Ethical, legal and environmental issues

• The use of computers has brought about ethical, legal, cultural and environmental impacts
• These issues increasingly affect people's daily lives
• Computer use in the UK is widespread and new technologies have provided many benefits to society
• Computer technologies have highlighted important issues surrounding privacy
• Stakeholder


  Anyone who has an interest in a business or is affected by business activity
• Understanding the wider impact of computer technologies may encourage people and organisations to think about the consequences that may arise from their actions
• Computer-related laws are needed to make sure people stay on the right side of the law and act ethically
• Ethics


  Moral principles, or rules, which govern a person's attitudes and behaviour
• Ethics apply to the use of computers as much as they do to other things in life
• Ethical issues in computing

  • Ensuring public safety
  • Security of data
• Ensuring public safety

  • Paramount as new technologies are introduced
  • Designers of driverless cars have to ensure safety of passengers, other drivers and pedestrians
  • Situation may occur where the car's software has to decide who has safety priority, the passengers or other road users
• Data security


  Personal data is precious and needs to be kept safe
• There are people that attempt to hack systems in order to gain access to other people's data</b>
• Social media accounts, phone mailboxes and networks that computers connect to are all prone to hacking
• Malware


  Software that is designed to cause harm or damage to a computer
• Ransomware

  Malware which encrypts a user's files, then demands a ransom payment to decrypt them
• People who write ransomware do it to extort money from unsuspecting users
• Once the ransomware infects a computer it encrypts data on it, denying users access unless a ransom is paid
• The use of computers has brought about ethical, legal, cultural and environmental impacts
• These issues increasingly affect people's daily lives
• The Computer Misuse Act 1990


  Defines and criminalises a number of offences involving the use of a computer, eg unauthorised access to computer systems
• The Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988


  Gives the creator of published material the control over the way it is used
• Creative Commons Licensing

  One of several copyright licences that allows free sharing and distribution of a product
• The Freedom of Information Act 2000


  Legislation introduced to give the public the right to access information recorded by public sector organisations
• Legislation is needed to cover new technologies and protect the public
• The use of computers has brought about ethical, legal, cultural and environmental impacts
• These issues increasingly affect people's daily lives
• Cultural issues

  • The introduction of computers has changed society, sometimes for the better, sometimes for the worse
• Digital divide


  The division that exists between those people who can use technology and are comfortable doing so, and those who are not
• Digital divide

  • Younger people embrace new technology more than older members of society
  • Those who can afford technology and those who cannot
  • People in cities have access to high-speed broadband while those in rural areas do not
  • Those with good computer skills and those without
• Changing nature of employment


  Many companies now allow employees to work from home and communicate via technology<|>Cloud-based document storage enables workers to share documents with their employer<|>Communication can be via email or video<|>Many technology-based jobs have been moved abroad where costs are cheaper<|>Automation of processes using technology has led to a fall in manual, low-skilled work but an increase in high-skilled work for maintaining automated systems
• The use of technology within the workplace has changed the nature of employment
• The use of computers has brought about ethical, legal, cultural and environmental impacts
• These issues increasingly affect people's daily lives
• Environmental issues

  • Manufacturing and use of computers has had a negative impact on the environment
  • Resources are needed to produce, distribute and use computers
  • Computers require lots of energy to maintain
• Many computer components are either hard to recycle or contain toxic materials, such as lead
• Users discard ICT equipment quite quickly: people have new smartphones every couple of years, many organisations replace computers after three or four years, many people replace older technology before it fails simply because they perceive it to be old-fashioned or out of date
• Computers have a heavy impact on the environment, which is unlikely to decrease in the near future
• Many devices are now more power efficient than their predecessors and some companies have come up with innovative ways to save power
• The use of computers has brought about ethical, legal, cultural and environmental impacts