Technological change

Last 5 years

• Video streaming
• Drones
• Driverless cars
• App for everthing

Legal and ethical issues

Legal issues

Legal issues are those that are forbidden by laws. Examples:

• Infringing copyright by downloading a music video without payment.

Ethical issues

Ethical issues determine people’s moral principles. Examples:

• Downloading Youtube videos as MP3s.
• Installing illegal copies of software.
• Straming movies / tv without paying a subscription.

Use and misuse of personal data

Personal data is anything unique to you, such as your name, address, debit card details etc. There are an awful lot of organisations that collect and hoard people’s personal data, including:

• Income and debts
• Relationship status
• Health
• Employment status
• Religious views
• Political views

This is an issue because:

• Our Personal Privacy is infringed as we never give explicit consent for a lot of forms.
• Data Security - how much of the data we use can be guranteed to be secure?
• Misuse of Data - this is the use of data collected for one thing for something else.
• Surveillance by government - this is the government’s monitoring of phone calls, messages, data etc. in order to be able to monitor people.
• Online profile - you have to be careful about your privacy settings as your posts on social networks aren’t deleted with time.
• Profiling - lots of organisations use their accumulated data to build profiles about people based on their history.

Code of Conduct

A code of conduct is a set of rules stating what is acceptable and what isn’t acceptable to do with their computer systems. Breaching this could get you fired, banned from computers or similar. Most of these cover, according to the British Computer Society:

• Operate in public interest
• Hold duty to organisation / college
• Hold duty to profession
• Maintain professional competence as well as integrity.

Legislation

• The Health and Safety at Work Act means companies have to make sure employees are in comfortable offices.
• The Computer Misuse Act 1990 deals with use of computers with malicious intent, and it deals with:
  • Unauthorised access to computer programs or data
  • Unauthorised access with further criminal intent
  • Unauthorised modification of computer material
• The Regulations of Investigatory Powers Act deals with:
  • Allows employers to track employees
  • Interception of communications (via packet sniffing)
  • Investigation of encrypted electronic data
• The Consumer Protection Act protects consumers and protects their rights in buying goods and services.
• The Data Protection Act protects the privacy of personal data when used in information technology. It states that data must be:
  • Fairly and lawfully processed
  • Processed for limited purposed
  • Adequate, relevant and not excessive
  • Accurate
  • Not kept longer than necessary
  • Processed in accordance to data subject’s rights
  • Secure
  • Not transferred to countries without adequate data protection.
• The Freedom of Information Act allows the general public to access data held on them by public authorities: hospitals, dentist, police and schools.
• The Copyrights, Designs and Patents Act applies to all works, regardless of their format. With regards to computting, 2 techniques are used:

  • Digital Rights Management (DRM) - this is when the work cannot legally be copied. A lot of the time you have to pay extra for DRM-free software just so you are legally allowed to copy it.

  • Licensing

• The Official Secrets Act forces people to keep things secret.
• The Defamation Act disallows damaging peoples’ reputations.
• The Obscene Publications Act disallows graphic images.
• The Protection of Children Act
• The Sex Offences Act
• The Health & Safety Act
• The Equality Act
• Each companies’ individual code of conduct.