Ethics

1980s -  people started using PCs on their desk

1990s -  3/4 computers were being used at once when people were surfing the web

- One to look at the web

- One to retreive the web page

- And a couple more to pass information over the internet

Today - probably use 20 or more simultaneously without even noticing (home, school, town, a car)

Our world is built on computers

Artificial Intelligence -  computers can recognise faces, transloate between languages, show relevant advertisements to Internet users, drive cars..

Accountants, cashiers, sports referees, legal secretaries and cleaners are already being replaced by robots

Maidbot is a company building robots to clean hotel rooms

Another company has invented an automated hamburger making machine

The UK has lost 31,000 jobs in the legal profession It is estimated that by 2018 there will be 35 million service robots ‘at work’

There are around 165,000 healthcare apps for smartphones

By 2017 they will have been downloaded an estimated total of 1.7 billion times

Wearable technology can offercontinuous, long-term monitoring 

This can lead to improvements in the way that diseases like epilepsy, asthma and diabetes are managed

Mabu, the healthcare robot, was introduced 

Mabu sits on the owner’s bedside table as a “personal healthcare companion”

It is intended for patients managing chronic diseases

The robot talks to patients and reminds them to take their medication

When Mabu was collected from patients after trials, many objected: “She’s like a member of the family”

Advantages of Clothing Stores - customers can try clothes, they have the item to wear the same night

Disadvantages of Clothing Stores -  employess spend time restocking shelves (less time to attend to customers), hard to predict which items will sell adn which items will have to be marked down at the end of the season

Every time you log on to a web site, data about your visit may be collected and stored

Every time you use your phone to make a call, data about the number you called, the time and date you called, and the duration of your call, may be collected and stored

Governments and security organisations collect billions of records each month containing metadata about every electronic communication made by its citizens

Small files called cookies are used by commercial organisations:

- To recognise your computer when you visit the website

- To personalise the website for you, including targeting advertisements which may be of particular interest to you

 - To track you as you navigate the website,
and to enable e-commerce facilities

- To improve the website's usability

- To analyse the use of the website - in the administration of the website

The Data Protection Act 1998 

Computer Misuse Act 1990

Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988

Creative Commons Licence Freedom of Information Act 2000