1.6 Social and Ethical Issues Flashcards
What are social and ethical issues?
Issues that have positive and negative ethical and social impacts
Why are social and ethical issues difficult to deal with?
Because it is difficult to identify the person who is to be held responsible
Areas that are significant in social and ethical issues (14)
(1) reliability
(2) integrity
(3) inconsistency
(4) security
(5) privacy
(6) anonymity
(7) intellectual property
(8) the digital divide and equality of access
(9) surveillance
(10) globalisation, and cultural diversity
(11) IT policies
(12) standards and protocols
(13) people and machines
(14) digital citizenship
What is reliability?
How well an IT system functions
Why is reliability important?
Because the reliability of IT systems determines confidence in their value
What is integrity?
Protecting the completeness and accuracy of data
When does data not have integrity?
When it is…
1. Incomplete
2. Out of data
When does inconsistency happen?
When information is duplicated, and only one copy is updated
Area where inconsistency is common
Databases
How do you reduce inconsistency?
Reduce duplicants in the system
What is security?
The protection of hardware software, peripherals and computer networks from an authorised access
Examples of common security systems
- biometrics
- Passwords
- Locks
- Proprietary tokens
- firewalls
What are proprietary tokens?
Proprietary keys/tokens used to gain access to systems
What does proprietary mean?
Being under a protected and registered name/off-the-shelf systems
What is privacy?
The ability to control how, and to what extent data is used and disseminated to others
Fundamental concepts of privacy
(1) how long data is stored
(2) who has access to the data
(3) how the data is used
When does privacy become anonymity?
When an individual uses, an IT system to conceal their identity
Examples of reasons for anonymity
- Cyber bullying
- Hack computers
- Commit illegal, actions and crimes
- Commit terrorism
How is intellectual property protected?
Copyright laws
What are copyright laws?
Laws designed to protect intellectual property from unauthorised and illegal reproduction
Examples of intellectual property
- Ideas
- discoveries
- Scientific endeavours
- Film
- Artwork
What is the digital divide and equality of access
Where the growth in the use of IT systems have not developed at the same rate for everybody in all parts of the world
Main factors that sustain the digital (5)
(1) economic costs
(2) lack of literacy
(3) lack of basic resources (e.g. electricity)
(4) financial costs
(5) lack of language skills
What is surveillance?
Using IT systems to monitor individuals or groups of people, either with or without their knowledge or permission
