Group items tagged

As technology is increasing, robots are becoming more and more used in our society. This has impacted our world in many ways such as more machinery is being used in order to produce goods. This can lead to unemployment since less people are required to work in this industries as machines have taken the role. "The latest version of Honda's Asimo robot is reported to be able to distinguish between the voices of three different people spoken at once by using a combination of face recognition and sound analysis" By this quote taken from this article, we can see that robots are starting to resemble more to humans such that they can now distinguish between voices of three different people spoken at once. This is a social and ethical issue since machines such as robots are taking the role of human beings. The question is, for how long more is technology going to continue to increase? Are human beings on their way to extinction?

As the article states, there are numerous robots that could perform tasks such as serving drinks (Asimo), teaching psychology (Nao), and replacing infantry (Petman). There is a danger of becoming overly dependent on technology. As we have discussed in class, the inherent characteristics of computers are that they will only do what they programmed to, regardless of the identity and intentions of the user. Also, both the computer and the user (if not equipped with appropriate technical know-how) become very vulnerable if the system malfunctions in a way that was not predicted. In tasks too dangerous to be directly undertaken by human beings, such as operating valves at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, robotics become essential. Companies need to strike a balance between commercialisation and what is truly necessary for the benfit of humanity.

In the field of medicine, robotic surgery is becoming increasingly popular: http://futureoftech.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/01/13/10150612-robot-surgeons-may-get-upgraded

Don't forget the other tags. You are missing one from section 2 and one from section 3

Seems to be a good solution but what are the limits of this solution?

In theory this would be a good solution, due to the fact that as soon as the user read the warning message in detail, they would feel encouraged not to follow the link. However, due to the facebook's nature, in practice, this solution isn't as effective as one would expect. Throughout Facebook's history, when a user clicks a link that leads to an application, a message appears stating that if the user accepts then information from their profile will be accessed. Because of this, when users see this message they will simply think it is one of the usual messages and skip to the link due to habit. Another obvious limitation is the fact that all it does is simply suggest that it MIGHT be malicious, and therefore most users that are unaware of the dangers of phishing might ignore it and choose to follow the link.

If the proposed blackout were to occur, a greater awareness and understanding could be achieved. This would likely garner more support against SOPA, as websites like Facebook, Google and Twitter are used by millions of people worldwide, most of these people being casual internet users who have no idea what SOPA really is, meaning some would attempt to educate themselves on the subject and try to do something about it. The potential increase in support could lead to more people demanding big companies to 'drop' their support by threatning to boycott said comapnies products/services. As mentioned in an article bookmarked by Tranny Franny (http://www.slashgear.com/sony-and-nintendo-drop-sopa-support-amid-anonymous-threats-03205579), Sony and Nintendo appear to have dropped their suppor after being threatned by Anonymous. Although what Anonymous threatned to do was wrong, it certainly go the point across to both companies meaning a boycott from customers worldwide could change other companies minds on whether or not to support SOPA

Although that seems like a good way to reach a wider audience in order for them to understand the severity of how SOPA would affect the internet, it could be seen as quite unethical. These casual internet users could only use websites such as Facebook to get an quick update, so these could be people who would be indifferent after knowing the affect of SOPA. Why should these people be prevented to access a website they use simply because the website feels the need to make a statement. And in terms of big companies dropping their support, is it really correct for them to drop their support? why did they support it in the first place? If they believe that this act should be made official is it correct for them to "drop" their support simply because too many people are going against it? So they would be "changing sides" out of fear, rather than due to their opinion, which in a way goes agaisnt the point of voting or supporting somethis such as SOPA

How do we define digital access when the price of personal computers and related technologies has dropped dramatically over the years?

Rather than blocking access to Facebook and Twitter, a growing of employers are monitoring what proportion of the working day individuals spend on them.

