An Integrated Framework for Ethical and Sustainable Digitalization

Dynamically developing digitization initiatives among public institutions and private companies necessitate a balanced approach to digital ethics. Several frameworks and legal regulations have been adopted to clarify and define the various ethical challenges in digital contexts. These initiatives often accentuate one of three components: data security, data governance, or digital strategy. However, an integrated approach is required to meet the current demand for an ethical and sustainable approach to digitalization and address the growing number of challenges occurring in handling data and related peripheral components. This paper develops the concept of an integrated framework to incorporate all relevant aspects of digital ethics by combining three categories of digital contexts: law and regulations, ethics and justice, and environmental sustainability. The core of this integrated framework, the Fribourg sustainable digital ethics framework (FSDEF), consists of two boundary conditions of sustainable development: social thresholds of justice and ecological planetary boundaries. It also incorporates numerous other frameworks and standards, including value-based engineering and IEEE standards.