Group items tagged

Situation: Ad blockers are becoming increasingly common, and as a result, businesses are rapidly losing revenue each year. Social and ethical significance: As is ubiquitous in the corporate world, businesses and consumers have differing needs and interests regarding their usage of the internet. Consumers want to avoid paying subscription fees and other charges for every single task they partake in on the web, while businesses still need to profit somehow. The response to this over the decades has largely been the rise of web advertisements, which come in many different forms. For a large portion of the internet's history, the vast majority of its users have grudgingly accepted the need for advertisements, seeing how they generally benefit consumers as well as businesses when it allows consumers to avoid paying extra. However, in recent years, ad blockers have become increasingly popular, which provide web users with the ability to hide every ad they see, which of course deprives the owners of the websites they browse from attaining the revenues they would otherwise receive. Naturally, this is a conundrum. Web activities need to be affordable for the average consumer, and businesses need to profit, which is the entire purpose of corporations in mixed economies. Solving this problem will force businesses to devise ways of making advertisements more palatable and less intrusive, and it may eventually result in an outright of ban of ad blockers. The latter possibility would nevertheless cause a huge uproar due to a perceived assault on freedom and individual liberties. It is therefore a solution which would be preferably avoided--ideally, the solution will simply make consumers less apt to even use an ad blocker in the first place without eliminating the presence of advertisements altogether. IT Systems: Advertisements in the forms of videos, pictures, animations, etc. as well as ad blockers in the form of browser extensions and software applications--including mobil

IBM made a very wise comment regarding businesses in the age of technology, and how things are changing radically for all businesses, and in the long term, for all consumers as well. The IT system and issue at stake here is the future of businesses who choose to not adapt to new technologies, and transform their businesses in the world of technology in our day. Specifically, the article refers to "digital transformation," but does not touch upon an important topic we have discussed in ITGS, being the ethical implications involved in making such a transition. Beginning from the positive aspects of such a transformation, and specifically in the long term, these include: - more buyers - no data loss - better data management/analysis - improved business models through online systems - better quality marketing -- more effective So, in terms of these factors, one could say that such a "digital transformation" would definitely be worth the effort in the long term. However, ethical implications must also be considered, which include potential spreading of data to the wrong people, "filtering" the minds of consumers through online marketing, but also violating the consumer's privacy by noting down what they purchase each time and exchange a list of the consumer's interests to other businesses. In conclusion, we can see that such a digital transformation in terms of technology in relation to businesses can be both good and bad; this entirely depends on the effort that is put in the creation of this system, how well the system is maintained, and to what extent the system is targeted for attacking.

Hello! I liked how you incorporated that one of the biggest technology companies in the world has the same changes as some smaller companies; and the one thing that they have in common is the change of technology. I also think that your article choice was linked nicely to ITGS because it develops on the idea of Information technology changes throughout many societies.

Technology has always been at the heart of business growth. Technology develops at an exponential rate and businesses have to keep up. Remember the days when a

Will Michael

Situation: Technology is making businesses more optimised, efficient, and faster. Social and Ethical Significance: The ways that businesses work have changed over the past few years, is all due to the advancements in technology, that allow the companies/businesses/industries to work much quicker, efficient, and cover a much wider horizon, to achieve profits. The use of technology helps in allowing instant communication to any location around the globe, a more optimised mode of production of goods, services or a certain product, a much better, more efficient inventory management, allowing zero loose ends, and not to forget, better management of finances, anywhere at any time. IT systems: Well, IT systems in businesses vary from company to company. However, I'll take the example of a hypermarket chain, and name it X. X would have formal employees,as well as normal employees using personal laptops and smartphones, and that would require IT technicians to create working servers for the company. There would be a website portal for those who would like to order online, as well as customer calling services etc. Then, X would have checkout machines; some self-checkout and some, standard checkout, and these checkout machines would require regular maintenance to make sure it's in proper working condition. Then there would be barcode scanners all around the stores to check prices of a product in store. Application to Specified Scenarios: Supermarket and Hypermarket companies such as Asda, Carrefour, Spinneys, Choithram's, etc run using a similar system as described in the IT systems.

