Academy Computer Science Impacts of digital technology

Course map 2.1 →

Paper 1 · J277/01 · unit 1.6

Impacts of digital technology

Stakeholders, privacy, UK laws (DPA, CMA, CDPA), open source vs proprietary, and how to write a discuss answer. Open exercises and quiz.

Everything on this course is open. Skip, jump, retry. Nothing is locked and there is no required order.

This is the extended-response unit. Facts still matter — especially the three laws and licences — but marks also come from stakeholders, both sides, and a conclusion. You can practise the 8-mark shape here without sitting a whole paper.

1.6.1 Impacts of digital technology

How to think (before laws)

Name who is affected (stakeholders): user, company, government, workers, people without access, future generations.

Then pick a lens:

  • Ethical — is it right? Surveillance vs safety; addictive design; bias in algorithms
  • Legal — is it allowed? The Acts below
  • Cultural — how people live, work, speak, include or exclude groups
  • Environmental — energy, e-waste, mining for batteries, data-centre cooling; also video calls vs flying

Privacy is the crossover: ethical and legal (data protection).

Legislation you must be able to apply

Not just the name — a scenario.

Data Protection Act 2018 / UK GDPR

Personal data must be used fairly, lawfully, transparently. Collected for a stated purpose, not kept forever “just in case”, kept accurate and secure. People have rights: access, correction, erasure in many cases. Special-category data (health, politics, religion) needs extra care.

If a school emails a medical list to the wrong parent — DPA issue.

Computer Misuse Act 1990

Three flavours to recognise:

  1. Unauthorised access to computer material (even “just looking”)
  2. Unauthorised access with intent to commit a further offence
  3. Unauthorised modification (deleting, planting malware)

Guessing a friend’s password “as a joke” can still be (1).

Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988

Protects creative work (code, music, images, this lesson). Copying without permission can be infringement. Licences say what you are allowed to do.

Software licences

Proprietary Open source
Source code Usually secret Published
Cost Often paid Often free to use (not always “no conditions”)
Modify / redistribute Restricted by the EULA Allowed if you keep the licence terms (e.g. GPL, MIT)
Support / liability Vendor Community and/or paid support
Example Many commercial games, Windows Python, Linux, Firefox

Open source is not “no copyright”. The licence is the copyright holder granting permissions.

Exam shape for 6–8 marks

  1. Define / briefly state the issue
  2. Stakeholder A — benefit
  3. Stakeholder B — harm or cost
  4. Law or licence if it fits
  5. A limitation or “it depends”
  6. Short conclusion

Command words: discuss wants both sides; explain wants because; describe wants what it is.

Environmental example: cloud gaming saves discs but shifts energy to data centres. Say that out loud in the answer.

The quiz checks laws and licences. The exercises include a mini “discuss” — look at the model, then try one of your own on another topic (facial recognition in shops, always-on school webcams, AI homework).

Practice · optional · answers on this page

Exercises

Do as many or as few as you like, in any order. Hints and a model answer sit under each task.

1.6.1 · e1 paper

Name the Act

Which law is most clearly involved? 1. A pupil uses a stolen password to open the school’s grade database. 2. A company keeps customer emails forever and sells the list to a marketing firm. 3. A student rips a whole textbook PDF and puts it on a public drive. 4. Ransomware encrypts a hospital’s files.
Hint
CMA for unauthorised access/modification; DPA for personal data; CDPA for copying work.
Show a model answer
1. Computer Misuse Act (unauthorised access) 2. Data Protection Act / UK GDPR 3. Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 4. Computer Misuse Act (unauthorised modification) — and likely other offences
1.6.1 · e2 paper

Proprietary vs open source

A charity needs a website CMS. Give two reasons they might choose open source and two reasons they might still pay for a proprietary product.
Hint
Cost, inspectable code, community vs support contracts, liability, skills.
Show a model answer
Open source: often no licence fee; can inspect and adapt the code; not locked to one vendor. Proprietary: paid support/SLA; one company to sue/call; staff may already know it; some features bundled with indemnity.
1.6.1 · e3 paper

Mini discuss (6)

“Schools should use cameras with facial recognition at the gate.” Write 6–8 sentences: two stakeholders, a benefit, a harm, a law, a limitation, a conclusion. Then compare with the model — yours does not have to match word for word.
Hint
Pupils, parents, school, police. DPA special data. False matches. Consent.
Show a model answer
Sample: Facial recognition at a gate would identify pupils as they arrive (school — attendance, safety). Pupils and parents lose anonymity; biometric data is special-category under the DPA/UK GDPR and needs a strong lawful basis and tight security. A benefit is spotting intruders or missing children faster. A harm is false matches (especially for some groups) and normalising surveillance as “just school”. If images leak, that is a data-protection failure as well as an ethical one. Limitation: a determined visitor can still tailgate; cameras do not replace staff. Conclusion: a visitor-badge process plus human supervision is easier to justify than biometric tracking of every child every morning.
1.6.1 · e4 think

Environmental — both sides

Video-call a meeting instead of flying. Give one environmental benefit and one environmental cost of “the internet option”.
Hint
Planes vs data centres and device manufacture.
Show a model answer
Benefit: far fewer flight emissions for that meeting. Cost: devices, networks and data centres still use electricity and create e-waste; always-on video is not “zero carbon”.

Check yourself · not a gateway

Quiz

Mark it, reveal it, or skip it. A low score does not close anything. Try again as often as you want.

1 1.6.1 Unauthorised access to a computer system is covered mainly by the…
2 1.6.1 Selling a customer email list without a lawful basis most clearly breaks…
3 1.6.1 Open-source software means…
4 1.6.1 Which of these are stakeholders in a city CCTV-and-AI scheme? (Select all that apply)
5 1.6.1 A “discuss” question is best answered by…
6 1.6.1 Copying a commercial game and putting it on a USB for a friend is allowed if you already bought the disc.