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Scenario : At least 22.1 million people that are current or former US government workers since 2001's information was hacked and possibly breached into by hackers who stole the Office of Personal Management (OPM) data. It is believed that China stole this information to increase their collection of data of intelligence on US government employees, according to the article. Social / Ethical Issues : China and hackers now have personal information about millions of Americans which is a big ethical issue because no one knows how they are going to use that information and no one knows how much information they actually got. Also, China could use their newly-gained information against government workers unless the workers release personal government information about the US. This could possibly be a huge problem for the US if China basically uses espionage against US government employees and for their own personal gain. IT systems and things the hackers were able to breach: fingerprints databases social security numbers job assignments performance evaluations records on family members and close friends who were listed on job applications for security purposes financial and health records computer user names and passwords Stakeholders: China - Given that they stole information from the United States government intelligence, their relationship between the US and China will weaken. United States government and citizens- US gov't will now have less trust in China and also have a weakened relationship with China. The United States will most likely also take new security measures to make sure their information is more secure, and United States government workers will now be very hesitant to give out their information.

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

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.

Summary of the article: With technology, criminals and terrorists can use media to send threats, images and can even broadcast their crimes. 2 stakeholders: The criminals who use media and the viewers who end up watching their broadcasting. 2 social/ethical issues: With this technology, it is easier for terrorists to create a propaganda and they can easily spread fear by broadcasting their killings. For example, ISIS' videos include the killing of journalists, aid workers, government soldiers, etc. They would post this on the internet uncensored so anyone can watch everything that happened and may be unethical to certain cultures. We probably can't stop them from continuing to post these videos but there should be at least a program or a person who would censor the more gruesome parts. In the example of Mohamed Merah used in the beginning of the article, he used a Go Pro camera, his laptop and a USB drive to create a video documentary of his killings.

The robots aren't doing so hot when it comes to policing copyright infringement. Computers are answering to copyright take down requests and some people are misusing it. 2 stakeholders: The people posting things online and the original creators of content that are being pirated online. 2 social/ethical considerations: If a new movie was to be leaked online then it would cause the movie creators to lose a lot of money as more people would just watch the movie for free online. With the computers deciding on the copyright requests, they can target blogs and personal websites which use other contents to post reviews or summaries or fan pages. This can potentially infringe on freedom of expression. A possible solution: A solution to prevent blogs and personal websites from being targeted is to have actual people doing the job instead of robots as us people would be able to decide whether the website is required to taken down or is safe under the creative commons law. "This infringement of copyright is called "fair use" and is allowed for purposes of criticism, news, reporting, teaching, and parody." A robot would not be able to tell between these and would take down innocent blogs while possibly leaving some that are really pirating content up on the internet. List of IT systems: automated bot-based systems

Scenario: Different US states are taking different approaches to voting. Maryland is enforces paper voting, with some digital use by scanning a copy of each vote to have on record. On the other extreme, Utah Republicans are embracing technology by having everyone vote over the Internet. Social Ethical Issues: Security: James Evans, Utah GOP Chairman, thinks "the risks associated with Internet voting aren't worse than the current system". Learning Curve: Maryland bought new machines for voting and there was some concern about people being confused when using them. IT Systems: Optical scanner for a digital record of votes Electronic Voting Machines Internet Stakeholders: Voters - Do they care about the convenience of online voting or the more reliable security of paper voting? State - Depending on what method of voting, time and money will be used more or saved. Applications to Specified Scenario: The article questions why there is so much concern with voting electronically when we already do so many important things online. We do our banking and buying online, giving out personal information, so why not elections? The article answers, "e-commerce expects and is comfortable with a certain level of fraud. Our electoral process, however, has zero tolerance for fraud". With banking and e-commerce, the costs aren't as high as with elections. Any risks also outweigh the benefits. Elections have also historically never been electronic until now. So there is a certain security and assurance that comes from the traditional paper ballot votes.

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

Chinese police have arrested hackers after the US government supplied them with a list of cybercrime suspects, the Washington Post reports. The hackers are believed to have stolen research and development information from several US firms. The arrests came shortly before Chinese President Xi Jinping visited the US for talks - partly about cyber security.

Scenario: Social Media is now very influential during elections and the US Presidential Candidates are using it to their advantage. Social media has so much power because more people than ever get their news mainly from social media networks. When something exciting happens online, the news talks about it. Social media then goes and talks about what happened on the news. So it's a growing accumulation of attention. Trump, Clinton and Sanders communicate their thoughts through free social networks and get a very widespread response. Young people especially obtain most of their information online. One thing that Trump does differently that gains him attention is his convoluted messages. His statements induce a strong response and get people communicating around him. Social Ethical Issues: Power of media - One issue that the US presidential election brings up is the power of media. How much what is written and said online can affect our judgements and ethics. We can't believe everything on the Internet but it definitely influences our thoughts. When seeing posts from a Candidate we should question why they said why they did. False statements - Some of the things that Trump says on social media is not true, things he may not even believe in. He posts these things solely to get attention. Attention by any means. Technology allows these false statements to be spread around the world. IT Systems: Networks Social Media Management Systems Computers Social media software Stakeholders: Candidates: They can use social media as a platform to reach more people, influence responses and gain attention. Public: They have candidates entering their ecosystem, trying to communicate with them. They also have the ability to evoke responses from the Candidates and demonstrate what they think.

