Social, Ethical, and Legal Issues Flashcards
What are the 5 technology tends
- storage costs decreasing
- computing power increases
- big data techniques
- growth of internet
- growth of mobile phone usage
What are the 5 implications of the technology trends?
- personal information
- digital property rights
- Data and system quality
- accountability
- quality of life
What is a cautionary tale for the technology trends?
loss of control
Explain the ethical aspect
principles of right and wrong that individuals use to make choices to guide their behaviors
Explain the social aspect
affecting people and communication, i.e. etiquette, expectations, social responsibility (acting for the benefit of society), changing social institutions (family, education, organizations)
Explain the legal/politcal aspect
knowing the law and working within its limits, i.e. changing old laws, creating new laws, and understanding existing
laws
What are the 4 key legal terms
- responsibility: accepting the potential costs, duties, and obligations for decisions
- accountability: provide mechanisms to identify who is responsible
- liability: laws exist that permit individuals to recover damages for harm done to them
- due process: laws are well known and understood, can appeal to a higher authority to ensure that the laws are applied correctly
What are the 5 ethical principles?
Golden rule Kant's categorical imperative Decartes' Rule of change Utilitarian principle Risk aversion principle
Explain the golden rule
Do unto others as you would have them do unto you
Question: What would you want if you were in that situation?
Explain Kant’s Categorial Imperative
If an action is not right for everyone to take, then it is not right for anyone
Question: What if everyone did that?
Explain Descartes’ Rule of Change
If an action cannot be taken repeatedly, then it is not right to be taken at any time
Question: What if you kept on doing that?
Explain Utilitarian Principle
Take the action that achieves the higher or greatest value for all concerned
Question: What action achieves the greatest value for all?
Explain Risk Aversion Principle
Take actions that do not have a high
cost of failure (even if the probability of failure is low)
Question: What is the worst that can happen with this action?
What is the privacy act in canada and what does it establish?
Personal Information Protection and
Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA)
It establishes principles for the collection, use, and disclosure of personal information
Define privacy
Privacy is the claim of individuals to be left alone, free from surveillance or interference from other individuals, organizations, or the state
What do organizations need to collect and use customer data?
Informed Consent
What is considered personal information (4)
demographics
Internet
physical
financial
What are the principles for the treatment of Personal Information
Accountability: appoint someone to be responsible
Consent: inform you of the purpose of collecting info
Limiting use: only use it for consented reason
Safeguards: PI must be protected
Individual access: you have right to access
Identifying purposes: must have a reason to collect PI
Limiting collection: only gather needed info
Accuracy: keep info accurate
Openness: privacy policy should be easy to find and understand
Recourse: provided with a complaint procedure
What is terms of service?
Terms of service is the name we give to the document you consent to when you use a create an account at a website
Terms of service are often all-or-nothing, if you use the website or app you must agree to give up your privacy
What are cookies?
World Wide Web challenges to privacy
a website stores a unique bit of data (like an account number) on your device
What are third party cookies?
Companies like Facebook, Google, Amazon, track your activity across many websites, not just their own
What are web beacons?
websites can tell that you’ve viewed a
certain item, say an ad in your email
What is spyware?
software that gathers information about the user without the user’s knowledge
What is international mobile equipment identity?
each smartphone has a unique International Mobile Equipment Identity (IMEI) associated with them (try dialing *#06#) that tracks that device and can be used to blacklist a phone in case of theft
What is browser fingerprinting?
- Each computer/cell phone has many
▪ settings (e.g. is “do not track” activated)
▪ hardware specs (what are my screen dimensions) - The combination of these properties that browsers can report makes each cell phone/laptop rare (or unique)
This rareness provides a way for companies to track you
even if many other tracking methods have been blocked
What are some examples of information that is collected?
- Your searches, seaches you started typing but then deleted.
- Your posts, post you started but then deleted.
- Sites visited, videos viewed.
- Location (and from that: interests, where you live/work)
- Relationships, people you have communicated with.
- Items you have purchased, items you have looked at.
- Images from you computer camera.
- Sounds overheard by personal assistant (e.g. Alexa).
- Health, medical data and financial data.
What are the 6 world wide web challenges to privacy?
Cookies Third party cookies Web beacons Spyware Intl Mobile Equipment identity browser fingerprinting
How is collected information used?
Advertising Tailoring content hiring decisions insurance coverage/premiums Preferential offers/pricing/etc. Identifying security risks Solving crimes
What is NORA?
nonobvious relationship awareness
NORA combines info (telephone listings,
customer lists, mailing lists, credit card
purchases) from various sources (e.g. data brokers) to create a more detailed profile of each person
What are 3 strategies to combat personal info challenges?
Use 2 browsers -> one for day to day access one for private access
Keep an old computer around for private access
Use a computer in a library or lab
What is intellectual property?
Intellectual property (IP) is intangible property (a recipe, a song, an invention, software) created by individuals or corporations
What are 3 ways intellectual property can be protected?
a) Trade secret
b) Copyright
c) Patent
What is a trade secret?
intellectual work or product belonging to a business, provided it is not in the public domain, that confers economic advantage, and reasonable attempts have been made to keep it secret
What is copyright?
protects original literary, musical, artistic, dramatic works and computer software
Prohibits copying of entire work or parts for at least 50 years
What is a patent?
grants the owner an exclusive monopoly on the ideas behind an invention for between 17 and 20 years
What are the key concepts of a patent?
originality (you created it)
novelty (it’s a new idea)
invention (useful)
What are the challenges to IP rights?
The internet has made it easy to copy and distribute intellectual property
What is the issue regarding data and system quality?
no large program is error free, errors exist with a low probability
The largest source of error is poor data quality rather than faulty hardware or software
Explain software company liability in terms of being an information / service provider
when software acts more like an information provider (e.g. a book publisher) the producer is not liable
when software acts more like a service provider (e.g. a machine controller) the producer can be held liable