I agree that business and technology are accelerating the news industry a lot.

Situation: Marketing has been transformed by technology. Ads are found everywhere and there are specialized ads that target a specific group of people. Businesses need to keep up with new marketing techniques by gaining new skills. Marketers must have sufficient experience with dealing with technology. Technologists in combination with marketers are becoming key to successful marketing. Social and Ethical Significance: With marketing expanding to the Internet and mobile devices, some of the limitations that marketing used to have are now diminished. No longer are ads confined to billboards and flyers. Now there is a whole other world of possibility. Markers can affect people through their phone, laptops, tablets, watches and even glasses. This open up so many doors for marketing. One aspect of marketing that has been expanded is the reach that campaigns can have. More places to put ads means more eyeballs on the ads. Companies can also target market. Using data from people, companies can target ads to specific people whom they believe the ad will be most effective. The article mentions that some marketing people believe that targeted marketing is not improving and companies are just wasting their money. This is something that the business owners need to think about when making marketing decisions. Stakeholders: Marketers: People who work as a marketer now have to think about other aspects of marketing like how the technology works and what type of online marketing would be most effective. Marketing business owners: Business owners will have tough decisions on deciding who to hire to market. Employees will be expected to be more than just a create advertiser. They will have to know how to work with technology in real-time. Owners will also have to determine to what extent to they want to advertise online. IT systems: Although no systems were specifically identified in the article a few technologies that marketers use for research and to reach people inc

An article relating to targeted advertising through the use of installed cameras within billboards. These tiny cameras gather details about passer-by - their gender, approximate age and how long they looked at the billboard. Social and ethical significance: 1)Privacy and anonymity - although Quividi claims that the process is completely anonymous, the details of the camera's recordings must be stored in a central database which, if not protected properly, could be susceptible to hackers and other perpetrators of crime. 2) Security - the safety of the data stored in the central database will be in danger if not properly protected. The data will most likely contain details of a person's identity. 3) Surveillance - the cameras must be connected to a network in order to to function to its full capacity. Once again, these cameras could be hacked into and used for surveillance purposes, which leads back to the issue of privacy and anonymity on the street. The general public, who are one of the stakeholders, are deeply involved in this matter as it is their identity that is being scrutinized by a small camera - in most cases the public are unaware that the billboard is identifying who they are and their presumed interests. The company, Quividi, is another stakeholder in this issue as they are responsible for this new technology. The advantages of this kind of "ultra-targeted advertising" is that companies can now know for sure what kind of advertisements to place and where, without the need of analysing the kinds of people that live in the particular area of interest etc; the camera installed in the billboards have the ability to do it themselves. Also, as the billboard is digital, there is no manpower involved in constantly changing the large billboard every other week or so. The main disadvantages to this is of course the invasion of privacy for the public but also the maintenance that would be required to keep the camera clean as well as updated

Situation: Recently, Kayne West was caught looking at music software on Pirate Bay. Although there's no evidence that he downloaded anything, his internet search for software add-ons highlights how much software the music industry uses illegally. These softwares, such as synthesizers, composers, sequencers, etc, are available on the internet for free and are easily found on torrent sites. An array of music producers use software illegally, from people to just starting out by making music in their bedroom to people that have made millions from their music. Social and Ethical Significance: Influence on Public - If there are these major music producers illegally using software, then what's to stop the rest of the public from doing the same thing. People look up to these artists and may think that if those people can do it and get away with it, so can they. However, the opposite could be true if these artists are punished or called out for their actions. People could then see it is wrong and that they could be caught too. Another effect the widespread downloading of illegal software by artists could have is that it would lessen the value of their music. People could refuse to pay for their music and download it illegally. "The irony is that musicians and music producers, far more than most other creative professionals, have been hit especially hard by the wave of digital piracy that washed over the world nearly two decades ago" (Willens). So musicians are creating their music illegally and the public listens to that music illegally. Maybe a solution is to not have music be an industry that is profitable. Violation of Intellectual Property - "Widespread availability has created an endemic problem for software makers, who sometimes see piracy rates north of 90 percent for their creations" (Willens). The Internet has made it so easy to download unlicensed software. These are softwares that people put time an effort into creating. A generalization about s

