CS22Ethical, Legal and Environmental Impacts

Digital technology changes how people live and work. You need to explain its current impacts and risks on society, and think about data privacy wherever it comes up.

• Ethical issues are about right and wrong: is it fair, who gains and who loses, did people agree, could it harm anyone?
• Legal issues are about the law: is it allowed, who is responsible when something goes wrong, what laws protect people’s data, and do laws need to change to keep up?
• Environmental issues are about the planet: materials and energy to make and run devices, waste when they’re thrown away, and ways technology can cut harm.
• Privacy is about personal data: what is collected, who can see it, how long it is kept, and whether people consented.
• AQA’s questions come from eight areas: cyber security, mobile technologies, wireless networking, cloud storage, hacking, wearable technologies, computer-based implants and autonomous vehicles.
• You need the general principles, not details of particular cases. No law has to be named. You may use UK laws as examples, such as data protection law (which controls how organisations collect and keep personal data) or the law that makes unauthorised access to a computer a crime.
• Most technologies have benefits and risks. Good answers weigh both.

Three ways to look at any technology, with privacy running through all of them.

Ethical issue

A question of right and wrong, such as fairness, consent or harm to people.

Legal issue

A question about the law, such as what is allowed and who is responsible.

Environmental issue

An effect on the natural world, such as energy use, materials or waste.

Personal data

Data about a living person who can be identified from it, such as their name, location or health.

Phones, apps and online services collect huge amounts of personal data. Who should be allowed to see it?

• Citizens normally value their privacy and may not like it when governments or security services have too much access to their data.
• Governments and security services often argue that they can’t keep citizens safe from terrorism and other attacks unless they have access to private data, such as messages and call records.
• For access: it can help to stop attacks, catch criminals and find missing people; supporters say people who’ve done nothing wrong have nothing to fear.
• Against access: everyone’s data is collected, not just suspects’; it could be misused by staff or a future government; people may stop speaking freely; a weakness built in for the security services could also be found by criminals.
• Middle ground: access only with a judge’s approval (a warrant), only for serious crimes, and with independent checks on how it is used.
• Companies collect data too: for targeted advertising, to improve services or to sell. Users often don’t read the terms, so their consent isn’t really informed.

AQA expects you to know both sides of this argument.

Privacy

A person’s right to control who sees their personal data and what is done with it.

Consent

A person’s agreement to their data being collected or used, ideally informed and freely given.

Surveillance

Monitoring people’s activity, communications or movements.

Hacking is unauthorised access to a computer system. How attacks work is in the cyber security topics; here the focus is their impact on people and society.

• Hacking is illegal in the UK: accessing a computer system without permission is a crime, even if nothing is changed or taken.
• “Just testing” isn’t a defence. Testing a system’s security is only acceptable when the owner has given permission, as in penetration testing.
• Impact on people when their data is stolen: identity theft, fraud, distress, and private details such as health records made public.
• Impact on organisations: fines and legal action for failing to protect data, loss of trust and customers, cost of recovery, systems out of action.
• Ethical duty: organisations that collect personal data should protect it, collect only what they need and delete it when it is no longer needed. Less data held means less to lose.
• Wider society: attacks on hospitals, power networks or councils can put lives and essential services at risk.
• Cyber security costs money and can make systems less convenient (more passwords, more checks): a trade-off organisations have to decide on.

Hacking

Unauthorised access to a computer system.

Data breach

When personal data is accessed, stolen or published without permission.

Cyber security

The processes, practices and technologies designed to protect networks, computers, programs and data from attack, damage or unauthorised access.

Smartphones and tablets go everywhere with their owners, which brings big benefits and new risks.

• Benefits: contact anywhere, help in emergencies, maps, banking, learning and health apps; people in remote areas can reach services.
• Location tracking: phones know where their owners are. Apps and phone companies can build up a picture of someone’s home, work and routine. Useful for finding a lost phone or a missing person, but risky if shared, sold or stolen.
• App permissions: free apps often ask for access to location, contacts, camera or microphone. The data may be used for targeted adverts or sold on. A user sharing their contacts shares other people’s data without asking them.
• Always connected: pressure to reply at any hour, blurred lines between work and home, distraction, screen time and wellbeing concerns, online bullying that follows young people home.
• Legal: data protection laws require apps to explain what they collect; using a phone while driving is illegal; a lost or stolen phone can expose personal data.
• Digital divide: people without a smartphone or data plan can be left out as services move online.
• Environmental: frequent upgrades mean more phones made and thrown away (see the device’s life section).

Location data

Data showing where a device, and so its owner, is or has been.

App permission

Access that a user grants an app to parts of the phone, such as location, contacts or camera.

Digital divide

The gap between people who have access to digital technology and those who don’t.

Wireless networks connect devices without cables, at home, at work and in public places.

• Benefits: people can get online in cafés, trains, libraries and town centres; free access helps people who can’t afford mobile data.
• Open (no password) networks: data that isn’t encrypted can be intercepted by others nearby. A criminal can also set up a fake network with a trusted-sounding name.
• Using someone else’s network without permission (piggybacking) is unauthorised access: it is ethically wrong and can be illegal.
• Who is responsible? If someone uses a public network for crime, such as illegal downloads, the owner may have to show who was connected. Many ask users to register, which collects their personal data.
• Privacy: a public network’s owner can see which devices connect and when, and may track people’s movements around a town or shop.
• Coverage: rural areas may have poor signal, adding to the digital divide.
• How to secure a wireless network (encryption, passwords, MAC address filtering) is in the network security topic.

Open network

A wireless network anyone can join without a password.

Piggybacking

Using someone else’s wireless network without their permission.