State and Describe the main Social and Ethical issues that relates to this article: The main social and ethical issue that relates to this article is surveillance. In this article, it is suggested that workers in an office space would have the time they spend on a social network being monitored and controlled. This survaillence of how the workers spend their time on the computer seems somewhat appropriate in my opinion. What this is doing is it's reaching a compromise for the workers, by still letting them access these social networks, while limiting how long they can access it for daily so as to ensure that they focus as much on their work. Although it could be question whether it's ethical to monitor people's computer, what this is doing is avoiding measures such as a boss visually monitoring everyone's computer behind their backs,which raises a much bigger surveillance issue. The second suggestion of an internal and local social network that would only include people in the workplace is also a good option that attempts to keep the workers focused on the workplace and to ecourage communication between workers, rather than getting distracted with life outside the workplace. This is also, in my opinion an excellent suggestion as it offers an alternative to simply blocking social networks, which raises an issue in terms of how ethical it is to simply restrict someone from visiting a website, which could be seen as censorship.

Someone reportedly tampers with a demo iPhone 4S so that when a 12-year-old boy picks it up and asks Siri a question, she is not amused or amusing. She tells him to 'Shut the f*** up.' Read this blog post by Chris Matyszczyk on Technically Incorrect.

The main social and ethical issues are integrity of the system, security, and people and machines. Although I do not own an iPhone 4S, I would imagine it the product had been hacked and its set-up instructions had been reprogrammed by a user who is extremely knowledgeable on issues such as encryption and programming know-how. Perhaps because the iPhone referred to in the news story was a "demonstration" version, I suppose its encryption levels are not as powerful as the real product (Apple would have to invest less money in manufacturing). However, there is a much simpler explanation, according to "MacTrast" (http://www.mactrast.com/2011/12/siri-tells-twelve-year-old-to-shut-the-fck-up-after-pranksters-tamper-with-display-iphone/): Simply changing the name in the contact card by verbalising it (asking Siri "Call me (insert ridiculous statement here)") allows the user to tamper with the phrase voiced by Siri, without having to deal with complicated encryption or validation processes. This means the system itself is integral and works correctly, but the given primary contact's nickname is has been inappropriately altered. To solve this problem, the company should enforce the security of its demo versions of the Siri for iPhone 4S by impossibilitating a deliberate change of contact names and redistribute them across retailers.

The main social and ethical issue in this article is security and privacy. Using a method known as 'spear-phising', hackers were handed users' account information. I find it quite freightning how people, who are supposed to be some of the best minds in the world, as they work in sensitive parts of the US government, fall into the trap of giving their account information to hackers. In my opinion a greater awareness should be raised, on how to protect their privacy, among high-profile government officials in order to protect vital and classified information.

this is racism...

In what way is this racism Zhan?

This article further increases the already notorious fear of databases containing people's details being accessed by undesired people, who could potentially use this data to cause harm. This raises a serious privacy issue, as, although it has not been confirmed, these hackers have accessed the Steam database which holds up to 35 million people's credit card data and email addresses, posing a threat to a large amount of people. Although it is not known if any harm came of this attack, security measures such as changing password and transferring credit card data to a more secure service (Steam Guard security service) were suggested to Steam users. This is a solution that doesn't undo the harm that has already been made, but is still a positive measure as it can help prevent potential future attacks from hackers on this database.

"Valve has officially rolled out its new Steam security system, Steam Guard, which allows users to lock their accounts to a single PC if they so choose. Steam Guard essentially blocks all attempts to access a protected Steam account, then sends verification emails to a registered email address which allow the account owner to monitor account activity and grant access on a single PC at a time. " http://www.bit-tech.net/news/gaming/2011/03/17/valve-launches-steam-guard-security/1 This ensures the 35 million users "the account security they need as they purchase more and more digital goods", especially if they use Steam in public spaces such as cibercafés. http://www.joystiq.com/2011/03/03/valve-introduces-steam-guard-to-fight-acount-phishing-and-hijack/

An article referring to the extreme decontextualisation and reliability issues of sources presented in WikiLeaks.

Also, here's a link to another article explaining about how google's self-driving car works.

I'm a bit curious Jorge, how would this invade the privacy of some? This is an amazing technological improvement, it will be interesting to see what happens in the future with this. This is a quite good article on how it works http://news.discovery.com/autos/how-google-self-driving-car-works-111018.html

Because the car records it's position using the GPS, if a black hacker is able to get hold of this information the owner of the car could be put at risk.

