Moral and Ethical Issues Flashcards
Describe the Morals and Ethics to do with Computers in the Workforce
Advantages -
- Computers are used to increase efficiency and productivity in the workforce
- Examples include reducing delivery times and shortening manufacturing processe
- Higher productivity reduces unit labour costs meaning lower prices for consumers
- Removes the need to work in a repetitive and tedious environment
Disadvantages -
- Contributed to rising structural unemployment so middle-income manufacturing jobs have been hit the hardest so there has been a shift towards low-income service jobs
Describe the Morals and Ethics to do Automated Decision Making
Used to decide what users should be displayed on their social media feeds
Advantages -
- Reduces time spent by people on these tasks
- Algorithms could be thoroughly tested to produce software which is free of bias
Disadvantages -
- May create a dangerous bubble, leading to a close-minded society
- Automated decision-making is used in various application processes, sometimes with life-changing consequences
- Examples include application processes for mortgages, loans and jobs
- Relying entirely on these algorithms could result in people being treated unfairly
Describe the Morals and Ethics to do Artifical Intelligence
The ability of a computer to replicate human intelligence
Advantages -
- Used in expert systems which replicate the knowledge of an expert in a subject
- Used in medicine to draw links between illnesses and form diagnoses
- Used in neural networks for pattern detection and identifying financial fraud
- AI is used in voice recognition systems such as in smart home systems which provide convenience
Disdavantages -
- Raise concerns about privacy in voice regonition
- AI raises questions about accountability
Describe the Morals and Ethics to do Enviromental Effects
Advantages -
- To battle enviromental effects there has been a growth in environmentally-friendly technologies
- Examples include smart home systems which use sensors to determine when heating and lighting should be switched
- Devices offer ‘Sleep’ and ‘Stand-by’ features.
Disadvantages
- People throw away more devices than ever before as technology has become more affordable and widely accessible
- Computers components are toxic and can contaminate water supplies
- E-waste is sometimes shipped to third world countries with lower environmental standards to be disposed which is considered immoral.
- Electricity to power our device requires using up fossil fuels which emit greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, contributing to global warming
- Impact future generations and harm biodiversity
Describe the Morals and Ethics to do Censorship and the Internet
The act of suppressing the content that people are able to view, publish and access
Advantages -
- ISPs block content associated with terrorism and extremist political beliefs
- Censorship can exist on a smaller level, such as within a school or workplac
- Censorship may be used to maintain productivity and prevent distractions
Disadvantages -
- People worry that censorship may be misused to push a certain ideology
- Some people believe in the idea of a ‘Free Internet’, where nothing is filtered at all
Describe the Morals and Ethics to do with Monitoring Behaviour
Advantages -
- Employers monitor productivity by tracking the websites workers are accessing
- Surveillance systems, such as CCTV cameras, are used to detect crime
- Ankle monitors are used to track people under house arrest
- Some argue essential to putting people off committing crime
Disadvantages
- Some argue that this is unethical and contravenes basic human rights
Describe the Morals and Ethics to do with Analysising Personal Information
Advantages -
- Data can reveal key insights about people and their behaviours protecting against terrorism
- Large amounts of data from a number of sources, called big data, can identify connections between two variables in a process called data mining
Disadvantages
- Ethical concerns about whether companies have a responsibility to feedback trends they uncover to the people involved
- There is pressure on large firms to be more transparent about the data they collect
Describe the Morals and Ethics to do with Piracy and Offensive Communications
- The unauthorised copying of content, such as software or media and is a form of theft, though the Internet has made it easy to source these types of content online
- The Internet provides a seemingly anonymous front for offensive communication
- Offensive communication includes online harassment, cyber-bullying or stalking
- The Malicious Communications Act introduced in 1998 makes it a criminal offence to send indecent or offensive messages to anyone online
What are the considerations that need to be thought about regarding the layout of a website
- Web developers must consider who will be viewing websites when designing them
- The Equality Act introduced in 2010 makes it illegal to discriminate against providing a service to a certain group of people
- It must be easy for users to navigate between pages, menus must be displayed on the appropriate side of the page depending on how the language is read.
- People with visual impairments may need to enlarge text or alter the contrast. Websites should provide alt text for images and provide a screen magnifier option and transcripts of audio files should be provided for those with hearing impairments
What are the considerations that need to be thought about regarding the colour paradigms of a website
- Web designers must consider how colours are interpreted around the world
- Some colours are regarded as unlucky in certain cultures.
What are the considerations that need to be thought about regarding the character set of a website
- Websites should be accessible to as wide an audience as possible
- Website content needs to be translated into multiple languages
- Unicode is the preferred character set for this as it is able to represent over a million characters
