08 Consequences of Uses of Computing

Question 1

Outline the Data Protection Act (1998).

Answer 1

The data protection act is in place to protect people’s data that is stored on servers and company computers.

• If you collect data you must not use the data for purposes other than what is stated
• People have the right to data about themselves
• Must not be sent to external sources
• Cannot be sent outside the European Economic Area to a region with less protection
• People who store data must be registered with the Information Commissioner’s Office
• If you store data it must be protected and safe
• If someone stores incorrect data about you, it is your right to ask them to change it

GDPR (2018)

• The penalties are stricter (up to 20M or 4% of annual turnover)
• Terms and conditions must be in plain English not legalese
• Companies must notify their users/clients if there was a breach of data

Question 2

Define the Freedom of Information Act (2000).

Answer 2

• The Freedom of Information Act (2000) provides the public with access to official information held by public authorities.
• Entitles members of the public to request information from these authorities, and also forces public authorities to publish certain information about their activities.

Question 3

Outline the Computer Misuse Act.

Answer 3

1. Unauthorized access to computer material, punishable by 6 Months in prison and/or £5000 fine.
2. Unauthorized access with intent to commit or facilitate commission of further offences, punishable by 5 Years in prison and/or unlimited fine.
3. Unauthorized modification of computer material, punishable by 5 Years in prison and/or an unlimited fine.
4. Making, supplying or obtaining anything which can be used in computer misuse offences, punishable with up to a ten-year prison sentence and/or an unlimited fine

Question 4

Describe the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act.

Answer 4

• The copyright, design and patent act allows creators to control the way in which their work is distributed or used.
• Copyright is the legal ownership that application software, music, films and other content.
• It is illegal to produce pirate copies of software or more versions on a network than have been paid for or adapt software without permission
• It is also illegal to download music or films without permission of the copyright holder
• Digital Rights Management and licensing is used in computing to protect copyright

Question 5

What is a Code of Conduct?

Answer 5

• A set of rules that members of an organization or people with a particular job or position must follow
• Usually a written contract or document
• Breaking the rules in the Code of Conduct can result in disciplinary actions or losing job
• To ensure points of good practice and ensure employees are aware of the law

Question 6

Define the Equality Act (2010)

Answer 6

Protects individuals and groups against discrimination in employment on grounds of disability, gender, ethnicity, religion or belief, sexual orientation and age.

Question 7

How has legislation reacted to AI?

Answer 7

The EU in 2021 created a law for artificial intelligence and places applications of it into three risk categories:

1. Systems that create an unacceptable risk are banned e.g. government-run social scoring
2. Applications like CV scanning tools that rank job applicants, are classified as high risk
3. Applications not banned or listed as high risk are largely left unregulated

Question 8

What is the Cookie Law?

Answer 8

• The Cookie Law is a piece of privacy legislation that requires websites to obtain consent from visitors to store or retrieve any information on a computer
• It allows users to have a choice for search engines to analyse your browsing habits to make search results and advertisements more meaningful

Question 9

Advantages of collecting and analysing data.

Answer 9

ADVANTAGES:

• Medical field: Data about what you eat and how you exercise and sleep could be combined with medical data to provide input for machine learning algorithms that could improve diagnosis and treatment.
• Driverless cars: they could communicate with each other to reduce accidents and make traffic jams a thing of the past.
• Climate Change: Climate change could be slowed down by applying targeted actions informed by large-scale analysis of human activity and environmental data.

Question 10

Outline the issues with monitoring and surveillance.

Answer 10

• Our privacy is threatened by the use of CCTV which is an ethical issue with surveillance
• More recently, doorbells and home security are more common forms of CCTV and record and transmit large amount of data
• In the UK, security services can be granted a warrant to legally listen in to communications on computers and phones
• Companies must assist in this and even bypass encryption
• In 2013 it was found that the US government was collecting huge amounts of data about its citizens
• Led to Whatsapp and Telegram which use end-to-end encryption so the service cannot view messages themself
• Encryption can also hide criminal activity and prevent law enforcement however