University, Nigeria
Omotosho O. J,
Department of Computer Sc.Babcock University, Nigeria
Adebayo, A.O,
Department of Computer Sc.Babcock University, Nigeria
Abstract— Ethics has to do with moral principles that
control or influence a person’s behavior. Research ethics
has taken a prime position in the process of research. Digital
watermarking as a technology that embeds information, in
machine-readable form, within the content of a digital media file
could raise privacy issues if deployed in ways that fail to take
privacy into account. Digital watermarking can be applied to
different applications including digital signatures,
fingerprinting, broadcast and publication monitoring,
authentication, copy control, and secret communication.
This paper brings to view various ethical concerns of
digital watermarking such as privacy, piracy, deception
and anonymity.
Keywords- Ethics; Digital Watermarking; Privacy;
Piracy; Anonimity.
I. INTRODUCTION
The world of research has moved from just carrying out
research as done in the past but the subject of ethical research
has assumed a much more central position in the research
process. Ethics is derived from the Greek word (ethika)
meaning “character”. It deals with customary ways of acting
and universal and relative judgments as to rightness or
wrongness of human conduct [1] . Ethics refers to the principle
of right and wrong that individuals acting as free moral agents,
use to make choices to guide their behavior [2], [3]. Ethics
refers to the code of morality or system of moral principles that
governs the appropriate conduct of a group and its members. It
is concerned primarily with things as they ought to be. In
investigating human conduct it is concerned with questions
such as: When is an act right? When is an act wrong? And
what is the nature or determining standard, of good and bad?
Research ethics specifically deal with the application of
moral rules and professional codes of conduct to the collection,
collation, analysis, reporting, and dissemination of information
about research subject, whether individually or as a group,
especially as regards acceptance of subjects’ right to privacy
and informed consent [4].
[1]Intellectual disciplines are product of cultural evolution.
It is therefore difficult to have a standard ethical guideline that
would embrace all disciplines. A single yard stick or criterion
infact, cannot be used to determine ethical principles within the
same discipline, much less across several disciplines. Digital
watermarking is an ongoing research field in computer science.
The methodology of research in this paper includes an
extensive literature review and inductive analysis of various
ethical issues from related works. This paper takes an overview
of the ethical principles associated with digital watermarking.
A person's view of reality (i.e., one’s metaphysics or
worldview or Weltanschauung) influences that person's view of
morality [5]. This possibility has broad implications for
understanding personal ethics in general and computer ethics in
particular. Four worldviews were revealed: Idealism, Realism,
Pragmatism, and Existentialism. Idealism is the view that
reality is ultimately grounded in the perfect, abstract, ideal
world—the world of spirit and ideas. Realism emphasizes the
ultimate importance of the natural world, that is, the physical,
material, sensible universe. Pragmatism suggests that reality is
not static in the sense of depending on absolute ideas or matter,
but rather is ultimately "in process" and must be constantly
probed and determined by social experimentation.
Existentialism holds that reality is not objective; rather it is
subjective and must be constructed by each individual. These
worldviews have implication on three examples of ethical
dilemmas relating to information technology i.e those
concerning piracy, privacy, and authority-deception.
The use of the computers despite its benefits causes ethical
problems. Computer ethics is derived from basic ethical
principles common to many areas. As computer is becoming
integrated into the society computer professionals must ensure
safe use of hardware and software so as not to violate ethical
use principles.
Digital watermarking is a technology that embeds
information, in machine-readable form, within the content of a
digital media file (for example, a movie, song, or photograph).
Digital watermarking is the process of embedding information
into digital material in such a way that it is imperceptible to a
human observer but easily detected by computer algorithm [9]
[10][13]. Digital watermarking as a technology that embeds
information, in machine-readable form, within the content of a
digital media file could raise privacy issues if deployed in ways
that fail to take privacy into account [6].
II. APPLICATIONS OF DIGITAL WATERMARKING
Digital watermarking can be applied to different
applications including digital signatures, fingerprinting,
broadcast and publication monitoring, authentication, copy

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IJTEL, ISSN: 2319-2135, VOL.3, NO.6, DECEMBER 2014 594
control, and secret communication (Kurt, 2013). As a
signature, the watermark identifies the owner of the content
and can be used as a fingerprint to identify content consumers.