Situation: Twitter is a major social media site for people in the United States. This article brings up the proposed idea that Twitter could play a deciding role in the 2016 election in the United States. Social / Ethical Issues: Twitter in general is a very big social media where everyone can voice their opinion, and every tweet that people tweet can be used against or for a candidate. Even if a candidate tweets something and deletes it, people will most likely have a screenshot of the tweet and will use it against candidates. Stakeholders: People everywhere in the USA can voice their triumphs or downfalls in life on social media. Especially now with social media, candidates every word can be used against them, so it's important for the candidates to use their social media accounts appropriately and effectively to help move up in the polls and attract new voters. Possible Solution: Twitter accounts need to be verified for the person's data and thoughts to be viewed as professional (like a CNN, Fox, NBC reporter would be verified.) So, unless the candidate directly says it or the candidate's thoughts are tweeted by a verified journalist, it should be advised not to trust it because of how many false information there is out there.

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?

Situation : In the United States right now, we are in the process of choosing a new president. For those who do not know, the election process in the US consists of two conflicting opinions of two different parties (Democrats and Republicans.) The Republicans basically believe in lower taxes and less government intervention, while the Democrats believe in raising taxes and more government action. Based on the article, the current state of the US electoral process shows that electronic voting machines guarantee a Republican victory in 2016. Social / Ethical Concerns : Influence on Politiicans - The article claims (this article is VERY pro democratic and VERY pro Hilary Clinton) that the candidate who has the most votes won't in fact win. Rather, the article claims that unless Hilary wins each major swing state by 10% more than the Republican or the corruption of politics with online voting does not end, she will not win. Security issues - The machines may be easy to hack into with the right knowledge and tools, and a hacker could easily sway the country's votes. Influence on People - The best candidate with the most votes from the electoral college should win, so this is a major social and ethical concern because of the idea that America is all about the people deciding the future of the country, and if the right candidate isn't chosen, it could affect our future for generations to come. IT systems flaws: -sometimes the voters don't click on the right candidate and they are mad because the computer won't let them click on the candidate they actually want -machines can malfunction and freeze -some of the voting places are in major favor of one candidate and they may sway the votes after the tallied online -electronic voting machine may not even be present and paper ballots may be used (it's not fair to have some people with paper ballots and some with online voting ballots) -electricity dependency may cause a computer to shut down if there is a loss of power

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.

This article discusses artificial intelligence, and the extent to which it is a) realistic and b) can be used as a replacement for humans in the case of chats -- in other words, it analyzes the question of how and when any such bots will be ready for usage in a manner that will be realistic enough for chatting with an actual human being. This development emerged due to the immediate need of firms such as customer service centers to use less work force and yet satisfy customers with solutions to trivial (to them) problems. The advantages for the stakeholders are immediately obvious -- less workforce will be needed because the computers will be in charge of answering most questions, and fewer questions will be eventually directed to an actual individual. However, the immediate ethical disadvantage is the loss of job openings in the area of customer service, along with many other areas, since intelligent machines will soon be the preferred alternative to complete such tasks; this provides the impacts concerning the economic and psychological aspects. Furthermore, through the loss of jobs, it is likely and very possible that legal issues may arise. The solutions to these problems is that the human workers work in tandem with each other; that way, both the machines are put to good use and the aspects involving the loss of jobs and the ethical/moral issues that arise with these points will be solved. Through the analysis of this article, it is immediately and readily obvious that the IT systems involved in this wide range of scenarios includes but is not limited to computers/computer servers, robotic mechanisms (e.g. robotic arms, etc.).

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.

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

The new Windows 10 operating system is becoming the main focus for Microsoft. Microsoft's CEO, Satya Nadella hopes that Windows 10 will bring Microsoft back into being a major competitor for companies such as Apple and Samsung. The Windows 10 operating system connects all Windows devices to the cloud, including computers, phones, tablets and the Xbox. It also is going to allow Windows to create a large array of apps to be used across their devices. The new operating system is not only going to bring Windows back as a major competitor against the current reigning companies, but also connect Windows users like never before. All the new products will run on Windows 10, and the new apps will be the connective factor between consumers. The system also incorporates the cloud to connect users. Windows 10 is also increasing Windows' sales. They have already exceeded their predicted profit for the first quarter with this new OS. With Windows back as a competitor, this is going to cause more competition and innovation among the companies. Over 110 million people are already using Windows 10, so there is plenty of opportunity for Windows to interact and connect the users together. On a different note, users need to be wary when using new software, as the dangers with the new software are unknown. Those who are affected by the introduction of Windows 10 include Windows, Apple, Samsung and all technological consumers.

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