SCD - Unit 1.5

Laws can be :

• National and International
• Civil (One side awarded damages for loss) or Criminal (Fine or a prison sentence)

There are 4 big acts to computing-related legislation which are:

Data Protection Act 1998 - Controls how data about living people is stored are processed

Under the Data Protection Act 1998 storage and processing of personal details (computerised and paper) must:

• Be fair and lawful
• Relevant and not excessive
• Accurate and up to date
• Only be used for stated purpose
• Be kept securely
• Handled in line with people's rights
• Not be transferred to countries without protection laws (e.g. outside EU)

The exceptions to the act are:

• National security (Terrorism)
• Crime and taxation (Police surveillance)
• Domestic purposes (Address book)

Computer Misuse Act 1990 - Makes 'hacking' a crime, covering:

• Unauthorised access to computer material
• Unauthorised access with intent to commit or facilitate a crime
• Unauthorised modification of computer material
• Making, supplying, or obtaining anything which can be used in the computer misuse offences

Some examples of breaches are:

• Spreading a virus
• Attempting to log in without authorisation (even guessing someone's phone password)
• Using someone else's login
• Reading, changing or deleting data
• Obtaining or creating a "packet sniffer"

Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988

Protects creators of books, music, video, software from having their work illegally copied

Applies to all forms of copying (digital copying means that the copy is of the same quality as the original)

Licenses allow users to legally use software, depending on the type of licence it may make running a commercial application on your personal device illegal

Creators can take steps to prevent illegal copying such as:

• Having unique keys to install the software
• Only running if the CD is present in the drive
• Only running if a dongle is plugged into a USB port

The law around software copyright has additional points:

• Tools used to create software may require fees if the software is to be sold
• Applications, games, books, films and music are protected but algorithms cannot be copyrighted (e.g. Bubble sort algorithm)

Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000

Allows for surveillance for terrorism and national security matters, this includes:

• Requiring ISP's to assist in surveillance, secretly
• Enables mass surveillance of communications in transit and internet activities
• Enables certain public bodies to demand that someone had over keys to protected information
• Prevents the existence of interception warrants and any data collected with them from being revealed in court

However this cannot be used all the time as privacy and security needs to be balanced as analysing and intercepting bulk data can help identify criminals and terrorists but citizens value their privacy and may not trust their rulers (dictatorships, etc.)

The rise in digital technology has meant that in some areas (such as Kodak) their workforce has decreased from 145,000 to 8,000 in the workforce from 1989 to 2015 and having to sell patents to stay afloat. On the other hand, Instagram was sold for $1 billion with only 13 full-time staff.

Additionally, more and more people have been purchasing their goods online leading to shop workers losing their jobs as companies have to close physical shops, and with price comparison websites the internet is getting even more competitive.

However, questions may arise when purchasing online such as:

• Country of manufacture - some regimes are unpopular
• Use of child labour and animal testing
• Type of materials used (toxic/recycled/organic)
• If reusable energy was used
• If producers are undertaking charitable or communal activities

Answering these questions (especially in exams) requires a balanced answer and a personal justified conclusion

Even though Facebook is free it had a revenue of $18 billion in 2015

Most of this comes from advertising where advertisers:

• Pay to target specific users
• Bid against each other in data auctions

Facebook's assets that give it this value is the number of users and all their data

Digital tracking (e.g. cookies) means that users can be tracked through the internet to a purchase

e-Government

Estonia has national and local levels of e-Government where 95% of tax declarations are done, 30.5% of votes from 116 different countries in the 2015 election were cast and they have an e-Health system with common records for each patient, with this e-Problems arise such as:

• How are users authenticated?
• How is data kept safe and secure?
• How reliable is the technology?
• Will citizens trust the authorities?
• Will costs be matched with savings?

Ethics - What is good for individuals and society (aka moral philosophy)

When using robots (driverless vehicles, drones, surgery, security systems), ethical questions arise

Isaac Asimov devised three laws for robots called Asimov's Laws:

• A robot must not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm
• A robot must obey the orders given it by human beings except where such orders conflict with the first law
• A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the other laws

When designing driverless cars some ethical questions come into though such as in a crash where a person will die, who does the car kill?

