ABSTRACT
In an increasingly computerized society, where computing, and its broad application, bring dramatic changes to our way of life, and exposes us to harms and risks, accountability is very important. This chapter attempts to explain why there is a tendency toward diminished accountability for the impacts, harms, and risks of computing, and it offers recommendations for reversing it. It maintains that accountability is systematically undermined in our computerized society—which, given the value of accountability to society, is a disturbing loss. The chapter is concerned with the accountability that has grown alongside the active discussion within and about the computer profession regarding the harms and risks to society posed by computers and computerized systems. For centuries, philosophers and legal scholars have sought to understand accountability and the related concepts of responsibility, blame, and liability, through definitions, prototypical cases, and sets of conditions that would capture their meanings and provide clear grounds for legal principles.
