GEE- LIVING IN THE IT ERA

Department of Mathematics and Statistics

A COMPENDIUM OF
TOPICS FOR
LIVING IN THE
IT ERA (GEE-LIE)
PREPARED BY:

FRANCES JAY B. PACALDO

OCTOBER 2020

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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Page
Course Learning outcomes ………………………………………………………3

Intended Learning Outcomes ……………………………………………………3

Introduction ………………………………………………………………………3-6

Lesson 2.1. Impact of IT on Society …………………………………………...6-13

Lesson 2.2 Automation ………………………………………………………...13-18

Lesson 2.3 Influence of IT on culture and social behavior.………………...19-23

Lesson 2.4 Trends.……………………….….…………………………………24-37

Lesson 2.5 Issues and Challenges……...……………………………………38-41

Lesson 2.6 Privacy……………………………………………………………...42-49

References……………………………………………………………………….49-51

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GEE-LIE Living in IT Era

LESSON 2. IT Culture, Trends, Issues and

Challenges

Lecture Notes

Course Learning Outcome for the Lesson

 Spread information about the issues and challenges directly related to the

information technology environment and professionals;

Intended Learning Outcome

 Analyze how IT influences the society, culture and social behavior.

 Discuss the issues and challenges of Information Technology.

 Demonstrate competence in detecting potential security vulnerabilities, and

demonstrate ways of recovering from the effects of attacks.

Introduction

History has witnessed that humanity went through several revolutions. The latest one is

the revolution of information and communication technology. This revolution caused a

rupture between everything that is old; what is considered new today is quickly turned

into an old and obsolete trend tomorrow. Because of these evolutions, the demand for

this technology has increased. Therefore, the latter has become the most important used

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resource compared to classical resources, which has led to the amplification of interest

in new information and communication technologies by both companies and individuals.

At present, the world is witnessing a rapid evolution process in the need for information

facilities in terms of quantity, quality and access to information, in order to make the best

decision based on the different changes and dynamics of the enterprises environment.

This demonstrates clearly the growing importance of information systems and their ability

to satisfy the needs of enterprises information. This emphasizes the importance to

develop these systems and to increase their effectiveness and efficiency. One of the key

elements of the success of these systems is that they have become dependent on

sophisticated technology that have greatly facilitated access to information and clearly

reduced access costs.

The telecommunications sector has undergone a decisive transformation in a short period

thanks to the technological developments that underpin it. It has become the

infrastructure of what is known today as the knowledge economy which depends on the

information and its delivery methods in the shortest time and at the lowest costs possible.

Due to the tremendous development witnessed by this sector and to the extent it has

contributed in all sectors, especially in light of the use of satellite, mobile phone and the

Internet, this has put the companies in front of a new challenge which is the acquisition

of information and communication technology.

No one can doubt that information technology is a fundamental and innovative revolution

that has touched human life considerably in the last century. Indeed, far from being an

effervescent phenomenon, or a passing trend, information and communication

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technology has just been exploited in all aspects of life. No domain has remained immune

to this policy, which facilitates tasks for both the company and the staff.

Usually when we talk about information technology, it comes to people’s mind that

“information technology (IT) is the use of any computers, storage, networking and other

physical devices, infrastructure and processes to create, process, store, secure and

exchange all forms of electronic data. Typically, IT is used in the context of enterprise

operations as opposed to personal or entertainment technologies. The commercial use

of IT encompasses both computer technology and telephony.

Today’s world is considered as a small village thanks to information technology. The

process of communication and transmission of information has become so fast that it has

spread other the world widely, and it has greatly affected human life and brought about a

radical change. The world now depends entirely on technology, knowing that this

technology carries a significant enough risk to destroy society. Which leads us to wonder

exactly what the new technologies of information and communication consist of?

What are their effects on the daily lives of individuals and what impacts

do they have on the different areas of life: economic, political, and

social?

In this lesson we will focus on the impacts of information technology in Society, what is

IT Automation, the influence of IT on culture and social behavior, IT Trend, Issues and

Challenges of IT and Privacy.

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Lesson 1.1 Impact of Information Technology to the Society

Let’s start!

Definition of Information Technology

Information technology, widely known under its abbreviation (IT), is defined as “the

science and activity of using computers and other electronic equipment to store and send

information.