For example, a specific watermarking technique is planned to
be used to secure passports against counterfeiting. In the
Broadcast and publication monitoring area, computer systems
can automatically monitors television and radio broadcast to
track the appearance of distributed material. Watermarking
technology can also be used to guarantee authenticity and can
be applied as proof that the content has not been altered since
insertion. The watermark is often designed in such a way that
any alteration either destroys the watermark or creates a
mismatch between the content and the watermark, which can
easily be detected. Furthermore, watermarking enables
applications for copy control. Here, the embedded watermark
information contains rules of usage and copying [7]
Though the main application of digital watermarking is to
secure the intellectual property, it can also be used in the
medical field. In using digital watermarks as container for
information about patients and their diagnosis, medical images,
for example, X-ray or nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR)
tomography could be automatically associated with the patient
[9]. Furthermore, digital watermarking could be used to save
context or meta-information in source documents. In using
special watermarking agents, generic search machines are able
to retrieve such information and can offer time-based media
documents as a result.
III. ETHICAL CONSIDERATION IN VARIOUS
DISCIPLINES
Computer ethics is the ethical use of the computer.
Commandments of computer ethics include; 1.Don’t use
computer to harm people 2. Don’t interfere with other people’s
computer 3. Don’t snoop around in other people’s files 4.Don,t
use computer to steal 5. Don’t use a computer to bear false
witness.6. Don’t copy or proprietary software for which you
have not paid 7. Don’t use other people’s computer resources
without authorization 8. Don’t appropriate others people
intellectual output 9. Do think about social consequences of
program written 10. Use a computer in a way that shows
consideration and respect for fellow humans [14].
[7] Three basic principles relevant to the ethics of research
involving human subjects: the principle of respect of persons,
beneficence and justice. He opined that not only in the conduct
of research is ethical guide line need to be followed but also in
management of data generated during the research that will
lead to a correct decision being taken.
Helsinki Declaration was made in respect to medical
profession and some of their declarations include: clinical
research must conform to moral and scientific principles which
justify medical research and should be based on laboratory and
animal experiments, clinical research should be conducted only
by scientifically qualified persons and under supervision of
qualified medical personnel e.t.c
[7] Issues on ethical management in data management to
include: competency of the data manager, conflict of interest,
confidentiality, right to information, intellectual property
rights(IPR),error in data and misconduct in data management.
[12] Thirteen ethical issues in social sciences which
include worthiness of project, competence boundaries,
informed consent, benefits, costs and reciprocity, harm and
risk, honesty and trust, privacy, confidentiality and anonymity,
intervention and advocacy, research integrity and quality,
ownership of data and use and misuse of data.
A. CTD proposed privacy principles
1. Privacy by design -- Companies should address privacy
considerations in the early design and planning phases of
digital watermarking applications, not late in the process as an
afterthought. Where applications involve multiple partners,
contracts should include appropriate privacy-related
commitments for each[6].
2. Avoid embedding independently useful identifying
information directly in watermarks -- Companies should seek
to ensure that even if unauthorized parties learn how to read the
watermarks, no meaningful information will be exposed. For
example, for most applications, the data actually embedded in
the watermark should consist merely of a random serial
number or other code, and the use of a consistent code to
correspond to a specific individual should be avoided wherever
practical[6][11].
3. Provide notice to end users -- When media files contain
individualized watermarks, end users should be provided with
notice disclosing key information such as the presence of the
watermarks, the data they convey, and the purpose for which
that data will be used. The prominence of notice should be
proportional to the extent and likelihood of any privacy impact
[6].
4. Control access to reading capability -- Members of the
public who happen to obtain a watermarked file generally
should not have easy access to the devices or software needed
to read the watermarks. Nor should government or law
enforcement authorities; if authorities need to decipher
watermarks deployed for non-governmental purposes, they can
obtain that information through appropriate legal process[6].