Additionally, if a manufacturer offers different versions of its moral algorithm, and a buyer knowingly chooses one of them who is to blame for the consequences of the algorithm's decision

AI can be used to complete tasks significantly quicker than a human including analysing: social media, CV's, credit ratings, buying history, postcode data, etc. These are all used to some extent by employers, universities, law enforcement and insurance companies

If an AI can outperform a human at chess, what would it mean to say that it has intelligence?

• Turing Test (Alan Turing) - Interrogator asks questions to a human and computer, both are hidden, if they cannot differentiate then the computer has intelligence
• However, not all humans behave intelligently and not all intelligent behaviour is done by humans

Environmental Effect of Digital Technologies

Digital technologies require vast quantities of precious metals and other resources such as:

• Data centres - use more energy then the whole of the UK does for heat, light, transport, etc.
• Digital control systems - Controls energy usage in the home, industry and transport

This effect is even more prominent as in 2014 (and more so 2020) 4.2 million adults in the UK worked from home, this has large effects:

• No need for office space or use transport which is good for the environment
• Heating individual homes may use more energy than sharing an office building
• Less travel reduces stress and allows for time for exercise, making people healthier
• However, lonelier people and indirect communication may lead to more stress

An example exam question on this is - Are there positive effects that outweigh the negative environmental impacts? (Prompts will be given, A/A* answers should have your own argument as well)

UK Human Rights Act - protects free speech with some exceptions such as: Incitement to racial or religious hatred, encouragement of terrorism, 'Official Secrets' and aspects of court proceedings

Court injunctions can prevent stories from being printed, broadcast or published online whilst films and video games are age-rated by non-government industry bodies

Some countries (e.g. China) make it illegal to criticise the government or its leaders and will often limit what they can see on the internet e.g. restricting BBC news in some regions

Hate and Trolling

Hate campaigns can spark on social media as a result of a controversial event; should this be censored as a lot of hate can be directed at a person, destroying their life/reputation

Trolling - Threats against a person, sending offensive, hateful or indecent messages

Trolling resulted in 2,000 convictions as a result of threatening, offensive or indecent messages, including a **** threat sent to an MP resulting in an 18-week prison sentence

Twitter is US based and so not subject to UK law but people in the UK using Twitter need to keep within the law of the UK AND US

The volume of traffic on social media sites makes monitoring impractical, it is up to users to take action (report, block, unfollow, legal action). However, Twitter did remove copyrighted footage of the 2016 Olympics which annoyed many users

Moderation can block certain topics as to not ruin anyone's agenda or conversion or to rant, it is also an effective tool against trolls

Privacy

Many internet services e.g. Google appear to be free but in the background collect user data which has, especially to Google, value. This can then be sold to advertisers and is mentioned in their terms and conditions

Monitoring Behaviour - Can be done in many ways to gather data on a person's activities, such as:

• Phone calls
• GPS
• Smartwatch data
• Cookies

Online pirates can make a lot of money selling fake/stolen goods with easily accessible information

• Online, credit cards with full information on a person can be sold for up to $45
• People are warned not to disclose their holiday plans as criminals can then use that information to target unoccupied homes
• The rise of digital media has allowed for distributing perfect copies (Videos, music, software) easily, this can lead to serious prison sentences (Breach of Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988)
• Paper money has been designed to be very secure with security measures such as - Type of paper, serial number, reflection in sunlight, etc.

Cultural Issues affect the way information is presented and understood

• Red is often associated with danger/stop/error whilst in China, it means wealth, luck and happiness
• Everyday icons now have significantly different cultural assumptions behind them
• Some cultures read right to left, vertically and some have charts/graphs right to left

Limits of ASCII

• Standard ASCII only allows for western alphabets and symbols with its 8 bits
• 16 bit Unicode character sets means that other languages and symbols can be presented (mathematics, Russian, emoticons, etc)