Many areas of public health, including vital statistics, investigation and research,

surveillance, epidemiology, surveys, laboratories technology, maternal and child health,

and environmental health, use information technology (IT) to achieve their goals and

objectives. IT includes the use of computers and communications, and the transformation

of data into information and knowledge.

Most modern businesses depend heavily on information systems, from employee e-mail

to database management to e-commerce Web sites. Hospitals have large patient

databases to maintain. Universities have sprawling networks to administer. Even a small,

home-based cookie business needs an order-tracking system.

IT in Education

Information technology has made the education process more effective and productive.

It has increased the well-being of the students. Developed methods of education have

made this process easier, such as the replacement of books with tablets and laptops.

Moreover, the emergence of e-learning platforms that allows students to learn from their

homes. These platforms can be an effective alternative for people who are out of school,

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or who have difficulties keeping up with their teachers in class. These platforms give

students the chance to review the courses with simpler and more concrete explanations

at every moment, and this reinforces the educational process and leads to better results

in school for most of the students.

IT in Health System

In the field of medicine, medical devices have known a remarkable development. They

have become more efficient. IT has entered these devices and turned them into digital

devices that facilitate their programming and handling. Thanks to IT sectors like the

artificial intelligence (AI) the world has witnessed distance surgeries thanks to robots, the

implementation of artificial members as artificial legs, hands and even artificial cardio-

aortic valves. Information technology is of particular importance to health care delivery.

Developments of computerized patient records will enhance the efficiency, effectiveness,

and distribution of health care. As managed care programs develop, population-based

information will be of increasing importance to health care providers and to the public

health community. The capacity to transmit this information through telecommunication

linkages, including telemedicine, will revolutionize the accessibility of health care to

underserved areas, including both rural and urban populations. These developments will

raise substantial concerns regarding confidentiality and privacy because information on

health may be very relevant to employment and insurability. Efficient, effective, reliable

information systems could in fact, enhance the human quality of patient/doctor

interactions by focusing on clinical decision-making and patient preferences rather than

routine data collection. In this regard, information technology might in fact, enhance the

quality of that interaction.

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The development of the field of medicine is important for humanity. It is the basis for living

a healthy life away from disease and pain.

IT in Politics

Technology holds the role of power. Information technologies play a decisive role in the

political landscape of countries. They have become widely used in electoral campaigns

to influence public opinion and specially to involve young people in the political life.

Politicians use technology in many ways to influence the growth of different individuals in

their respective spheres. The likes of Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube are powerful

communication media platforms that can easily raise the ratings of politicians. Technology

is a defining factor in most political races. Through technology, politicians are able to

access funds, gain political support, and spend less on campaigning and pushing their

candidacy.

IT in Economy

Technological progress and organizational maturity have contributed to increased

production, capital accumulation and the creation of intense competition among

manufacturers. As a reflection of this competition, the R & D concept emerged as a

strategy of innovation through the harmony of scientific ideas and their practical

application by engineers and scientists making the R & D role into large sections with

technical, legal and administrative skills in maintaining the industrial location and a

reference to quality, productivity and cost. These developments have resulted in an

industrial culture that derives its momentum from the advances of science and technology

that mature and deepen as a natural result of research and development. Information

Technology (IT) is an all-pervasive change, which is affecting the design of many existing

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products and services, as well as the mode of producing and marketing almost all of them.

This point emerges every day stronger from sector studies in manufacturing or in

services, as well as from general trends in R & D, patenting and innovation

The use of different manufacturing technologies in factories is an important aspect in the

evaluation of the impact of innovations in enterprises. Nowadays, competition has

intensified and shifted from the national to the global arena, and product life cycles have

shrunk; yet, there is a growing requirement to satisfy customers’ specific and individual

need. The world economy is in the midst of a rapid transformation. Internet, Mobile

technology, Social Media, and Big Data trends, have unleashed a wave of innovations

that is creating thousands of new startups and job positions, and is reinventing the

traditional industries. Nowadays, we witness big technology trends that are transforming

society as well as business and economy. Every industry now is highly if not totally

affected by the emergence of information technology trends, like Cloud, Social Media, Big

Data that are redrawing the landscape of the global economy. The major consequence

of this emergence is the displacement of some jobs, which has changed the map of the

most requested jobs in the global market and also is enabling and creating new job’s

position profiles.

IT in the Social aspect

It can be said that the social impact of information technology has two sides. It cannot be

one hundred percent negative nor hundred percent positive. It is a two-sided weapon.

