Impacts of I.T. Ethical, Social, legal and economic impacts on I.T.

Social Impacts I.T. has become a big part of everyone's life, every part of your life involves some kind of technology, from going shopping to going to school all has some type of technology. Positive Skype helps us see people who we couldn't other wise see, we can video call people on the other side of the world with the click of a button. Facebook can also help us keep in touch with our friends, it can help us keep in touch with lots of friends at the same time. Blogs can also help us keep up to date with people even if we don’t know them we can see what they are doing all of the time. Negative People many become less sociable due to the internet, people find it easier to stay in their homes and talk to people online rather than actually meeting them.

Economic Positive Having your shopping delivered can also been good for example people with disabilities who find it harder to get out of the house can have their food delivered whilst staying at home. New jobs and innovating jobs have been created from it letting people work as jobs that never used to be available. Employers can hire people from all over the world as many people can work over the internet so they don’t have to go to a place of work and they can work at home. It also means that people can work at home which is easier for people with disabilities and for people who need to stay at home to look after children. Negative Many small shops have been put out of business by the internet as people find it a lot easier to order online, people can have their groceries delivered without even leaving the house. This means people have lost their jobs to the internet. People have lost their jobs to machines that can do their job but faster, more precise and cheaper for the company.

Sustainability With usage of technology increasing there has been a growing demand for electricity to power all of our gadgets. Electricity is also very expensive so people end up spend lots of money on the bills. Creating electricity also contributes towards global warming. Many people when they get new technology simply throw away their old gadgets because they aren’t good enough any more. New technology is quickly replaced by newer technology which everybody then wants to have so they get rid of they old technology. Some companies have started recycling old technology or giving it to charities. The discarding of surplus electrical items is governed by Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment Directive, manufacturers of electrical items are required to supply buyers with a process of disposing of the equipment that their purchase is replacing.

Legal The Copyright, Designs and Patents Act (1998) protects the creators of some types of media. Music, books, video and software are all protected by the copyright law. If you buy any of these you are then not allowed to make copies to sell or to give to someone, if it is software you cannot use it one more than one computer unless it has been sold to you for use on multiple computer. You can also not use software unless it has been licensed to you. Plagiarism is also a problem, it is quite common in schools when students copy and paste information off the internet and use it as their own.

Ethical In today's modern world most people have some information of theirs stored online, most people have lots of information online especially if they have Facebook pages where they put on lots of information. Everything you do is now watched by some kind of technology, when you are in cities CCTV is watching you, everything you do on the internet or on your phone is recorded and stored online, when you search the internet it remembers what you searched for and what websites you went on. If you go to a hospital or get arrested your personal information will be online, even though most of it is encrypted some hackers could try and get it. Positive All personal information is protected by the Data Protection Act, this means that it is against the law to access personal information of a living person unless you are authorized to do so. Negative It is impossible to have you information fully secure, there is always a risk that someone could obtain your information without your consent.

Data Protection Act The 1998 Data Protection Act is a law designed to protect personal data stored on computers or in an organised paper filing system. By law any company that stores information on people must register with the Information Commissioner and must follow the 8 Principles of the Data Protection Act: 1. Data must be collected and used fairly and inside the law. 2. It must only be held and used for the reasons given to the Information Commissioner. 3. Data can only be used for the purpose of which it was collected. 4. The information held must be adequate, relevant and not excessive 5. It must be accurate and be kept up to date. 6. It must not be kept longer than is necessary for the registered purpose 7. The information must be kept safe and secure. This includes keeping the information backed up and away from any unauthorised access. 8. The files may not be transferred outside of the European Economic Area unless the country that the data is being sent to has a suitable data protection law.

Unequal access Part of the UK cannot access the internet due to been in hard to reach places. If they live too far away from a telephone exchange it is not cost effective for the internet supplier to put out the cables. Some people find it harder to use the internet so they miss out on things that are internet only like online shopping and online banking. Some people also find it hard to pay their bills online as they cannot use it properly. Some people cannot afford the internet as it can be very expensive depending on where you live, it is also not just the price for the internet but the price for a laptop or computer as well. Some countries around the world do not have as good access to the internet as we do. The divide is getting greater and there is a real worry that some countries will get left behind, especially with many aspects of society relying more and more on technology. Many foreign governments are trying to decrease this by offering schemes to provide children in the developing world with computers. Some people do not have literacy skills which are needed as the internet is mainly text, this means it is harder for them to use it.

Thank-you for watching and listening By Oliver Clayton