The Impacts of Computing: Law, Ethics and the Environment
Computing's effects on people and the environment: personal-data duties using UK law as an example, evidence about benefits and harms, and a device's whole-life resource use and pollution.
What a learner can do afterwards
- Identify a duty under UK data protection law concerning lawful use and protection of personal data
- Argue both sides of a case where a useful system harms some group
- Account for a device's environmental cost across making it, running it and throwing it away
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The security measures you have studied help protect data, but law covers its use too. Under UK data protection law, organisations need a lawful basis for using personal data and must protect it. Consent is one possible basis, not the only one. Health data has extra conditions. Access control sets which people or devices may use a resource; it does not meet every legal duty. Rules depend on the jurisdiction and situation.
Access needs and threats can change, so protecting stored data requires continuing work: review permissions, maintain security and check for misuse. Under UK data protection law, some personal-data breaches must be reported to the regulator. Affected people must also be informed when a breach is likely to create a high risk to their rights and freedoms, subject to legal exceptions. Not every incident requires the same notification.
A hospital queue tool helps staff sort cases quickly. Tests show equally urgent patients from one group wait longer. Weigh the benefit and harm. Compare outcomes for similar needs, investigate the cause and allow clinicians to review decisions. A school feed can be assessed the same way: faster access to useful videos may coexist with poorer recommendations for one group. Unequal results alone do not establish their cause.
A device's environmental impact includes extracting materials, manufacturing and transport, electricity for the device and supporting servers, and disposal or recycling. These stages use resources and can produce pollution. Keeping a working phone or repairing it can delay a replacement; energy use and eventual disposal still count. Working conditions matter too, but they are a social impact rather than a measure of environmental impact.
Check which law applies, examine benefits and harms using evidence, and consider a device's whole life. Security measures alone do not settle every duty.
Lesson, questions, worked solutions and flashcards about computing's legal, ethical and environmental impacts were written for this dataset.
Three readings and six flashcards were written for this dataset. Textbook records informed the topics studied; no textbook passage is reproduced or closely paraphrased.
More to read
Holding data and using data
A hospital holds patient records. A software supplier operates part of its system. A research team asks for information. These roles raise different questions about responsibility and permitted use. Having a copy does not itself settle ownership or give unlimited permission to use the information.
For a UK example, processing personal data needs a lawful basis. Consent is one possible basis, but some lawful uses rely on other bases. Health data has additional legal conditions. Check the applicable rules rather than assuming one permission rule covers every organisation and purpose.
Security is another question. Decide who needs access and restrict it accordingly. Also consider what information is necessary, why it is used and how long it should be retained. A file lock does not answer all those questions.
A hospital decision tool also needs evaluation. It may help staff sort cases while producing poorer results for some patients. Compare patients with similar needs and investigate differences. An unequal result is a reason to investigate; it does not identify its own cause.
Check the limits of a model
A simulation starts with rules chosen by its designers. Running those rules can reveal patterns that are hard to see from one individual action. It can help us ask questions about a larger system.
Before applying a simulation's result elsewhere, ask what the model represents and what it leaves out. A pattern produced by one model does not establish the cause of unequal outcomes in a hospital or school. For the real system, collect relevant evidence and compare people with similar needs.
A device can also be examined beyond the part visible to its user. Follow its materials through extraction, manufacture and transport. Include electricity for the device and supporting servers, then consider reuse, recycling or disposal. Resource use and pollution can occur at each stage.
There are social questions alongside environmental ones. Working conditions concern the people doing the work; wages are not a direct measure of pollution. Keep the categories clear while considering both.
Keeping a device working may delay a replacement. It does not erase past impacts, and continued use still consumes resources.
Protection after the first lock
Suppose a staff member changes jobs within an organisation. Their old permissions may no longer fit their work. Access control needs review because permission to open a resource should reflect current needs.
Other protection work continues too. Maintain security and check for misuse. An intruder may not be discovered immediately. Recording activity can help an investigation, but recording and restricting access are different functions.
If personal data is breached, the response depends on the law and circumstances. Under UK data protection law, some breaches must be reported to the regulator. Affected people must also be informed when the breach is likely to create a high risk to their rights and freedoms, subject to legal exceptions. Avoid assuming that every incident requires identical notifications.
A review should consider both the system and how the organisation uses it. Staff roles, services, threats and legal requirements may change. Protecting files once does not end responsibility for them.
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Where it sits
8 questions wait behind this lesson, each with its answer explained. Every answer feeds the sky: stars light as they are learned, and dim when it is time to come back.