1.6 ethic-environmental

• Ethics


  What is right and wrong and how people should behave
• Computer organisations' codes of conduct


  • Prescribe suitable ethical behaviour for its members
• Legal issues


  • Unauthorised access to data and computer systems for the purpose of theft or damage
  • Identity theft
  • Software piracy
  • Fraud
  • Harassment, such as trolling
• Culture


  The ideas, behaviour, beliefs and values of a group of people
• Cultural issues related to computers


  • Widespread use of 'disposable' digital devices
  • Ways in which people interact with each other – for instance, social media
  • Changes in the workplace
  • Replacing human roles in organisations
  • Changing human roles within organisations
  • Widespread data collection about individuals
  • Access to entertainment and social interaction
  • Workforce monitoring
• Negative environmental impacts of widespread computer use

  • Large global energy requirements to run computer systems and data centres
  • Use of rare and non-renewable metals and minerals
  • Some computer components are made from toxic materials that are a hazard to the environment and to human health if not disposed of properly
• Positive environmental impacts of widespread computer use

  • Homeworking reduces the need to travel, which reduces CO2 emissions
  • More on-screen documents means a reduction in the use of paper and other resources
  • Computers enable scientific research that leads to more environmentally friendly technologies, such as electric cars, the design of solar panels, and so on
• Ways individuals are monitored

  • Companies can monitor exactly what their workforce are doing on their computers
  • Use of CCTV and facial recognition
  • Automatic number plate recognition (ANPR)
  • Websites can track a lot information about your internet activities: your location, your browser, this data might be used to provide insights, for example to target advertising
  • Mobile phone call records are also stored and can be accessed by law enforcement agencies if requested
• Key principles of the Data Protection Act 2018

  • Lawfulness, fairness and transparency
  • Purpose limitation
  • Data minimisation
  • Accuracy
  • Storage limitation
  • Security
  • Accountability
• Computer Misuse Act 1990

  Makes it a criminal offence to access or modify computer material and includes hacking and the distribution of malware
• Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988


  Protects the intellectual property of an individual or organisation making it illegal to copy, modify or distribute software or other intellectual property such as music and video
• Proprietary software


  • Source code is kept securely and versions of the software are distributed as executable programs so that the user is not able to access the source code or modify it
  • The software is copyright protected, making it illegal to modify or distribute it
  • The software is usually licensed for a fixed number of computer systems
  • The software is fully tested and supported by the organisation
• Open-source software


  • Developed and updated by a community of programmers
  • Can be installed on as many computers as necessary
  • Others can modify the code and distribute it
  • Versions are made available at no or very little cost
  • Relies upon the community for testing and support; modified versions may not be supported or fully tested