Legal, Ethical and Ownership issues The Bigger Picture Legal, Ethical and Ownership issues

Privacy Read this article.

Activity 1 How might advertisers make use of location information? Read Stephen Waddington’s blog post: ‘My mobile phone knows more about me than my family’ and answer these questions. How might advertisers make use of location information? What are the benefits of making location information available to others? What are the drawbacks? What does the algorithm developed by the research team from Birmingham University do?

Hot on Your Trail

Privacy and Security Read this article.

Activity 2 What personal information does Google hold about James? Read James Ball’s article: ‘Me and my data: how much do the internet giants really know?’ and answer these questions. What personal information does Google hold about James? What other information is there about James that he can’t find out about? Google uses cookies to determine which adverts to display. What is a cookie?

Legal Issues Read this article.

Copyrights and Patents Intellectual property refers to creations of the mind, such as inventions; literary and artistic works. Copyright is a legal right created by the law of a country, that grants the creator of an original work exclusive rights to its use and distribution. A patent is the exclusive right granted by a government to an inventor to manufacture, use or sell an invention for a certain number of years.

Patents Read these articles: Article 1 Article 2 Article 3

Activity 3 Complete this table: What is a patent? What can be patented? What can’t be patented? How long does a patent last? What often happens if someone doesn’t apply for a patent soon enough? What does the term ‘intellectual property’ (IP) mean? ARM’s revenue comes entirely from IP licensing. Explain how this works.

Activity 4 Complete this table: What does ‘patent infringement’ entail? Why are there so many patent infringement cases relating to mobile phones being fought around the world? Why could ‘patent wars’ be a bad thing for consumers? Oracle and Google are also involved in an on-going dispute over a patent. What is it all about?

Activity 4 Complete this table by identifying the relevant legislation for each scenario: What they did Relevant legislation 1. Jim hacked into the private Facebook account of someone he works with. 2. OAW Inc produced a mobile that included a feature for which another company holds the patent. 3. A hospital trust sold redundant computer equipment on an Internet auction site. It failed to erase the contents of the computers’ hard drives held sensitive patient data. 4. Yassamin developed a mobile phone app which Mike modified, rebranded and sold. 5. PKW failed to respond to Jo’s request to see all the personal data the company holds about her. 6. Unknown to visitors to PKW’s website, a cookie was automatically downloaded to their computer and used to record details of the pages they visited. 7. Two men hacked into the servers of a major record company and stole unreleased music. 8. A company imported and sold devices, which are widely used to help people to play unlicensed versions of games.