Impact Of Computing

Introduction
Computers and computing have revolutionized our lives. To use computing safely and
responsibly, we need to be aware of privacy, security, and ethical issues. As programmers, we
need to understand the potential impacts of our programs and be responsible for the
consequences. As computer users, we need to understand any potential beneficial or harmful
effects and how to protect ourselves and our privacy when using a computer.

Developing Understanding
The creation of computer programs can have extensive impacts, some unintended, on societies,
economies, and cultures. In this big idea, students explore these effects, the legal and ethical
concerns that come with programs, and the responsibilities of programmers. When using
computing innovations and transmitting information via the Internet, students should be aware of
the risk of sharing personal identifiable information about themselves, such as their age or
address, and actively take steps to keep this information safe. This big idea can be integrated
throughout the course and works well with the Creative Development, Data, and Computing
Systems and Networks big ideas.

Building Computational Thinking Practices

Computing innovations and programs are often developed in teams. A good, collaborative team
starts with a group that is made up of people from different backgrounds, genders, ages, and
races so that the perspectives of all potential users are being represented. By creating diverse
groups where each person’s opinion is considered, we help avoid unintentional bias and
potential negative effects, such as contributing to the digital divide, that can creep into
innovations. Investigating the impact of existing computing innovations can help students avoid
unintentional negative effects of their own innovations. Consumers should be aware of the
impact that a new computing innovation might have before beginning to use it, as well as what
data are being gathered and how the product owner intends to use those data. While students
may find it relatively easy to describe how the gathering of data would impact them, it is
sometimes more difficult for students to understand the impacts that computing innovations and
the gathering of personal data might have on people who are different from them, or on society
as a whole. As students investigate computing innovations, provide opportunities for students to
learn from others’ perspectives by allowing time for viewpoints and potential impacts to be
shared during a group discussion, like a debate.

Preparing For The AP Exam

Students will be asked to complete three investigations into computing innovations during the
school year. Through these investigations, students will look at the data the computing
innovation uses to complete its task; any data privacy, security, or storage concerns that might
be associated with the innovation; and beneficial and harmful effects the computing innovation
might have on society, the economy, or culture. On the end-of-course exam, students will be
presented with a passage about a computing innovation and will be asked a series of questions
about data and the effects of the computing innovation. While the computing innovations that
need to be investigated are not specified in the curricular requirement, students will benefit from
investigating a large range of computing innovations.

Essential Questions
● What app or computer software do you use most often and would have a hard time
going without? How does this software solve a problem for you or benefit you?
● Are innovators responsible for the harmful effects of their computing innovations, even if
those effects were unintentional? Why or why not?
● What data are generated by smartphones, and what are they being used for?

Sample Instructional Activities

● Marking the text
○ Provide students with an article that highlights both beneficial and harmful effects
of a specific computing innovation, and have them mark which effects are
beneficial and which are harmful. For each effect the students mark as harmful,
have them add notes about whether they think these effects should have been
anticipated in advance. For each effect the students mark as beneficial, have the
students make notes indicating if they think these benefits were intended or
unintended.
○ Kinesthetic learning In small groups, have students create and act out a play or a
scene involving privacy and security risks, especially when it comes to personally
identifiable information (PII) and the impact of collecting such data. Sample topics
might include not recognizing a phishing email, being careless with passwords,
downloading a virus accidentally, or not being aware of a search history being
kept on a computer. Students could extend their play to include best practices or
ways to stay safer when using computing innovations.

