C2: Legal and Ethical Use of Digital Systems

Importance of Equal Access

• Benefits to organisations, individuals, and society.
• Legal requirements and professional guidelines to ensure accessibility.

Net Neutrality

• Ensures ISPs treat all internet data equally.
• Impacts organisations by preventing preferential treatment of certain content.

Acceptable Use Policies (AUPs)

• Scope: who the document applies to.
• Assets: equipment, documents, knowledge covered.
• Acceptable Behaviours: what is allowed.
• Unacceptable Behaviours: what is prohibited.
• Monitoring: how behaviour is monitored.
• Sanctions: consequences of breaking the policy.
• Agreement: acknowledgement by signing or clicking to agree.

Blurring of Social and Business Boundaries

• Use of social media for business purposes.
• Impact of personal digital behaviour on professional life.

Data Protection Principles

• Lawful processing.
• Collection for specific purpose only.
• Only needed information is collected.
• Data should be accurate and kept as long as necessary.
• Respect data subject rights.
• Data should be protected and not transferred to countries with weaker protection.

Internet and Data Use

• Right to be forgotten.
• Appropriate and legal use of cookies and transactional data.

Intellectual Property

• Importance in organisations.
• Identification and protection methods: trademarks, patents, copyright.
• Legal and ethical use: permissions, licensing, attribution.

Criminal Use of Computer Systems

• Unauthorised access to systems.
• Unauthorised modification of materials.
• Creation and distribution of malware.

Examples

• Using licensed software and respecting copyright.
• Implementing GDPR-compliant data storage.
• Organisation enforcing an Acceptable Use Policy for staff devices.

Advantages & Disadvantages

• Advantages: ensures legal compliance, protects organisation and individuals, improves ethical behaviour, reduces risk of penalties.
• Disadvantages: may restrict some user freedoms, requires ongoing staff training, can be time-consuming to enforce and monitor.

Sample Exam Questions

• Explain the purpose of an Acceptable Use Policy and its key components.
• Describe how intellectual property is protected in digital systems.
• Evaluate the impact of net neutrality on organisations.