Sociologists likened the impact of information technology on society to transforming the

world from vast continents separating people and relatives, to a very small village

encompassing the entire world’s population, which is called globalization. Before

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information technology communication between people required days even months to

reached each other. Thanks to information technology, communication between people

in different parts of the globe has become an easy and fast process, via different ways:

instant messaging, phone calls or video calls.

Information technology has changed the way people perceive reality, and it caused quite

a disorder in some concept and perceptions. Modern technology has changed our

perspective on many concepts. It also changed our dealings with many traditions and

customs that were once considered sacred and the pillars of society. Despite the fact that

the modern means of communication made the world a small village that facilitate

communication, though it created a kind of alienation and divergence within the family.

Communication between members of the same family is almost non-existent, worse

communication between people in general has become virtual. We note the

disappearance of human relations.

Also as negative impact of (IT) on society is “poor language proficiency. Language

proficiency is the ability of an individual to speak or perform in an acquired language. This

is a very serious matter to be concern about this developing information technology on

society. This is because the modern technology allows the students to communicate with

their families and associates instantly using application such as Line, WeChat and

WhatsApp. This application will make life easier to communicate between each other.

However, this will cause them to ignore the spelling of different words and the usage of

proper grammar. Furthermore, with the increasing amount of information on the web,

Internet users may come across inaccurate information and lead to misinformation or

even slightly skewed way of thinking

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Impact of IT in the Society

It’s apparent that the computer era is here; this cannot be debated. In the most

element of the society, we discovered IT effective in solving complicated problems at a

really compact type. It may function an enormous number of operations and functions

that individual can’t do. Due to this usage of IT, we could have cost efficacy, globalization,

communicating and new jobs creation. Despite all the benefits, the IT world faces a few

notable disadvantages; the solitude of information is a problem but the most significant

drawback is unemployment since most job originally accomplished by a human, are now

done by computer. Nevertheless, it’s said that in certain scopes such as schooling,

technology can improve traditional procedures of learning but can’t replace the human

touch.

With the development of computer industry and internet networks during the last three

decades, things have changed and global communication has reached an unprecedented

height. With these developments immense scopes have come to the surface to impart

learning in a much more efficient and interactive way. Multimedia technology and internet

networks have revolutionized the whole philosophy of learning and distance learning and

provided us with the opportunity for close interaction between teachers and learners with

improved standard of learning materials compared to what was existing only with the

printed media. As we mentioned earlier it has gone to such an extent to create a virtual

class room where teachers and students are scattered all over the world.

We could be able to work on jobs being thousands of miles away through electromagnetic

wave. That way the problem of skills shortage in some countries could be reduced and

efficient people would be available to do the job.

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Quick dispatch of information globally has facilitated the commercial expansion to an

extremely high level with a small firm being able to sell its products to another part of the

world very easily as they can communicate to each other in no time and fix up the deal.

Development of electronic commerce has made it very convenient for individual buyer to

select the product online and make payment immediately. However, this has its problem

as the buyer has not seen whom he/she is buying from and can never hear from the seller

once the money has been paid. This kind of case has come to our attention.

Virtual reality, probably much more advanced and more seamlessly integrated devices

(e.g. one could think of a device projecting images (perhaps from glasses) directly onto

the lens of a human’s eye), allowing people to disregard their surroundings. This will allow

people to travel virtually, e.g. one could go on holidays just by playing a certain program,

relax there, walk around, take it easy.

These days one can attend business meetings without having to be there physically. The

business partners in such a virtual meeting are able to see and hear each other as if they

are real. Mobility may be very important these days, however, in the new century, the

need to travel physically is decreasing significantly, instead of flying to a meeting in New

York one can just attend the meeting virtually and save a lot of time and money (and

protect the environment).

Contact with other people will only happen if desired by a person, everything else will be

done by technology. As an example, nobody will need to go shopping anymore, one will

order things needed via some special sophisticated devices which are easy to handle and

understand. One can display the goods, possibly even smell, feel or hear them.

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Treating untreatable disease like cancer would be much easier as the DNA structure

could be defined accurately to guide the kind of cell-based treatment required for a

particular patient.

Lesson 2.2 IT Automation

IT automation, sometimes referred to as infrastructure automation, is the use of software

to create repeatable instructions and processes to replace or reduce human interaction

with IT systems. Automation software works within the confines of those instructions,

tools, and frameworks to carry out the tasks with little to no human intervention.