One of the articles for network threats

Situation: Robots are now being invented to aid in farming. This particular farm built a robot to prune and de-sucker grapes. Social and Ethical Significance: People and Machines - People being replaced by technology is a reality that we must face as it is a reality that we are beginning to see. Obviously when machines replace people, jobs are lost which is never a good thing. But that's not all we should be worrying about. When machines start to perform human tasks, we lose the skill and knowledge that comes with completing those tasks. So technology taking over tasks could either lead to depletion of common knowledge that humans have but it could also go be good because it will leave room for humans to focus on more important issues and knowledge, while machines take care of the mundane chores. IT Systems: GPS Gyroscope - Part of security. The robot knows when it has been lifted off the ground Artificial Intelligence - grape recognition Plant recognition Hard drive Synchronization of cameras Built in security - The robot won't start if it is an unknown area and can self-destruct Stakeholders: Farm Owners - The way their business is conducted could change Farm workers - They could lose jobs or have to learn new ones Robotic Engineers - They are interested in the new technology being used Applications to Specified Scenario: Changing how companies function is only one piece of what technology is changing. Technologies like this robot in the article could be applied to many different areas in the world. One example is security and surveillance. The robot in the article watches plants all day. It wouldn't be hard to alter the cameras to recognize people too. These robots also have tools that they are able to use. Wouldn't it then be possible to give the robots weapons and have them enforce the law? Or go to war? What would that mean for us humans? The upbringing of Artificial Intelligence will induce lots of change and raise various ethical considerati

A British Telcom, TalkTalk, was hacked and demanded for ransom. 2 stakeholders: The company TalkTalk and subscribers to the company. The company was hacked for ransom and the data that was hacked were the personal information of the customers of TalkTalk. Issue #1: The hackers have gained very sensitive information such as credit card numbers and dates of birth. Negative: The hackers can use other people's money using the credit card information they received. They can also use the hacked information to do identity theft. Positive: There is no positive side to this. Issue #2: Some users and security experts criticized the company for going public about the hacking before knowing all the details. Positive: The company can use the criticism to help improve their company. Negative: The criticism can also reduce customers and statistics of their shares ratings.

Hi, Your post provides good insight to a negative side of the effects technology has on businesses. Both company owners, and customers must be aware of unfortunate possibilities like being hacked. I like how the two issues you addressed deals with both the technological side of things, hackers and what information can be leaked, and the business side, what the occurrence of this event means for the company itself.

Scenario: The article I am analyzing focuses upon the disadvantages brought about by electronic voting. The article attempts to convince the reader that there are absolutely no advantages to e-voting when compared to traditional voting, and the chance of fraud is much higher in e-voting than it is in traditional voting. The article does give credit to the fact that traditional voting, especially in the US, can also be prone to acts of fraud and corruption, however, he seems to be inclined towards this being less likely than the possibility presented by e-voting. Social/ethical issues: The social and ethical issues that show up in this article are primarily security and reliability. The writer clearly does not seem to believe that the e-voting system is too secure, as he often states that there are many ways in which the e-voting system can be cheated and violated. He believes that e-voting often generates results that do not match up with the predicted results from the votes cast. He also does not seem to comfortable with the idea of fully trusting a machine to measure and calculate the result of the votes, as he seems to favor the idea of votes being manually counted and recorded by poll workers. IT systems: E-voting often takes place on a particular website or on a private network which specific voting computers are connected to. Here, voters can verify their identification before proceeding to cast a vote. After the vote is cast, the information is sent to a central server where it is stored and constantly recalculated by the system for an updated vote count. Stakeholders: Regionally, everyone is a stakeholder in electronic voting. All individuals in the particular area are effected by the results of a large-scale electronic vote, as these are usually to decide governmental leaders/officials. Local businesses might be the most impacted stakeholders, because they are heavily effected by the policies and laws that could be passed by the new official,

