Political, ethical, environmental issues

Purpose and costing of national databases:

• National DNA database - DNA uniquely identifies a particular person, used by police forces in the fight against crime
• The Police National Computer (PNC) - national police system that can be accessed by anyone who has authority to access it, contains details of crimes and criminals, allows police to search on criminals and vehicles when they only have a small amount of info
• The Passport Agency - anyone who has a passport will be on their database, used to identify criminals who are entering or leaving the country
• The NHS national database - contains medical details for everyone who is able to access NHS services

National identity cards

everyone supposed to carry, but if UK citizen then do not but can buy on for £30. People object because of the cost and interfere with civil liberties and also they feel that they do nothing to prevent terrorism and illegal immigration

Costing of national databases: Very expenisve.

Security of public data:

• problems of national database is that they are accessed by lots of diferent people from lots of different locations
• regular backups taken with the copies of original data kept off site
• training of all personnel who use data on such topics as not leaving computer unattended
• use of firewalls to prevent hackers
• virus checkers
• physical security

Links between public and private database:

• building societies and banks sending info about interest to HM Revenue and Customs (about tax that should be paid)
• insurance companies sending data about car insurance so that people can tax their cars online
• police and MI5 can gain access to databases of ISPs who keep details of all customers Internet use

CCTV (closed circuit television):

Gov access to personal data:

The surveillance society:

• surveillance done to detect and prosecute criminals and some is done to protect us against terrorist attacks
• the police, MI5, councils and other gov departments can demand access to your emails, instant messaging from your ISP without you knowing, listen in secret to phone calls and see all your text messages, monitor all your searches made on the Internet

• environmental control systems - heating can be controlled, reduce fuel bills and CO2 emissions
• sat nav systems - ensure people do not get lost and use more fuel and create more pollution
• traffic management systems - coordinate traffic light to keep traffic moving
• pollution monitoring systems - monitor environmental conditions in rivers, lakes and produce alerts if need to

effects that low energy use and recylcing have on the environment

• recycle hardware, reduces greenhouse gases
• reduce amount of printout, use print preview
• recycle paper
• switch off computer equipment rather than stand by
• teleworking or working form home reduce congestions nad pollution and cut down gg emissions
• recycle printer cartridges by having refilled with ink
• recylce old mobile phones

Ozone layer: layer of gas which is important to us because it filters some of the harful rays from teh sun that cause cancers - computer models made to give idea how it is destroyed and protect

Landfill sites: recycling reduces amount of rubbish dumped in landfill sites, reduce land available for housing or for growing crops

Impact on rich and poor communities

• widening gap between rich and poor - use of ICT makes rich countries richers as poor countries have no reliabel electricty or telecommunications, cannot take adv of financial benefits of ICT
• widens gap between 'have' and 'have nots' need credit/debit card to buy online but if dont have one then hard to take full adv on the Internet

Changes in culture

• downloads more popular and people listen to music on the move
• TV is watched on the Internet - people not restricted to times they watch programmes
• viewing figures for TV are getting smaller - more people using internet in leisure time
• more people using ict for entertainment - games
• social networking sites can chat to anyone in the world