Big Idea 5: Impact of Computing

New Ways to Communicate and Interact

• Thanks to the Internet and the ease of collaboration and sharing, programs and apps (software applications) can be quickly and easily shared with people worldwide.

• These can sometimes have a huge impact, positive or negative, on people, and sometimes have additional results not originally foreseen by the software developers.

• World Wide Web: which was originally designed for scientists to share their research.

• Targeted advertising: which can be helpful for businesses and consumers when looking for a specific item.

• Social media: which has been used to stream events across the globe, sometimes helps to change history.

• Machine learning and data mining: help find patterns and identify insights in data, leading to new innovations.

• Online learning: is an education model that would not be possible without the tools of communication available via the Internet.

• Programmers and businesses: try to identify potential negative uses, but it is seldom possible to think of all the ways other people could use an innovation.

Access to Information

Cloud Computing

• Cloud computing: offers new ways for people to communicate, making collaboration easier and more efficient.

• Storing documents in the “cloud” simply means they are stored on a computer server at a location different than where the owner of the files is located.

Digital Divide

• Technology has had a major impact on the world, enabling innovation through the sharing of resources and computational artifacts.

• It also allows us to virtually meet with people from anywhere.

• It is helping us on the path of becoming a true global society.

• The impact of the digital divide includes access to information, knowledge, markets, and different cultures.

Bias in Computing Innovations

• Bias: which is intentional or unintentional prejudice for or against certain groups of people, shows up in computing innovations too.

• Humans: write the algorithms, and our biases can make their way into the algorithms and the data used by innovations without us realizing it.

• Artificial intelligence programs: are used more and more in ways such as screening applications of job candidates, determining if a person merits credit to purchase a house, and locating what areas have more crime.

Crowdsourcing

• Crowdsourcing: allows people to share information and ask the “crowd”— anyone who accesses the site—for feedback, to help solve problems, find employment, or for funding.

  • Another use of crowdsourcing is when scientists share data and ask nonscientists, or “citizen scientists,” to look for and report on patterns or other interesting features of the data or to “donate” computer time during periods of time their machine is inactive.

  • This helps to “scale up” processing capability at little to no cost to the organization seeking the resources.

Legal and Ethical Concerns

• Anything a person creates, including any computational artifacts created with a computer, is the intellectual property of that person.

• Material created by someone else that you use in any way should always be cited.

• Peer-to-peer networks exist that are used to illegally share files of all types.

• Devices that continually monitor and collect data, such as a voice-activated device we install or video cameras used for facial recognition posted in our communities, can have legal and/or ethical issues.

Creative Commons

• Creative Commons: provides a way for creators of software, images, music, videos, and any computational artifact to share their creations with stipulations for sharing and permission from the author clearly indicated.

• Digital data: is easy to find, copy, and paste, so ensuring you have written permission from the creator or owner is important.

Open-Source Software

• Not only do we have access to data but to software as well.

• Open source software: is software that is freely shared, updated, and supported by anyone who wants to do so.

• The availability of this software for everyone has greatly expanded people’s abilities to participate in a variety of tasks that many would not have been able to participate in otherwise.

Open Access

• The sharing of huge amounts of public data by organizations, such as the U.S. government, provides the opportunity for anyone to search for information or to help solve problems.

• In addition, the availability of open databases in a variety of fields—including science, entertainment, sports, and business—has benefited people everywhere.

Search Trends and Analytics

• Social media sites: as well as search engines publish what the most frequent searches and posts are about.

• Our browsers keep a list of our most frequently visited sites on their home page to help us out.

• The search engines are able to identify when more people than usual are watching a video or searching for a topic.

• Analytics: identify trends for marketing purposes and help businesses determine what and where customers are searching for their products and their competitors’ products, how long an item sits in a virtual shopping cart, and when people buy.

Data Mining

• Data mining: is a field of study that analyzes large datasets.

• Machine learning: is a subset of data mining.

• Machine learning uses algorithms to analyze data and predict behavior and is used in Artificial Intelligence (AI).

Personally Identifiable Information (PII)

• Any information that identifies you is considered Personally Identifiable Information (PII).

• It includes data such as your address, age, or social security number.

• It also includes data about you, such as your medical or financial information.

• Our PII information is also used by websites to show us certain information or related topics based on our prior visits.

Privacy

• Digital footprints and fingerprints: are the trail of little pieces of data we leave behind as a sign of our presence as we go through our daily lives.

• Many people willingly provide personal information to sites to gain access or privileges, whether it’s through sports teams, shopping, or restaurants.

  • Their data is stored and may be sold with or without their knowledge or permission.

• Many web browsers now have “incognito” or “private” modes so that web searches and file downloads are not recorded in the web history.

• Some web browsers attest that they do not track and retain your search data.

Protecting Our Data

• Many aspects of our lives are much easier today because of the easy access to all sorts of sites and information that the Internet provides.

• This can range from shopping, entertainment, and sports sites to price comparisons.

• Cybersecurity: has a global impact because now anyone from anywhere can attempt to gain unauthorized entry to someone else’s computer, data, servers, or network.

Security

• The security of our data deals with the ability to prevent unauthorized individuals from gaining access to it and preventing those who can view our data from changing it.

• Strong passwords: help block those trying to gain unauthorized access.

• Multifactor authentication: is another layer that is increasingly used.

Cybersecurity

• Cybersecurity: protects our electronic devices and networks from attacks and unauthorized use.

  • These attacks can come in many forms and can have a major impact on those affected.

• Different types of attacks cause different problems.

• Data: may be damaged or the device may be used to further spread the malware.

• Phishing: attacks create e-mail and/or websites that look a legitimate hoping to induce a person to click on the malicious link.

• Computer viruses: are like human viruses.

  • They attach themselves to, or are part of, an infected file.

• Keylogging software: is a form of malware that captures every keystroke and transmits it to whomever planted it.

Cryptography

• Cryptography: is the writing of secret codes.

• Encryption: is converting a message to a coded format.

• Deciphering: the encrypted message is called decryption.

• Security: also relates to encrypting data before it is transmitted to ensure it remains secure if it is intercepted during transmission.

Public Key Encryption

• Public key encryption: uses open standards, meaning the algorithms used are published and available to everyone and are discussed by experts and interested parties and known by all.

  • The key is what keeps information secret until the person it is intended for decrypts it.

Securing the Internet

• The Internet is based on a “trust” model.

  • This means that digital certificates can be purchased from Certificate Authorities (CAs), which identify trusted sites.

    • They issue certificates that businesses, organizations, and individuals load to their websites.

• The certificates verify to web browsers that the encryption keys belong to the business, thereby enabling online purchases and the sending and receiving of secure documents.