Societal Impacts

Living responsibly with technology: digital footprints, net etiquette, data protection, intellectual property and licences, cyber crime and the law, e-waste, and health.

Key ideas

• A digital footprint is the trail of data left online: active when you post, comment or fill in a form; passive when sites record your location, device or browsing, as cookies do.
• Good net etiquette means respecting others, giving credit and checking facts before forwarding; shouting in capitals, trolling, spamming and posting others’ details break it.
• Copyright protects creative work (books, music, art, program code), a patent an invention or process, and a trademark a brand name, logo or slogan; plagiarism passes off others’ work as yours.
• Free and open source software may be used, studied, changed and shared; proprietary software hides its source; Creative Commons licences set how a work may be reused.
• Cyber crimes include phishing, hacking, cyber bullying, identity theft and ransomware; in India the Information Technology Act, 2000 deals with cyber crime and electronic records.
• E-waste (discarded electronics) can leak toxic lead and mercury, so reduce, reuse and recycle it with authorised recyclers.
• Long screen use strains eyes, neck, wrists and sleep: take breaks, sit upright with the screen at eye level, and stop screens before bed.

Remember

Watch out

• Calling cookies an active footprint: anything recorded without you posting it is passive.
• Thinking a long password is strong: it also needs every kind of character.
• Confusing copyright with a patent: an invention is patented, not copyrighted.
• Treating any picture found online as free to use: credit and permission, or a suitable licence, are needed.

Worked example