Component 1.10 - Ethical, Legal And Environmental Impacts Of Digital Technology Flashcards
What is ethics?
Ethics is the branch of philosophy concerned with right and wrong
What is the digital divide?
The digital divide is a term that refers to the gap between populations that have full access to modern information and communications technology, and those who have restricted access
Give examples of where the digital divide exists?
- Those in cities and in rural areas
- Educated and uneducated
- lower performance computers and higher performance computers
- More and less industrially developed nations
What goals has the UN set to try and close the digital divide?
- Breadbamd services to cost no more than 5% of average monthly incomes in developing countries by 2020
- Achieve gender equality among internet users by 2020
Why are drones an ethical problem?
The idea of remotely controlled unmanned vehicles in the air raises privacy concerns, or concerns about drones used for military purposes. Drones being a danger for aircraft is also a big issue
What is the main ethical question raised by self-driving cars?
How should the computer be programmed to act when there is an unavoidable accident? > minimise loss of life or protect occupants?
What are some ethical issues raised by artificial intelligence?
How to ensure such machines don’t harm humans.
If something goes wrong who is responsible?
What are the morals of the machine?
What are some causes of loss of privacy that may be considered ethical problems?
- The monitoring of online activity, including browsing history/social media use
- Interception and reading of emails
- Distribution of databases storing personal info
- Theft of private information by hackers
What are some ethical issues organisations may be confronted with regarding handling private/personal information?
- Deciding the scope of info they can gather
- The purposes for which categories of information may be used
- The rights of a person (consent?)
- The confidential treatment of the information
How is the ethical issue with interpretation and reading of emails often justified?
Security reasons
What does a code of conduct/ethics do?
A code of conduct/ethics defines acceptable behaviour within an organisation
What is the advantage of an organisation having a code of ethics/conduct?
Higher standards are generally promoted. It is useful as it gives individuals working for the organisation a benchmark upon which they can judge their own behaviour and that of others
How do informal codes of conducts work?
Companies with informal codes of conduct rely on senior members of staff to lead by example, showing what behaviour is acceptable. Members can understand the informal code by observing senior members/staff
What types of organisations would usually have informal codes of conduct?
Small organisations
What are formal codes of conduct?
Formal codes of conduct are written documents that outline expected behaviours within an organisation