Automation is key to IT optimization and digital transformation. Modern, dynamic IT

environments need to be able to scale faster than ever and IT automation is vital to

making that happen.

What’s included in IT automation?

In theory, if it's an IT task, some level of automation can be applied to that task. So,

automation can integrate with and apply to anything from network automation to

infrastructure, cloud provisioning and standard operating environments (SOEs), and

further, to application deployment and configuration management.

Automation capabilities and applications can extend further into specific technologies, like

containers, to methodologies, like DevOps, and into broader areas, such as cloud, edge

computing, security, testing, and monitoring/alerting.

Automation. What is it good for? Absolutely everything.

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Okay maybe not everything (yet), but a holistic approach to IT automation can help you

get repetitive, manual processes out of the hands of your staff. This allows teams to be

more productive, reduce errors, improve collaboration, and free up time that can be spent

on more meaningful, thoughtful work.

Provisioning

Provisioning is all about heavy lifting, whether on bare metal or in a private, hybrid, or

public cloud. In order to run business systems, you need infrastructure and that

infrastructure must be set up. What used to be all about racks, boxes, and cables in a

datacenter is now (mostly) all about virtualized assets, from software-defined datacenters,

networks, and storage to virtual machines and containers.

Most of what we do now is defined in software, and the move to software increased the

scale and capacity of what’s possible. This move also grants—and, by necessity,

requires—the codification of processes. This helps you meet the demands of your

business under increased cost awareness and time constraints.

Here’s where automation comes in. Why should you spend time setting up these

environments through templates manually? Thanks to codification, you have a template

that you follow to do this work. Why not have an automated system follow those rules

instead? Roll out deployments in your datacenter with automation that works with your

existing infrastructure and management tools to take full advantage of what you already

have to get to the future state you need.

Configuration management

Not all applications are created the same. They require different settings, filesystems,

ports, users...the list goes on. Once you’ve automated provisioning, you need to be able

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to tell those resources what they need to do. Storing what your application environment

looks like in a document, spreadsheet, text file, or even email won’t help you achieve a

repeatable, robust environment to host your applications. And, as you gain more systems,

more instances, and more complexity, you need a better way of recording what systems

look like so you’re able to manage them effectively.

To this end, you need a robust configuration management solution that lets developers

simply define the infrastructure (bare metal, virtualized, cloud, containers, etc) in a way

that can be easily understood by everyone on your IT team. The simpler it is to automate

ad hoc scripts and practices for system management, the easier it is to get real work

done.

Orchestration

Chances are, you’re not deploying a single service on a single machine. Your IT is

probably a little more complex than that. It requires managing and servicing multiple apps

across multiple datacenters and infrastructures. Oh yeah, there’s also your public, private,

and hybrid cloud deployments. The more complex an IT system, the more complex

managing all the moving parts can become. The need to combine multiple automated

tasks and their configurations across groups of systems or machines increases. That’s

orchestration, in a nutshell. On top of that, you can control these orchestrations with

robust automation solutions. This lets you keep track of all of them, connect them all

together, and run more advanced, autonomous, systems—easily.

Application deployment

Whether you use a more traditional approach to app deployment or if you use continuous

integration and continuous deployment (CI/CD) approaches, development pipelines rely

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on robust, automated systems to achieve modern expectations. Successful app

deployment hinges on a fully efficient set of automated, essential tasks and capabilities,

especially during the testing phase. Deployment automation can help you move from

commit and build to testing to deployment in a proven, trusted, and codified manner. This

reduces opportunities for human error while improving efficiency and throughput.

IT automation allows you to deploy your applications with certainty, configure needed

services from the start, and get your apps and their artifacts up and running—all via a

common, transparent approach that’s understandable by all of your IT staff.

Security and compliance

Define security, compliance, and risk management policies, enforce them, and remediate

issues by building them as automated steps throughout your infrastructure. Move security

to the forefront of your IT’s processes and be more proactive with the help of automation.

Having standardized security processes and workflows means easier compliance and

auditing. You know exactly how everything is enforced and you can verify if consistently.

New compliance requirements are easily implemented consistently across your IT.

The future of IT automation

Knowing the future is—of course—impossible, but there are things we’re starting to see

coming together for automation. Certainly there will be greater autonomy and,

subsequently, greater intelligence built into these systems. They’ll expand to cover more

parts of the IT software stack—think about automation built from bare metal to

middleware, apps, security, updating, notifications, failover, predictive analytics, and

decisions being made with no direct oversight.

