Ethical & Cultural Issues

• Ethical issues are about what would be considered right and wrong by society
• Legal issues are about what's actually right and wrong in the eyes of the law
• Cultural issues are about how groups of people with particular beliefs, practices or languages may be affected, e.g. ethnic groups, religions, countries
• Environmental issues are about how we impact the natural world
• If a company acted legally but ignored all questions of ethics, it could lose public trust. Many companies have a code of conduct (a set of rules that the company and its employees will follow) to show that they take these issues seriously. A company may invent its own code or agree to follow a standard one
• New technologies affect different groups of people
• As new digital technology becomes available, it can directly or indirectly affect many people
• The actions of a technology company can affect the owners, its employees, the shop that sells the company's product, customers, the company's hardware suppliers and the local community
• Each group of people that are affected have different priorities which may conflict with those of others
• ''Stakeholder'' - in computing, this is anyone with an interest in, or who may be affected by a technology
• Example - pt. 1

  Sally pays to download movies from a major on-demand streaming service. Her friend suggests that she should use a website where the movies are free but that probably isn't legal. Discuss the impact of using the website. You might consider the impact on Sally, the movie industry, the streaming service and the government, and any potential ethical or legal issues

  > If Sally uses the website, she faces ethical and legal dilemmas. She would save money, but may be supporting copyright theft and, indirectly, other criminal activities
• Example - pt. 2

  > She may also be breaking the law herself and could face prosecution. By using a website of dubious nature, she will put herself at risk from computer viruses and other malware. She may argue that the website is easily accessible, the legality is a grey area and that the government or film company should shut down these websites if they don't want people to use them.

  The movie's creators, publishers and employees are affected as they may lose money as a result of people using these websites. This could affect their ability to employ staff and make films in the future
• Example - pt. 3

  >They could use copyright laws, e.g. the Copyright, Design and Patents Act to attempt to prosecute the website's owners or the website's users. However, if they target users, it could also create bad press.

  Owners of the legitimate streaming service are also affected as they would lose money, which could affect their ability to employ staff or stay in business
• Example - pt. 4

  > Governments could aslo be affected. The film company's government will want to protect its companies and will be under pressure to take action. However, this may be very expensive and technically difficult. If the website is hosted in a different country with different copyright laws, tricky political negotiations may be required. The government may also be concerned that money from these websites could be funding further illegal activities
• It's hard to keep information private on the internet
• Many websites require users to provide personal information in order to set up an account
• Social media websites actively encourage you to post even more personal information, including photographs and details of your job and social life
• Cloud computing websites allow users to upload personal files to their servers
• Companies may make your personal information available to other website users or the whole internet. They may also sell your personal details, buying habits, etc. to other organisations (who might use it to send you targeted adverts or spam emails)
• Companies can do lots with your information as long as they stay within the bounds of the privacy agreement:

  > Users will accept a privacy agreement before using any websites and software. The trouble is that very few people actually read these so are unaware of what they're agreeing to. Even if they do read the terms, users often have no choice but to agree if they want to use the website of software at all
• Users can take steps to make the information they share more private, e.g. change their privacy settings on social media websites
• Websites often have fairly relaxed privacy settings by default. They also can have privacy settings that are hard to find and hard to understand
• Users have to trust companies to keep their data secure. But this doesn't always happen - there have been various high profile cases where customer data held by large companies has been leaked or stolen
• There are also issues with personal information being accessed via mobile devices, which could be stolen
• Censorship and surveillance are controversial issues
• Internet censorship is when someone tries to control what other people can access on the internet. Some countries' governments use censorship to restrict access to certain information
• Censorship:

  • Many governments use some form of censorship. Many countries restrict access to pornography, gambling and other inappropriate websites in order to protect children
  • Some countries have even stricter Internet censorship policies and will restrict access to websites which are critical of the government. They may also censor major foreign websites and social media platforms
• Computer surveillance is the act of monitoring what people are accessing on the internet
• Surveillance:

  • Many countries use some form of surveillance. Government intelligence agencies may use packet sniffers and other software to monitor internet traffic, looking out for certain key words or phrases that might alert them to illegal activities, terrorism, etc.
• Surveillance:

  • Many countries use some form of surveillance. Government intelligence agencies may use packet sniffers and other software to monitor internet traffic, looking out for certain key words or phrases that might alert them to illegal activities, terrorism, etc.
  • In some countries Internet Service Providers (ISPs) keep records of all websites visited by all its customers for a certain amount of time
• Censorship and surveillance are controversial topics. Some people support them in some form, e.g. to protect children or to stop terrorism. Others are completely against them, including several non-profit organisations which campaign against what they call cyber censorship and mass surveillance
• Companies release new technology regularly, and pay for advertisements to promote it. These techniques often try to influence and pressure people into buying or upgrading to the latest device
• Technology has also increased peer pressure - children feel pressure to own the latest device for fear of being bullied by their peers. Parents feel pressured into buying them
• Smartphones make it easier for people's work to intrude into other areas of life. Employees may be expected to carry a smartphone all the time, so that they can always be contacted. This can be stressful for employees who feel they can never really switch off form work
• Face-to-face social interaction can be neglected as more of our social lives move online. This is made worse by having the Internet on mobile devices we carry all the time
• Harmful content and behaviour can be an issue on social media
• The internet has made it easier for children to access innapropriate material, like pornography, drugs and gambling. Parents and schools can use parental-control software to try to stop children seeing it
• Cyberbullying is when somebody uses social media to deliberately harm someone else. This includes trying to intimidate or insult someone, or trying to humiliate or defame them (damage their reputation)
• Cyberbullying can cause serious distress - people have been driven to suicide because of these attacks
• Trolling is when somebody tries to cause public arguments with others online. E.g. the troll may take part in a political discussion online, but only to make comments which would frustrate the other members of the discussion. Trolls normally do this for their own amusement or to gain attention