  This paper contributes to a better understanding of ethical concerns
regarding the deployment of complex public sector IT systems and the
information flows they instigate. The paper aims to reveal how different views
on IT and IT-enabled information flows allow us to see differently their social
implications and to construe different ethical questions. This is achieved by
i) defining two opposing views on IT-enabled information flows as
'intermediaries' and 'mediators'; ii) by analysing the controversial case of My
School - a web portal that provides performance data of 9,500 Australian
schools - that introduces new information flows in the education sector; and
iii) by revealing and explaining how some unintended negative social
implications emerge and how the articulation of ethical concerns depends on the
view on My School-enabled information flows. The paper concludes with
theoretical and practical implications, with particular emphasis on
responsibilities of all involved, setting up foundations for an important area
of future IS research.
