8.01 – Ethical Issues

Computer Science Revision

In this section, we will be looking at the ethical, legal, and environmental impacts of technology. This is the broadest section in the course, and the list of issues here is by no means exhaustive. It is probable that you will get a 9-mark question on this section asking you to "Discuss the ethical / legal / environmental impacts of x", where x might be something like "autonomous vehicles". In that case, you can use what is written on these pages, but you can also use your own knowledge as well. You will get marks for any relevant points, as long as they are fully explained.

Ethical issues are about what is considered right and wrong by society.

Here are some general ethical issues of technology:

• Smartphones may have made us more anti-social as we spend more time communicating through screens instead of talking face-to-face.
• People can now be tracked through their devices, leading to many privacy issues.
• There is also a greater opportunity for identity theft, given that we post so much personal information online.
• Robots are now reducing the demand for lower-skilled jobs, like moving boxes at Amazon fulfilment centres.
• Unequal access to technology has increased the inequality between richer and poorer nations.
• Electronic devices contain rare materials like gold and lithium, which are often extracted using child labour in lower income countries.

Here are some ethical issues related to autonomous vehicles:

• Many taxi drivers may lose their jobs as autonomous vehicles become more and more popular.
• If there is a crash, who is at fault? The company? The programmer? The passenger?
• Who should the program prioritise if it has to make a choice between saving two people's lives?

Here are some ethical issues related to the Internet:

• People now have greater anonymity, which can enable anti-social behaviour.
• For example, cyber-bullying is when someone uses the Internet to insult someone.
• Organisations now store a lot of our personal data because of the Internet, and this can be hacked into and leaked.
• The Internet has enabled fraudsters to set up scams such as pharming sites, which we discussed in Section 6.

Here are some ethical issues related to surveillance and censorship:

• Government security services may be monitoring internet traffic to look for keywords alerting them to illegal activities, which some people say is an infringement of privacy,
• In some countries, Internet Service Providers are legally required to share their customers' internet history wth security services.
• Many governments also use some form of censorship, usually to protect children from inappropriate sites, but this is a controversial topic.

What are the possible ethical issues of brain implants?

Tap/click to reveal There are privacy issues, as a lot of information may be extracted from your brain.