1. Information Processing Lecture 3A Information Technology and The Law

2. Topics covered in this Session We will look briefly at these issues: Computer Crime Computers and Privacy Health & Safety Issues

3. Computer Crime Categories of Crime Fraud Data appropriation Data misuse Software Piracy Hacking Malicious intent Obscenity Racism Incitement Most crime goes unreported or unnoticed

4. Hacking and Viruses Hacking is defined as ‘accessing data without authorisation’. It is a criminal offence under the Computer Misuse Act (1990)

5. Hacking and Viruses Viruses are programs written and introduced with an intent to disrupt a computer system Main Types: Trojan Horses Worms Logic Bombs

6. Computer Innovation and the Law On the one hand, Computer development and innovation is rapid. Machines upgrade specifications regularly, and become faster, more complex. Things which were once impossible, or achievable only with a lot of time, money and effort now become routine. On the other hand, Legal process tend to be slow and cumbersome. Changes in legislation require detailed scrutiny by government and the judiciary. The consequences is: Legal processes are forever “trying to catch up” with behaviour which although currently not technically criminal, may well be socially undesirable.

7. Computers and Privacy The Data Protection Acts (1984 and 1998): give rights to individuals, in that you have the right to see any data held on you. do not prevent individuals or organisations from holding information about you, but they must do so according to certain constraints. cover all types of information, not just that held in electronic form.

8. Discussion Activity 1 Read Page 8, 9 on the notes and follow up the internet links on pages 9,14. Discuss the following: You suspect that your ISP is monitoring and recording your internet use and your on-line transactions, including the number of times you have visited particular websites and the credit-card payments that you have made to various.coms. Subsequently, you get junk mail through your door offering you cut-price subscription rates to a particular websites, clearly identifying that you have visited similar sites in the past. What rights do you have in this matter?

9. Health and Safety Issues The major Health Issues are: Eyesight (eyestrain, headaches) Back/Neck Pain Electromagnetic Fields Repetitive Strain Injury Noise

10. Discussion Activity 2 Read Page 11 of the notes, and conduct a brief internet search on “Carpel Tunnel Syndrome (CTS)” Discuss the following: Suppose you were designing a website to help workers in an office to avoid contracting CTS. What elements would you include in this, and what would the consequences be for your employers?

11. Resources http://www.indiana.edu/~ucsstaff/cts.html