INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

The implications of IT

The general effect of IT on our lives There have been a number of general trends in it:

computers have become smaller cheaper and more powerful there has been an increased reliance on communications ;

the electric office has basically evolved using new computer software and communication technology.

there has been decreased use of cash with the use of such methods EDI, EFT and EFTPOS.

shops and shopping methods have changed dramatically .

Effect of IT on work and employment

Increased use of information systems brings advantages and disadvantages to workers.

Jobs can be lost: The electronic office (Word processing etc) Automation (Telephone exchanges, waterworks) Computerised printing methods (DTP etc)

Jobs can be created: Hardware (designing, manufacturing and servicing computers) Software (analysts, programmers, training and operators)

The effect on those in work can be significant: Staff have to be retrained to use computers More people are using computers such as word processing in order

to carry out their jobs

The effect of IT on personal privacy

Personal data is data about people which they do not want others to know.

Privacy refers to the right to keep data to ourselves or to have control over its use.

People hope for rights to: withhold information about themselves; stop data being passed from one database to another

without their knowledge or consent; find out what data is stored about them; have inaccurate data corrected.

The Data Protection Act

The Data Protection Act gives people some of these rights:

it defines data users and data subjects it created a Data Registrar, a data Tribunal and a Data

Register. The act says that:

data must be obtained fairly and lawfully, must only be used in the way registered and must be accurate;

people must be able to have information disclosed and have it changed or deleted if necessary;

data users must protect the data they hold.

EXAM QUESTIONS1. Discuss the extent to which governments should

encourage firms to use Information Technology if unemployment is a consequence.

2. Describe two features of computer storage of data which might make its misuse more serious than misuse of the same data stored in a filing cabinet.

3. Give three rights that the Data Protection Act gives to a data subject.

4. What obligations does the act place on a data user.

5. Describe two changes in employment which results from the introduction of computers into a supermarket.