5. Respond appropriately when algorithms are
compromised -- Companies should reconsider how much
reliance to place on watermarking systems whose workings
have been exposed, particularly if there is a risk that
watermarks could be altered or forged.
6. Provide security and access controls for back-end
databases -- Companies deploying watermarking applications
should carefully protect the security of and control access to
any back-end databases containing information about
individuals[6][11].
7. Limit uses for secondary purposes -- The design of
watermarking applications should seek to limit, not facilitate,
future use of watermark information for purposes not related to
the application's original mission. Information should be
collected, retained, and disclosed only as necessary for the
original mission; back-end databases should avoid
unnecessarily centralizing all information about an individual
in one place; and companies should refrain from using
watermarks to unmask anonymous speakers who happen to
incorporate some marked content into commentary or criticism.
8. Provide reasonable access and correction procedures for
personally identifiable information -- Where watermarking
applications cause personally identifiable information to be
collected and stored, individuals should have reasonable means

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IJTEL, ISSN: 2319-2135, VOL.3, NO.6, DECEMBER 2014 595
of accessing information that pertains to them for purposes of
contesting inaccuracies [6].
IV. ETHICS IN DIGITALWATERMARKING
The ethics in digital watermarking can be classified from
our deductions from ethical principle as Privacy, piracy;
deception and anonymity as major issues to be dealt with in
designing digital watermarking systems. [6] Opined that the
most frequently raised privacy concern regarding digital
watermarks is that they could enable increased monitoring,
recording, or disclosure of an individual's media purchases or
usage. The fear, in other words, is that watermarking could
compromise an individual's ability to use and enjoy lawfully
acquired media on a private, anonymous basis. Other possible
privacy issues include the risk that watermarks could contain
personal information that could be exposed to third parties, and
the risk that errors in or manipulation of watermark data could
paint a false picture of an individual's behavior and perhaps
lead to adverse consequences, including potential legal
liability. Some of the issues identified are discussed below:
A. Privacy
Privacy refers to an individual’s ability to restrict the
collection, use and sale of confidential personal information.
The internet as we know is eroding privacy through the selling
of information collected through registration on websites. Few
laws regulate selling of personal information. [6] has already
various propositions for privacy for digital watermarking
researchers. Privacy issues include the risk that watermarks
could contain personal information that could be exposed to
third parties, and the risk that errors in or manipulation of
watermark data could paint a false picture of an individual's
behaviour and perhaps lead to adverse consequences, including
potential legal liability. Preservation of content providers
ownership properties and content receivers’ privacy is very
important [11].
B. Piracy
A public watermark should be detected or extracted by any
receiver, so that this detection / extraction process doesn’t need
any other element than the additional parameters needed are
made public. But for such watermarks, a robustness
requirement actually remains on the embedding process, which
is not meant to become publicly available. Privacy of the
watermarking process may be viewed as a constraint in the use
of watermarks. Piracy has to do with the use misuse of
someone property for which ownership and an owner’s wishes
for those resources/materials could not be established,
explicitly or implicitly. Forensic watermarking is used not only
to gather evidence for criminal proceedings, but also to enforce
contractual usage agreements between a content owner and the
people or companies with which it shares its content. It is
capable of providing positive, irrefutable evidence of misuse
for leaked content assets. This can be wrongly or rightly
applied.
C. Deception
In medical or military related cases or transactions the
watermarked information can be altered to deceive the
authority in case of any collision. There are several potential
problems with deception because it is a moral issue whether it
is ever acceptable to mislead other people deliberately or not.
D. Anonymity
A method to protect the identity of provider and receiver
and also to protect the contents of transferred data between
them must ensured. Anonymity is mainly concerned with
protecting the identity of the end users as well as
communication among users. It is important that during
transaction or medical usage owner’s information are protect.
To provide anonymity to users in these systems, the personal,
private, and sensitive information, such as the user name, user
identification and IP address of the user, must be hidden during
communication with others [11].
V. CONCLUSION
Understanding ethical principle aids better usage and
application of a technology even from the design state.
Therefore having a good grasp of ethical knowledge in the area
of digital watermarking will be all to the good, and promote
consumer confidence in the current marketplace for digital
media.
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