Within IFIP ethics has been a preoccupation for a long time. Debate started formally in 1988 about a proposed international ‘Code of Ethics’. The 1992 General Assembly concluded that the time was not ripe to adopt such a Code and asked a TC9 Task Force to provide recommendations. First, a full analysis of the current codes of IFIP member societies was undertaken. This enlightened the major deontological professional issues, such as respectful general attitude, conscientiousness, competence, promotion of privacy and confidentiality, and transparency of information. A special interest group (SIG9.2.2) was established in 1994 to support the creation of ‘spaces for discussion’ where ethical debate could be promoted and supported throughout IFIP and other constituencies. In a second phase, SIG9.2.2 confronted ethics and the governance of the Internet. It published a monograph that developed the main Internet-related issues that had appeared in new charters, commandments, codes and guidelines. The third phase focuses on the relationship between ethics and self-regulation. Our conclusions are that matters of interest to business and commerce tend to have legal force and regulation, but the real principles and issues of ethics tend still to be subject to no legal force. Society needs to confront this.