What are the moral, ethical, cultural, privacy and environmental impacts of computing?
The moral, social, ethical and cultural impact of computer science, including privacy, the environmental impact of computing, automation and employment, the digital divide, and how to evaluate the ethical issues raised by new technologies.
An OCR H446 answer on the moral, social, ethical and cultural impact of computer science: privacy and surveillance, the environmental impact of computing, automation and employment, the digital divide, and how to evaluate the ethical issues raised by new technologies.
Reviewed by: AI editorial process; not yet individually human-reviewed
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What this dot point is asking
OCR wants you to discuss the moral, social, ethical and cultural impacts of computing, privacy and surveillance, environmental impact, automation and employment, and the digital divide, and to evaluate the ethical issues of new technologies in a balanced way. Expect an extended levels-of-response question weighing benefits against harms and reaching a judgement.
The answer
Privacy and surveillance
Environmental impact
Automation, employment and the digital divide
Examples in context
Targeted advertising and data brokerage illustrate the privacy debate; large data breaches show the harm when collection goes wrong. The energy demand of AI training and cryptocurrency mining, and mountains of discarded phones, illustrate environmental impact. Self-checkout and warehouse robots illustrate automation's employment effects. Unequal broadband access illustrates the digital divide. OCR ties these issues to the legislation that regulates some of them, to network security and encryption (protecting data), and to the responsibility of computer scientists when designing systems.
Try this
Q1. State one privacy concern raised by large-scale personal data collection. [1 mark]
- Cue. Individuals can be profiled and tracked without full consent, and their data can be sold, combined or exposed in a breach (any one).
Q2. State one environmental impact of computing and one way it can be reduced. [2 marks]
- Cue. Impact: energy use of data centres/devices or e-waste. Reduction: energy-efficient hardware, renewable-powered data centres, or responsible recycling.
Q3. State what the digital divide refers to. [1 mark]
- Cue. The gap between those with access to technology, connectivity and digital skills and those without, which can widen inequality.
Exam-style practice questions
Practice questions written in the style of OCR exam questions on this dot point, with worked answer explainers. The year tag is the paper they imitate, not the source.
OCR 20209 marksDiscuss the ethical and social issues raised by the increasing use of automation and artificial intelligence in the workplace.Show worked answer →
Levels-of-response question; reward a balanced discussion of benefits and harms reaching a judgement.
Benefits: automation increases productivity, removes humans from dangerous or repetitive tasks, lowers costs and can improve consistency and safety; it can create new, higher-skilled jobs and free people for creative work.
Harms and ethical issues: it can cause unemployment and deskilling in affected sectors, widen inequality between those who own or can use the technology and those displaced, raise questions of accountability when an automated system causes harm, and embed bias if trained on biased data. There are social costs in retraining and the pace of change.
A strong answer weighs these against each other (for example net productivity gains versus the distribution of who benefits and who loses) and reaches a reasoned position, perhaps that the impact depends on how the transition is managed (retraining, regulation). Top marks need both sides developed and a justified conclusion, not a list.
OCR 20216 marksExplain two privacy concerns raised by the large-scale collection of personal data by online services, and one way the impact can be reduced.Show worked answer →
Privacy concerns (up to 4, two developed): services collect large amounts of personal data (browsing, location, purchases), which can be used to profile and track individuals without their full understanding or consent; this data can be sold, combined across sources, or breached and exposed, leading to identity theft, targeted manipulation or loss of anonymity. A second concern is surveillance, constant data collection erodes the expectation of privacy and can have a chilling effect on behaviour.
Reducing the impact (up to 2): measures include strong data-protection regulation and enforcement, data minimisation (collecting only what is needed), encryption and anonymisation, clear consent and transparency, and giving users control over their data. Markers reward two developed privacy concerns plus one valid mitigation.
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