Information Technology Issues How has the proliferation of IT impacted society? Adapted from Prof. Brenda Timmerman

How has it impacted communication? –Personal –Business Spam –Unsolicited commercial mail –Is all unsolicited mail spam? Is spam diminishing the value of ?

World Wide Web Information is shared all over the world What about information that is legal in one country and not another? What about copyright issues? What is intellectual property and how has it been impacted by the WWW?

Financial and Credit Issues Credit Cards –Security on the Internet –Spending habits –Financial patterns Privacy –Personal Identity –Proliferation of Lists Banking – How has it changed?

Embedded Computers Transportation –Cars –Airplanes Health Devices Components of other systems –Examples?

Using IT in the Workplace Drastic changes have occurred through the use of IT devices –Less work for employees? –Employers monitoring employees Productivity Use of phone Logging visited web sites Telecommuting –Has it worked?

Outsourcing Impact on the IT industry –Move to countries where labor is cheaper –Job security –Or more interesting jobs here? Decentralization or greater centralization? Developing trend?

The Health Industry Patients health histories Patient care Hospitals and Doctor’s Offices –Privacy –Integrity of information –Confidentiality –Availability

Education Improved access to information Loss of basic skills –Arithmetic –Spelling Replacing teachers with computers –Virtual education Computer literacy

Freedom of Speech Pornography/Sensitive Information on the Internet Censorship on the Internet Politics on the Internet

Comuter Crime Hacking Identity theft Piracy Scams and forgery

Unreliable Computing Failures and errors in computer systems Dependency on computers Software safety

The Digital Divide Unequal access to computing –Minorities and women –Economic disadvantages National and global issues