ethicsHaving morals and principles and 'doing the right thing', irrespective of profit. are moral principles, or rules, which govern a person's attitudes and behaviour.
Ethics apply to the use of computers as much as they do to other things in life. Ethical issues in computing include:
ensuring public safety
security of data
Ensuring public safety
Ensuring public safety is paramount. As new technologies are introduced, they bring safety concerns.
For example, driverless cars may soon be on the roads in the UK. The designers of driverless cars have not only had to ensure the safety of passengers, but also of other drivers and pedestrians. Ethics apply here as a situation may occur where the car's softwareThe programs, applications and data in a computer system. Any parts of a computer system that aren't physical. has to decide who has safety priority, the passengers or other road users.
Data security
Personal data is precious and needs to be kept safe. Unfortunately, there are people that attempt to hack systems in order to gain access to other people's data. Social media accounts, phone mailboxes and networks that computers connect to are all prone to hacking.
Some people may also use malwareSoftware that is designed to cause harm or damage to a computer. This includes viruses that might damage files, adware that causes pop-ups, and spyware that collects and shares login details. to obtain data. Recent times have seen the increased use of a type of malware known as ransomwareMalware which encrypts a user's files, then demands a ransom payment to decrypt them.. People who write ransomware do it to extort money from unsuspecting users. Once the ransomware infects a computer it encrypts data on it, denying users access unless a ransom is paid.