1.5.2 Moral and Ethical

Question 1

What has computerisation led to?

Answer 1

Efficiency and productivity in workforce increased

Removal of the need to work in a repetitive and tedious environments.

Question 2

There has been a rise in services being offered exclusively online. What has this meant?

Answer 2

Reduced costs of renting and cut labour costs for businesses.

Question 3

Where is automated decision making used?

Answer 3

Application processes for mortgages, loans and jobs.
Power distribution systems.
Driverless cars.

Question 4

What is the issue with relying entirely on automated decision making?

Answer 4

Could result in people being treated unfairly.

Question 5

Why must algorithms be tested thoroughly?

Answer 5

To produce software which is free of bias.

Question 6

What is Artificial Intelligence?

Answer 6

The ability of a computer to replicate human intelligence.

Question 7

Examples of where AI is used?

Answer 7

• In medicine to draw links between illnesses and form diagnoses.
• Neural networks, for pattern detection and identifying financial fraud
• In voice recognition systems (smart home systems)

Question 8

What does AI raise questions about?

Answer 8

Accountability

• Who is responsible when things go wrong?
• What rights should sentient AI have?

Question 9

What negative impact has technology becoming more affordable and accessible had?

Answer 9

More people throw away more devices than ever before.

Question 10

What harmful effects does technology have on the environment?

Answer 10

• Computer components are toxic and can contaminate water supplies.
• Electricity to power our device requires using fossil fuels which emit greenhouse gases, contributing to global warming.
• Impacts future generations

Question 11

What environmentally friendly effects does technology have?

Answer 11

Smart home systems using sensors to determine when heating and lighting should be switched.

Devices offering ‘Sleep’ and ‘Standby’ features.

Question 12

What is censorship?

Answer 12

The act of suppressing the content that people are able to view, publish and access.

Question 13

What kind of content do ISPs block?

Answer 13

Content associated with terrorism and extremist political beliefs.

Question 14

What is the idea of a ‘Free Internet’?

Answer 14

No censorship or filtering.

Question 15

What might companies use censorship for?

Answer 15

Maintaining productivity and preventing distractions.

Question 16

How is technology used to monitor behaviour?

Answer 16

Surveillance systems (CCTV) used to detect crime.

Ankle monitors track people under house arrest.

Employers monitor productivity by tracking websites workers are accessing.

Question 17

What two arguments do some people make about the monitoring of behaviour?

Answer 17

Unethical, and contravenes basic human rights.

Essential to put people off committing crime.

Question 18

What is big data?

Answer 18

A large amount of data from a number of sources.

Question 19

What is data mining?

Answer 19

Using big data to identify connections between two variables.

Question 20

What ethical concerns does using data mining carry?

Answer 20

Do companies have responsibility to feedback trends they uncover to people involved.

Pressure on large firms to be more transparent about the data they collect.

Question 21

What do offensive communications include?

Answer 21

Online harassment, cyber bullying or stalking.

Question 22

What does the Malicious Communications Act introduced in 1998 do?

Answer 22

Makes it a criminal offence to send indecent or offensive messages online.

Question 23

What does the Equality Act introduced in 2010 do?

Answer 23

Make it illegal to discriminate against providing a service to a certain group of people.

Question 24

What should web developers consider to make it easy for disadvantaged people?

Answer 24

Alt text for images and a screen magnifier option.

Easy to navigate between pages

Multiple languages (use unicode)

How colours are interpreted around the world (some are unlucky)