Beneficial & Harmful Effects

While computing innovations are typically designed to achieve a specific purpose, they may
have unintended consequences.
● Explain how an effect of a computing innovation can be both beneficial and harmful.
○ People create computing innovations.
○ The way people complete tasks often changes to incorporate new computing
innovations.
○ Not every effect of a computing innovation is anticipated in advance.
○ A single effect can be viewed as both beneficial and harmful by different people,
or even by the same person.
○ Advances in computing have generated and increased creativity in other fields,
such as medicine, engineering, communications, and the arts.
● Explain how a computing innovation can have an impact beyond its intended purpose.
○ Computing innovations can be used in ways that their creators had not originally
intended:
 ■ The World Wide Web was originally intended only for rapid and easy
exchange of information within the scientific community.
■ Targeted advertising is used to help businesses, but it can be misused at
both individual and aggregate levels.
■ Machine learning and data mining have enabled innovation in medicine,
business, and science, but information discovered in this way has also
been used to discriminate against groups of individuals.
○ Some of the ways computing innovations can be used may have a harmful
impact on society, the economy, or culture.
○ Responsible programmers try to consider the unintended ways their computing
innovations can be used and the potential beneficial and harmful effects of these
new uses.
○ It is not possible for a programmer to consider all the ways a computing
innovation can be used.
○ Computing innovations have often had unintended beneficial effects by leading to
advances in other fields.
○ Rapid sharing of a program or running a program with a large number of users
can result in significant impacts beyond the intended purpose or control of the
programmer

Digital Divide
While computing innovations are typically designed to achieve a specific purpose, they may
have unintended consequences.
● Describe issues that contribute to the digital divide.
○ Internet access varies between socioeconomic, geographic, and demographic
characteristics, as well as between countries.
○ The “digital divide” refers to differing access to computing devices and the
Internet, based on socioeconomic, geographic, or demographic characteristics.
○ The digital divide can affect both groups and individuals.
○ The digital divide raises issues of equity, access, and influence, both globally and
locally.
○ The digital divide is affected by the actions of individuals, organizations, and
governments.

Computing Bias
While computing innovations are typically designed to achieve a specific purpose, they may
have unintended consequences.
● Explain how bias exists in computing innovations.
○ Computing innovations can reflect existing human biases because of biases
written into the algorithms or biases in the data used by the innovation.
○ Programmers should take action to reduce bias in algorithms used for computing
innovations as a way of combating existing human biases.
 ○ Biases can be embedded at all levels of software development.

Crowdsourcing
While computing innovations are typically designed to achieve a specific purpose, they may
have unintended consequences.
● Explain how people participate in problem-solving processes at scale.
○ Widespread access to information and public data facilitates the identification of
problems, development of solutions, and dissemination of results.
○ Science has been affected by using distributed and “citizen science” to solve
scientific problems.
○ Citizen science is scientific research conducted in whole or part by distributed
individuals, many of whom may not be scientists, who contribute relevant data to
research using their own computing devices.
○ Crowdsourcing is the practice of obtaining input or information from a large
number of people via the Internet.
○ Human capabilities can be enhanced by collaboration via computing.
○ Crowdsourcing offers new models for collaboration, such as connecting
businesses or social causes with funding.

Legal & Ethical Concerns

While computing innovations are typically designed to achieve a specific purpose, they may
have unintended consequences.
● Explain how the use of computing can raise legal and ethical concerns.
○ Material created on a computer is the intellectual property of the creator or an
organization.
○ Ease of access and distribution of digitized information raises intellectual property
concerns regarding ownership, value, and use.
○ Measures should be taken to safeguard intellectual property.
○ The use of material created by someone else without permission and presented
as one’s own is plagiarism and may have legal consequences.
○ Some examples of legal ways to use materials created by someone else include:
■ Creative Commons—a public copyright license that enables the free
distribution of an otherwise copyrighted work. This is used when the
content creator wants to give others the right to share, use, and build
upon the work they have created.
■ Open source—programs that are made freely available and may be
redistributed and modified
■ Open access—online research output free of any and all restrictions on
access and free of many restrictions on use, such as copyright or license
restrictions
○ The use of material created by someone other than you should always be cited.
 ○ Creative Commons, open source, and open access have enabled broad access
to digital information.
○ As with any technology or medium, using computing to harm individuals or
groups of people raises legal and ethical concerns.
○ Computing can play a role in social and political issues, which in turn often raises
legal and ethical concerns.
○ The digital divide raises ethical concerns around computing.
○ Computing innovations can raise legal and ethical concerns. Some examples of
these include:
■ The development of software that allows access to digital media
downloads and streaming
■ The development of algorithms that include bias
■ The existence of computing devices that collect and analyze data by
continuously monitoring activities