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Consider a security risk being automatically detected, reported, patched, tested, and

deployed while your IT staff are asleep. Your system could self-heal, gather relevant

information to discover if and where an attack came from, notify the correct people—all

without losing uptime.

Advantages and disadvantages of automation

Advantages commonly attributed to automation include higher production rates and

increased productivity, more efficient use of materials, better product quality, improved

safety, shorter workweeks for labour, and reduced factory lead times. Higher output and

increased productivity have been two of the biggest reasons in justifying the use of

automation. Despite the claims of high quality from good workmanship by humans,

automated systems typically perform the manufacturing process with less variability than

human workers, resulting in greater control and consistency of product quality. Also,

increased process control makes more efficient use of materials, resulting in less scrap.

Worker safety is an important reason for automating an industrial operation. Automated

systems often remove workers from the workplace, thus safeguarding them against the

hazards of the factory environment.

Another benefit of automation is the reduction in the number of hours worked on average

per week by factory workers. About 1900 the average workweek was approximately 70

hours. This has gradually been reduced to a standard workweek in the United States of

about 40 hours. Mechanization and automation have played a significant role in this

reduction. Finally, the time required to process a typical production order through the

factory is generally reduced with automation.

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A main disadvantage often associated with automation, worker displacement, has been

discussed above. Despite the social benefits that might result from retraining displaced

workers for other jobs, in almost all cases the worker whose job has been taken over by

a machine undergoes a period of emotional stress. In addition to displacement from work,

the worker may be displaced geographically. In order to find other work, an individual may

have to relocate, which is another source of stress.

Other disadvantages of automated equipment include the high capital expenditure

required to invest in automation (an automated system can cost millions of dollars to

design, fabricate, and install), a higher level of maintenance needed than with a manually

operated machine, and a generally lower degree of flexibility in terms of the possible

products as compared with a manual system (even flexible automation is less flexible

than humans, the most versatile machines of all).

Also there are potential risks that automation technology will ultimately subjugate rather

than serve humankind. The risks include the possibility that workers will become slaves

to automated machines, that the privacy of humans will be invaded by vast computer data

networks, that human error in the management of technology will somehow endanger

civilization, and that society will become dependent on automation for its economic well-

being.

These dangers aside, automation technology, if used wisely and effectively, can yield

substantial opportunities for the future. There is an opportunity to relieve humans from

repetitive, hazardous, and unpleasant labor in all forms. And there is an opportunity for

future automation technologies to provide a growing social and economic environment in

which humans can enjoy a higher standard of living and a better way of life.

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Lesson 2.3 Influence of IT on Culture and Social behavior

Technology and culture influence each other. We usually tell the story that culture creates

a technology, because that explanation seems the most natural way to understand our

history and it puts our choices at the forefront, but we also have to consider the ways in

which technology either influences or creates culture.

Technology and Culture Influence Each Other

The technology that powered the industrial revolution created the industrial society.

The mass production of automobiles created a culture of commuters, vacationers, and

the suburbs.

Radio created a culture of listeners and spawned jazz, big band, and fireside chats.

Television created the culture of Hollywood, MTV, always-on news, and reality TV shows.

The Internet is creating a culture that’s changing so fast.

As much as technology is created from the fabric of our culture, technology also creates

the fabric of our culture. Because technologists or historians are often leading the

discussion on how technology creates culture, there tends to be this sense of

abstractness or extremeness to it.

Let’s take the daily personal view here:

 Every time a notification pops up on your phone or desktop, that’s technology

influencing culture.

 Every time you’re at a table with your friends and are balancing interacting with

them and interacting with your phone, that’s technology influencing culture.

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 Every time you can order something from an online vendor rather than going to a

local store, that’s technology influencing culture.

 Every time you or your kids log on to have some social time with friends rather

than going over to their houses, that’s technology influencing culture.

 Every time a teammate or your entire team is so buried under email that they can’t

think straight, that’s technology influencing culture.

 Every time you go to a new place based on its Yelp profile and reviews, that’s

technology influencing culture.

 Every time one of us sits down to consume our nightly on-demand entertainment,

that’s technology influencing culture.

The many hundreds of small ways that technology alters our individual and collective

behavior on a daily basis add up to the cultural changes the technologists and historians

point to. And, of course, for each of those examples, someone’s personal behavior can

alter the group’s behavior.