The arrest of Megaupload's founders has led to other file storage sites taking action in an apparent attempt to protect themselves from legal action. The following is a link to a news story describing the disciplinary action taken against the founder of Megaupload: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-16711416

How online storage works Online storage in websites such as Megaupload, upload.to and Rapidshare work using cloud storage. This is similar to the storage used in Gmail, Youtube and Facebook Essentially this is how it works: 1. User accesses websites and selects file he/she wants to upload 2. File is uploaded to the cloud storage server, which is located in the house cloud storage systems called data centers. 3. Usually the files are then copied to other servers around the world in case one of them goes down or needs repairing, this is known as redundancy. Without redundancy cloud storage cannot guarantee that the user will be ble to access his files. Servers are also powered by multiple power supplies in case one of them fails. 4. When the user wants to access the files he uploaded he may do so through a web-based interface. For more information on how cloud storage systems work http://computer.howstuffworks.com/cloud-computing/cloud-storage1.htm

http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20120121/16551717500/jonathan-coulton-destroys-rationale-behind-megaupload-seizure-with-single-tweet-follows-up-with-epic-blog-post.shtml In the article above Jonathon Coultron makes a good point. Although there might be a lot of illegal activity on MegaUpload such as: sharing DVDs and CDs, there are also a large group of people that use MegaUpload as a tool to legally upload data that they wish to share with others or keep a backup for themselves. Furthermore, I think his tweet says it all in regards to the millions of dollars the music and film industry will gain from the death of MegaUpload.

This article refers to the security of the network of various high-profile companies (Adidas, Sony), and the privacy of the consumers. To solve the issue of security, companies should tighten up their security for example, by incorporatibg Secure Sockets Layer protection (SSL) and https network protection. In the past, "sophisticated" has referred to Advanced Persistent Threat (APT) attacks. Defending against APTs was one of the tasks involved in a recent EU-US joint test of cyber attack readiness. http://www.itpro.co.uk/637204/cyber-attack-drives-adidas-websites-offline The companies should also be more cautious of their surroundings by monitorning IP traffic and access to the website. Losing personal and/or sensitive data and having it in the wrong hands could cause serious consequences. (http://www.filetransferplanet.com/cyber-attack-forces-adidas-offline/) This personal information could then be passed on to third party companies who can take advantage of information like address and phone numbers to conduct surveys or distribute advertisements. This would cause widespread discotent due to the invasion of the consumers' privacy.

Criterion B . Describe, step by step, how the IT system works. 1. Surgically implanted nerves are connected to electrodes placed on the chest area. 2.The nerves prompt electrical signals from the brain to the electrodes. 3. The electrical signals are then interpreted by a micro-processor, into natural movements. More information on how bionic arms work: http://thetartan.org/2008/9/22/scitech/howthingswork

Outline how this IT system works: Essentially, this system consists of hardware (electrodes) that replace the nerves going to and from the brain. Electrodes are connected to the chest muscles which control 6 motors that move the prosthetic joints. When the mind sends a message through the nerves to move a muscle in the arm, the signal causes a muscle in the chest to contract, which activates a certain electrode to tell a motor to move a part of the bionic arm. A more detailed account of how mind-controlled bionics works is here: http://science.howstuffworks.com/bionic-arm.htm This story is a prime example of how IT is being used to radically develop medical research and treatments.

The main social and ethical issue in this article is People and Machines. This new bionic arm which is controlled by the mind is an important development, in this technology, now allowing people who have had to have limbs amputated to have new arms/legs that they can control as they would their original arms/legs. However, due to the fact that it is very new and expensive technology to develop, although it points to the future, at the moment almost no one that would need a bioninc arm would be able to afford it. This means that although it is an essential step forward, at the moment it will not be something that can help the majority of people who most need it. As well as this, the bionic arm, although it is controlled by the mind, it will never be as fluid and will never work as intuitively as your arm.