Scenario: Some companies are using people's photos that they have posted on social media sights as advertisements without their consent. Social and Ethical Significance: Privacy - With multitudes of social media sights, individual's privacy is being degraded Intellectual Property - Experts have said, "The person featured in a photo may own the publicity rights, which may give the individual control over the commercial use of his or her likeness" (Ember, Abrams). This goes to mean that companies must have consent from whoever is in the picture before using it in advertising. Policies - Companies like Crocs must have rules in place before exposing people who may not want to be featured in ads. Digital Citizenship - While companies do need to ask for permission to use others photos, people need to understand that by using social media sites, they are putting themselves out there. If they don't realize their privacy is at risk to being disregarded, they shouldn't be using the technology. Possible Solutions are to continue educating people on what can happen online and to create standard policies regarding the need for consent that all companies should follow. IT Systems: Networks Firewalls Servers Web Softwares Stakeholders: People are getting advertised without consent - Their privacy and rights to their pictures are being violated Companies who are using pictures of social media - Who may be blamed for loss of privacy, and gain bad publicity Social Media Sites - Who is the communication between companies trying to find pictures and the people who post pictures Applications to Specified Scenario: People's rights - In the world of technology, we are becoming less and less secure that we have rights to privacy. Everything we do on the Internet is tracked and we don't know who sees it. This article pinpointed how people can be found and unwillingly advertised. As technology continues to grow, more policies and regulations wil

Apple says it is taking steps to remove a malicious software added to dozens of apps commonly used by owners of iPhones and iPads in China. Stakeholders: Apple and people who use Apple products in China. There was a malicious code on Apple products which affected the company and many people in China who use (among many others) the app WeChat: A very popular chatting app in Asia. Social/Ethical issues: When people start getting messages that makes them reveal their personal information, they would either believe it's important or be suspicious about it. If a friend "asks" for information and you reply to them, to have them later ask you why you told them that, then you are most likely being played and that would cause a lot of panic. I suppose a positive thing that could come from this is that people would be forced to close down the apps and actually talk face to face. This malware would also destroy Apple's reputation somewhat since they were so careless that the app store was infected. But this would have taught them to be more careful, which is a positive thing as it helps them improve. A solution for one negative impact - easily being played into giving out personal information - would be to make sure the person is real or the website or company is authentic. A list of IT systems: iOS Transaction Processing Systems Customer Relationship Management Systems Business Intelligence Systems Knowledge Management Systems [http://smallbusiness.chron.com/types-information-systems-organization-43097.html]

Great article choice! What social or ethical impact do you think that this might have towards the people? Other than the obvious impacts of destroying devices, what else could arise from such an issue? Also, how would developers of applications be affected by these issues?

Watson is IBM's latest supercomputer with a twist. Not only can it's artificial intelligence decipher and perfectly understand human literature and language, but it can even give a response which will be equally as startling. This computer is designed to think like a human being, and it's ability to do this is almost unbelievable. Watson even proved itself in a mini jeopardy game against two former jeopardy champions, crushing them with ease and easily claiming the reward of one million US dollars. An artificial intelligence with this power is a figure of great controversy, and many say that we should not be investing in machines such as Watson, which could potentially destroy the careers of millions of individuals across the globe with it's almost human like 'thinking' processes. However, Watson could still prove to be an extremely useful tool for many fields which require human attention, such as medicine, finance, commerce, and business. With it's almost human like attributes, Watson could execute tasks such as calculating and predicting stock exchange values, deciding how to solve medical problems, or even predicting which economies are to fall and which ones are to rise.