Ethical Issues Flashcards
(29 cards)
1
Q
What are the three types of issues created by technology?
A
- Ethical - what’s wrong/right by society
- Legal - what’s wrong/ right by law
- Environmental - how we impact the natural world
2
Q
How has digital technology raised ethical issues?
A
- smartphones = neglect irl interaction = poeple are more rude and less sociable
- wearable technology = smart glasses with built in cameras = invasion of photography as taking photos without consent
- computer based implants = better monitoring of health but more expensive and less privacy
3
Q
What has unequal access to technology caused?
A
- digital divide
- e.g. internet to apply for jobs/ keep in touch/ banks
- global divide bw poor and rich countries = more inequality
4
Q
What are the causes of the digital divide?
A
- not enough money to buy new devices = expensive
- urban areas are likely to have greater network coverage than rural areas
- some people don’t know how to use tech so are shut out of opportunities (so older people)
5
Q
What issues does the internet cause?
A
- internet is used for online banking, shopping
- lots of personal data is shared including names, addresses and bank details = chance of identity theft
- wireless access to Internet = hackers could monitor users
- children may be able to access sites that are not age-appropriate (gambling) = hard to block them all
6
Q
What is cyberbullying?
A
- using social media to harm someone deliberately
- intimidate, insult, humiliate or defame someone
- causes distress for the victim = even suicide
7
Q
What is trolling?
A
- someone uses public arguments with others online to frustrate others
- do this for attention or their own amusements
8
Q
Why can cyberbullying and trolling happen?
A
- anonymity
- can also abuse social media by pretending to be someone else/ fake news
- sexting = more common as video messaging has become more popular = dangerous and no laws to prevent this
9
Q
How does technology change how we access services?
A
- wirelessly stream = cheap subscriptions (data lost when ends)
- apps such as Uber becomes more popular
- cheap and convenient services but draw customers away from traditional businesses - risky for customers as not as regularly regulated
- cloud storage and webmail and then ‘premium’ decrease the digital divide
- games = impulsive spending habits
10
Q
How does technology change how a business operates?
A
- more skills expected for use of tech
- employees have company phones for contract (can never take break from work)
- computer chip implants (unethical?)
- marketing and advertising = pop ups and targeted ads
- make sure its ethical and legal to keep public trust and business has a code of conduct
11
Q
Why is it hard to keep information private on the internet?
A
- websites need personal data and social media encourages to post
- privacy agreement before using a website
- companies can sell personal data or make it seen by others, buying habits for targeted adverts
- make it more private by changing settings
- users trust companies for data= secure
- lots of high-profile cases or stolen/leaked data
12
Q
What is surveillance?
A
- controversial topic = some campaign against mass surveillance
- monitors what people are accessing on the internet
- gov security services may use packet sniffers to monitor Internet traffic and keywords alerting to illegal activities (terrorism) = opposed by public
- ISP - Internet service providers keep records of visited websites by customers for a certain amount fo time and may be legally required to share it w security services
13
Q
What is censorship?
A
- controversial topic = some campaign against cyber censorship
- someone tries to control what others can access on the internet
- e.g. China - websites blocked which are foreign
- e.g. Cuba - only access internet from gov access points
- many gov use some form of it
- Uk restricts access to pornography, gambling and inappropriate websites to protect children
14
Q
What do laws control?
A
- personal data (data protection act)
- organisation has to register w gov to say what data they’re collecting and how they’re using it
- good cyber security
- companies using cloud storage must ensure its trustworthy and reliable and how and where the data is used
15
Q
What is the computer misuse act?
A
- for stopping cyber crimes (3 offences)
- unauthorised access to a private network by hacking
- unauthorised access to a network to commit a crime like stealing data
- unauthorised modification of computer material
- illegal to make, supply or obtain malware
16
Q
What is cyber crime and hacking?
A
Cybercrime refers to illegal activities that involve computers
- Hackers gain access to a system by exploiting weakness in security to steal or destroy data or infecting the system with malware
- identify vulnerabilities through pen testing
17
Q
What are the different methods that hackers used attack systems?
A
- Passive attacks =monitoring data on network
- Activity attacks = using malware to attack a system directly
- Brute force attacks = using automated software and trial and error to crack password
- Denial of service attack = preventing people from using a network with useless traffic
- hackers = good understanding of security measures so hard to catch and prosecute
18
Q
What does the Copyrights and Patents Act do?
A
- protects intellectual property from being copied or stolen by other people
19
Q
What do Patents cover?
A
- new inventions
- protects ideas and concepts instead of actual content
- apply and pay for patent
- in computing = mostly apply to hardware
20
Q
What does copyright cover?
A
- written or recorded content (books, music, films)
- don’t need applying for it to work
- illegal to share copyrighted material w owner’s permission or to plagiarise
21
Q
What things are copyright protected?
A
- software = illegal to use or share without a license (some developers make it open source)
- comp. code = copyrighted but hard for smaller code
- algorithms = not copyright protected but some can get patents for more specific ones (web filters in search engines)
22
Q
Why is it hard to prove that computer code has been copied?
A
- similarities may be a coincidence esp if they were to perform the same task - hard to measure how ‘original’ the code is
- creators of paid software want to keep source code secret to prevent competitors copying it which makes it hard to compare if it’s been copied
23
Q
How has the internet had an effect on copyrighted content?
A
- harder to protect it (file sharing is easier)
- developers have digital rights management (DRM) w software = prevents unauthorised access with activation keys and online authentication
- software DRM is common target of cracking
24
Q
What is cracking?
A
- users illegally modify software to remove/bypass unwanted features
- cracked software is distributed online = so does DRM acc work? Or just annoys acc users?
- DRM can even make older software unusable of authentication service is no longer available
- cracked software = illegal and causes loss on income for creator (discourages from fixing bugs)
25
What is open source software?
- lots of open source software online which users can free download and modify source code = Apache HTTP Server, GIMP
- open source software is distributed using Creative Common licenses = users can legally share while only allowing specific actions (profits, modifying code)
- popular open software = strong online community to work on bug fixing and improving software
26
How do we use natural resources when making devices?
- plastics from crude oil
- precious metals such as gold, silver, copper, palladium, mercury, platinum and indium (only occur naturally in small quantities)
- extracting needs lots of energy = pollution and depletes scarce natural resources
27
How do we use energy when we use devices?
- electricity = non-renewable resources (coal, oil and gas)= lots of pollution
- air conditioned rooms to keep powerful severs in companies cool = more energy and pollution
- severs use small portion of processing power, ppl leaves phones and laptops idle = energy lost
28
How can we reduce the amount of energy wasted by devices?
- virtual servers are software based, which can run on a physical server at full capacity
- switching off mobile phones overnight/ sleep mode = saves power
- devices use more energy in a wireless connection, so using wired = preserve battery life
29
How is e-waste created when we throw our devices away?
- 20-50 million tonnes of e-waste/yr
- short life due to breaking/ ppl upgrade
- device manufacturers and retailers give short warranties, marketing to upgrade and cheaper to buy a new one than repair
- Waste electric and electronic equipment directive = WEEE safely dispose e-waste to promote reuse and recycling
- cut costs = sent to African/Asian countries as less strict regulations = ends in landfill = hazard as toxic chemicals can leak into groundwater and harm wildlife