The main social and ethical in this article would have to be authenticity, as it deals with the fact that people are making accounts to be real people. In my own experience I've had this happen to me once and it was easily identified for the reasons this article states, no status updates etc. Although in my case it was harmless, it can lead to issues of a greater significance. This article also highlights the worrying ease at which people can fake an accout and that there is a very significant number of these accounts. They could in some cases be used in a harmful manner. For example, sexual predators could easily make a profile pretending to be 15 years old, add a profile picture of a child and then add other children as friends. This creates a security issue as the children's life is in a potentially harmful situation, as these cases of sexual predators over the internet has been a security issue since social networks came to be. Another issue that lack of authenticity brings is that these fake accounts could be used for spam, and could also potentially be used to spread malware. This is a very common problem in Facebook as these fake accounts can share a link with their "friends" and from this it starts spreading throughout the entire social network.

The news article shows some very important facts for instance, out of 5.3m teenagers in the UK more than half a million of them have suffered from cyber bullying. Furthermore, as social networks are now becoming more available on mobile devices this number is likely to increase in the coming years.

Nowadays lots of cyber bullying is going on, and it is increasing. Not only cyber bullying exists via text messages, yet also through anonymous calls and what is increasing a lot now, via social networks. People create facebook pages with names such as 'The ugliest person in Cascais' (this is probably an example of one of the 'less worse') and post images of people, with insulting descriptions on the photos. This is a big issue since people who are bullied may psychologically or even physically suffer from this. "half a million of them had been a victim of online bullying.". Technology is increasing, so surely, if no one tries to actually do something to change this, cyber bullying will also increase.

I'm a bit surprised at the number, it's lower than what I thought it would be. Perhaps I'm just a pessimist. Nevertheless, I agree with Ines. We're getting more and more cyber bullying, Stopping cyber bullying has proved difficult with the exponential growth of social networking. Cyber bullying is of course as we know, the use of the Internet or text messaging to bully others. But what can we do to change this escalation of cyber bullying? Not a whole lot really, in my opinion. Kids will, unsurprisingly, bully each other. The Facebook-generation is merely using the medium they are given.

SO scary!!!!!! After reading this shocking article I'll probably start covering my security cameras while I'm at home! A main social and ethical issue is SURELY privacy. I think that many people aren't aware that security is coming to bits by the second, privacy isn't what it was some years ago. And, in my opinion, it's the technology's fault. Even though computers, internet, phones etc have become useful, society's becoming too much dependent to technology and this is an issue as technology will continue to increase even more, meaning that society's privacy will continue to decrease even more. Can't we even have privacy at home?

To some extent I agree with you Ines. But technology isn't all bad. Yes, we are losing privacy at a rapid pace. But these cameras provided us with security. Well, they would have if it wasn't for the breach in Trendnet's security they would have provided people with security. Our world has become much dependent on social networking etc. We do not have as much privacy as one would like, but this is not solely the technology fault in my opinion. It is as much human nature, the drive to have 15 minutes of fame. Just my two cents anyway : )

The IT system in focus is the Trendnet home security camera. Here is how real-time, live video broadcasting works. This information originally referred to IP based cameras, which essentially work the same way. Image: http://www.ipcctv.com/images/learnMore/Single-Camera.gif The camera is installed and ran "The camera turns video & audio into binary data The camera connects to your the and transmits this data onto the network This data can then be viewed on a PC; on the local network, or over the internet." The remote viewer inputs the Internet addresses which link to the video streams and is able to see footage. source: http://www.ipcctv.com/article.php?xArt=13

"Well, it depends on what you mean as "own."  Under copyright law, unless there is an agreement to the contrary or the photograph or video is shot as part of your job, a copyright to a photograph generally belongs to the creator.  As the copyright owner, you own the exclusive rights to display, copy, use, produce, distribute and perform your creation as you see fit and approve.  As the subject of the photograph, you have a right to publicity, which allows you to get paid for the commercial use of your name, likeness or voice."

"Award-winning Archerfish Solo™ is a thinking, wireless monitoring camera and recorder with advanced Homeland Security technology. It understands what it sees, so you can tell it what to look for and what to ignore. Archerfish will alert only on what interests you and emails you a video so you can see for yourself. You can even watch live video, on the web, any time you want!"

The main aim of the ETICA research project is to identify ethical issues arising from information and communication technologies in the coming 10 to 15 years. ETICA is funded by the European Commission under the 7th framework programme. This website contains information about the current state of the project. You are invited to look at the consortium members, deliverables and other useful information. This link leads to a list of emerging technologies that have been identified as haveing a significant potential impact on humans and society.