Data Protection Act 2018 / UK GDPR: personal data must be processed lawfully, kept accurate, secure and only as long as needed; people have rights to access and correct their data. Organisations must protect it.
The Computer Misuse Act 1990 covers offences involving unauthorised access and specified unauthorised acts affecting systems or data. Authorised editing and properly authorised security testing are different.
Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988: protects creators; copying, sharing or using protected works requires an appropriate licence, permission or an applicable legal exception.
Licensing: proprietary (use, modification and redistribution are controlled by the owner’s licence; it may be paid or free) versus open source (source available, can be modified, e.g. Linux); freeware, shareware.
Laws and their focus
Ethical issues
Privacy and surveillance (CCTV, tracking, facial recognition); algorithmic bias; artificial intelligence and automation (job losses, decisions made by machines); cyber-bullying; digital divide (unequal access).
Training data and fairness
Cultural and social
Consider misinformation, online safety, accessibility and unequal digital skills as well as access to hardware.
Data-protection rights include access and correction; erasure applies in specified circumstances and has exceptions. Consent is one possible lawful basis, not the only basis.
Environmental issues
Manufacturing uses energy and rare materials; e-waste contains toxic substances; energy use of data centres; recycling and reuse; benefits include smart grids and remote working that reduce travel.
Repair, reuse and recycling
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