Cloud storage keeps data at a remote location, on the provider’s magnetic and solid-state drives, accessed over the Internet. Its advantages and disadvantages are in the memory and storage topic; here are its wider impacts.

• Who can see the data? The provider’s staff, and possibly governments where the servers are. Users have to trust the provider.
• Where is it held? Servers may be in another country, where different laws apply. Organisations holding personal data must make sure it is still protected.
• Who owns it? Terms of service may let the provider scan or use uploaded files. If the provider closes or an account is locked, data may be lost.
• Security: a provider holds data for millions of users, so a single breach can expose a huge amount. Providers usually invest more in security than a small business could.
• Access: people can reach their files anywhere, and share and work on them together, but only with an Internet connection.
• Environmental: data centres use a lot of electricity for servers and cooling, and many use water for cooling. Sharing large, efficient data centres can use less energy than everyone running their own servers, and some run on renewable energy.

Cloud storage

Storing data at a remote location, using magnetic and/or solid-state storage, accessed via the Internet.

Data centre

A building full of servers that store and process data for many users.

Wearables are devices worn on the body, such as smartwatches, fitness bands and smart glasses. Computer-based implants are devices placed inside the body, such as heart pacemakers that send readings to a hospital, or tiny chips under the skin that unlock doors.

• Benefits: tracking health and fitness, early warnings of illness, doctors monitoring patients at home, independence for people with disabilities, convenience (paying or unlocking with a wrist or hand).
• Personal data: these devices collect health readings, location and daily routines all the time. Health data is very sensitive: an insurer or employer could use it against someone.
• Consent and pressure: an employer, school or insurer might push people to wear or have a device. Is consent real if refusing costs a job or a discount?
• Other people’s privacy: wearables with cameras or microphones can record people nearby who never agreed.
• Security: a device that connects wirelessly could be hacked. For an implant controlling a body function, that could cause physical harm.
• Implants are hard to remove: taking one out or replacing a battery may need surgery, and the person can’t simply take it off.
• Legal: who is liable if a device or its software update fails; data protection laws on collecting and sharing health data; medical devices must meet safety rules; laws may need updating, for example on whether an employer can ask for an implant.
• Fairness: expensive devices could widen gaps between people who can and can’t afford them.
• Environmental: small devices contain batteries and metals, are hard to repair and recycle, and are often replaced quickly.

Wearable technology

A computer device worn on the body, such as a smartwatch or fitness band.

Computer-based implant

A computer device placed inside the body, such as a pacemaker or an identity chip under the skin.

An autonomous vehicle uses sensors, cameras and software to drive itself with little or no human control: cars, lorries, buses, delivery robots and drones.

• Safety: most crashes involve human error, such as tiredness, distraction or drink-driving. Autonomous vehicles don’t get tired, but sensors and software can fail or misread a situation.
• Decisions: in an unavoidable crash the software must be programmed in advance with how to act. Who decides how it weighs the safety of passengers against pedestrians?
• Liability (legal): if an autonomous vehicle crashes, is the owner, the passenger, the manufacturer or the software developer responsible? Laws and insurance have to be updated.
• Jobs: drivers of taxis, lorries, buses and delivery vans could lose their work, though new jobs may appear in maintenance and monitoring.
• Access: people who can’t drive, such as some older or disabled people, could travel independently.
• Data and security: vehicles record where they go and film their surroundings, including people who never agreed. A hacked vehicle could be dangerous.
• Environmental: smoother driving and route planning can save fuel, and many are electric. But easier travel could mean more journeys, and the vehicles need lots of computing power and data.

Autonomous vehicle

A vehicle that can sense its surroundings and move with little or no human input.

Liability

Legal responsibility for harm or loss.

Every device affects the environment when it is made, while it is used, and when it is thrown away.

• Manufacture: devices contain metals, some of them rare, that are mined, using energy and water and damaging land. Factories use energy, and parts are shipped around the world.
• Use: devices, networks and data centres all need electricity. If it comes from fossil fuels, that adds carbon dioxide. Data centres also need cooling.
• Disposal: discarded electronics (e-waste) can contain toxic substances that leak from landfill into soil and water. Some is shipped to poorer countries, where it may be taken apart unsafely.
• Why the volume matters: replacing devices often, because of new models or because they can’t be repaired, multiplies every stage.
• Reducing harm: keep devices longer, repair them, sell or donate them, recycle properly to recover metals, and use renewable energy for data centres.
• Benefits: video calls and online services replace some travel; less paper; smart meters, heating and traffic systems save energy; sensors help monitor pollution and wildlife.

Make, use, dispose of: and the loop that reduces harm.

E-waste

Electrical and electronic equipment that has been thrown away.

Carbon footprint

The greenhouse gases released by making, using and disposing of something.

Paper 2 has one or two levels-marked Discuss questions, worth 6 or 9 marks. This topic is where most of them come from.

• Cover every strand the question lists (for example ethical, legal and environmental). An answer that covers only one usually can’t go above the middle level.
• Explain, then develop: make a point, say why it happens, then say what it leads to. A list of statements stays in the bottom level, however long.
• Stay on the context: write about the technology and the people in the question, not technology in general.
• Balance: give benefits and risks, or arguments on both sides.
• Structure: a short paragraph per strand, then a one- or two-sentence conclusion that answers the question.
• Timing: about 1.2 minutes per mark on Paper 2, so roughly 11 minutes for a 9-mark answer, including a quick plan.

Each level needs more development, more balance and more of the strands.

Discuss

AQA’s command word meaning “present key points”. In a levels-marked answer, explain and weigh them, ideally with a conclusion.

Strand

One of the areas a question tells you to cover, such as legal issues.