Safe Computing
The use of computing innovations may involve risks to personal safety and identity.
● Describe the risks to privacy from collecting and storing personal data on a computer
system
○ Personally identifiable information (PII) is information about an individual that
identifies, links, relates, or describes them. Examples of PII include:
■ Social Security number
■ Age
■ Race
■ Phone number(s)
■ Medical information
■ Financial information
○ Search engines can record and maintain a history of searches made by users.
○ Websites can record and maintain a history of individuals who have viewed their
pages.
○ Devices, websites, and networks can collect information about a user’s location.
○ Technology enables the collection, use, and exploitation of information about, by,
and for individuals, groups, and institutions.
○ Search engines can use search history to suggest websites or for targeted
marketing.
○ Disparate personal data, such as geolocation, cookies, and browsing history, can
be aggregated to create knowledge about an individual.
○ PII and other information placed online can be used to enhance a user’s online
experiences.
○ PII stored online can be used to simplify making online purchases.
○ Commercial and governmental curation of information may be exploited if privacy
and other protections are ignored.
 ○ Information placed online can be used in ways that were not intended and that
may have a harmful impact. For example, an email message may be forwarded,
tweets can be retweeted, and social media posts can be viewed by potential
employers.
○ PII can be used to stalk or steal the identity of a person or to aid in the planning
of other criminal acts.
○ Once information is placed online, it is difficult to delete.
○ Programs can collect your location and record where you have been, how you
got there, and how long you were at a given location.
○ Information posted to social media services can be used by others. Combining
information posted on social media and other sources can be used to deduce
private information about you.
● Explain how computing resources can be protected and can be misused.
○ Authentication measures protect devices and information from unauthorized
access. Examples of authentication measures include strong passwords and
multifactor authentication.
○ A strong password is something that is easy for a user to remember but would be
difficult for someone else to guess based on knowledge of that user.
○ Multi-factor authentication is a method of computer access control in which a
user is only granted access after successfully presenting several separate pieces
of evidence to an authentication mechanism, typically in at least two of the
following categories: knowledge (something they know), possession (something
they have), and inherence (something they are).
○ Multi-factor authentication requires at least two steps to unlock protected
information; each step adds a new layer of security that must be broken to gain
unauthorized access.
○ Encryption is the process of encoding data to prevent unauthorized access.
Decryption is the process of decoding the data. Two common encryption
approaches are:
■ Symmetric key encryption involves one key for both encryption and
decryption.
■ Public key encryption pairs a public key for encryption and a private key
for decryption. The sender does not need the receiver’s private key to
encrypt a message, but the receiver’s private key is required to decrypt
the message.
○ Certificate authorities issue digital certificates that validate the ownership of
encryption keys used in secure communications and are based on a trust model.
○ Computer virus and malware scanning software can help protect a computing
system against infection.
○ A computer virus is a malicious program that can copy itself and gain access to a
computer in an unauthorized way. Computer viruses often attach themselves to
legitimate programs and start running independently on a computer.
 ○ Malware is software intended to damage a computing system or to take partial
control over its operation.
○ All real-world systems have errors or design flaws that can be exploited to
compromise them. Regular software updates help fix errors that could
compromise a computing system.
○ Users can control the permissions programs have for collecting user information.
Users should review the permission settings of programs to protect their privacy
● Explain how unauthorized access to computing resources is gained.
○ Phishing is a technique that attempts to trick a user into providing personal
information. That personal information can then be used to access sensitive
online resources, such as bank accounts and emails.
○ Keylogging is the use of a program to record every keystroke made by a
computer user in order to gain fraudulent access to passwords and other
confidential information.
○ Data sent over public networks can be intercepted, analyzed, and modified. One
way that this can happen is through a rogue access point.
○ A rogue access point is a wireless access point that gives unauthorized access to
secure networks.
○ A malicious link can be disguised on a web page or in an email message.
○ Unsolicited emails, attachments, links, and forms in emails can be used to
compromise the security of a computing system. These can come from unknown
senders or from known senders whose security has been compromised.
○ Untrustworthy (often free) downloads from freeware or shareware sites can
contain malware.