Because of technology, we can find or create the communities and relationships that fit

our version of thriving, whatever that might be. We are just hoping that we can lean into

the good, minimize the bad, and consciously explore the grey areas, which exactly why

we talk so much about how technology is affecting our lives, relationships, communities,

and work.

Technology Affect Individual’s Behavior & Social Skills

Technology is an ever present part of our daily lives and the amount of time we spend

interacting with our personal technology devices is only increasing as we feel the need to

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stay connected. As a result, it’s nearly impossible to prevent anyone (even our young

children) from desiring these interactions.

It’s our job as users to find the RIGHT ways to interact with technology. And to do this,

we need to understand the ways technology impacts to ourselves, and how to encourage

the right use of technology. The goal is for technology to have a positive effect on their

behavior and development, as opposed to a negative one.

Technology, when used correctly, can actually have a very positive effect on a behavior

and social development. Studies have found that our ability to identify key information

buried within a cluster of characters and visual stimuli (advertisements) has increased as

technology has become more integrated in our lives. In addition, regular interfaces with

technology can lead to improved hand-eye coordination, multi-tasking, and reaction time.

However, when screen time is not properly controlled, there can be negative effects of

technology on anybody.

How does technology affect our behavior & Social Skills?

Excessive amounts of technology time during a child’s developmental years is likely to

have an impact on growth. Although some technology exposure can be good, here are a

few different areas where a child could encounter difficulties as a result of too much

screen time.

CRITICAL THINKING

Not surprisingly, studies have shown that the increase of technology has led to a decrease

in daily reading. In addition, it’s been argued that because many blocks of text you

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encounter on digital devices are written in 140 characters or less, people are not

challenged to think critically, or to expand on their thoughts.

To counteract this, and encourage critical thinking, be sure to set aside time every day

for reading where no electronics are present. Critical thinking can be developed through

conversation expansion, which is when you help others learn to build on conversations

by referencing past experiences or things they’ve read.

ATTENTION & IMAGINATION

Attention span development is affected by environmental factors. With the various forms

of technology available, people are often more distracted and less likely to focus on

something else when it is present.

Also, when there is a great deal of visual stimuli and a lack of story reading, this can

impact anybody’s development of imagination. To counteract this, it is important that

people have the opportunity to explore old-fashioned imaginative play and to let their

imaginations run wild in any books (storybooks, novels)

PRIVACY & SAFETY

As advances in technology lead to increasing levels of connectedness, we must consider

the effects that social media and the internet can have on people’s mental outlook, as

well as their privacy and safety. It is important to know what activities are they exploring

online as well as cultivate an open relationship where they feel comfortable discussing

any concerning behavior they come across online.

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People in these settings can often be exposed to various degrees of bullying, which can

have lasting impacts on a anybody’s social and emotional development as well as their

self-esteem.

While social media can be utilized as a way to strengthen existing relationships, it is

important to give them the opportunity to practice conversational and social skills without

technology. People that are constantly using technology may be hesitant to interact with

other people in a social environment, which can have negative long-term effects.

Make sure that you have plenty of opportunities to practice in social settings by modeling

these conversational skills yourself.

Here are a few important ideas to help limit the negative impacts of technology:

 Be informed and involved in current digital trends you may come across.

 Be aware of what is using technology for.

 Encourage using screen time for games or shows that are educational.

 Develop and open relationship to discuss any concerns.

 Create “unplugged” time on a regular basis – which applies to everyone.

 Encourage use of imagination and relationship building with others in real life.

 Be a strong role model yourself when it comes to technology use.

 We must make sure that social media does not dictate the expectations and rules

for ourselves

Technology is undoubtedly useful in our daily lives, but we all need to understand that

technology should be used as a learning tool, and should not substitute real world

interactions.

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Lesson 2.4 IT Trends

IT trends are developments in information technology, which quickly gain ground and

are commonly used by many.

In the span of 59 years our computing power has improved by 1 trillion times. That’s

because new technology can become the foundation of other technologies. Those new

technologies could then become the basis for newer ones. And the cycle continues. As

a result, IT trends are getting harder to keep up with.

According to Moore’s Law, the processing speed of computers doubles every 18

months. That’s why the technological progress of the entire first century can’t be

compared to the progress over the last 10 years. Many trends had come, made an

impact, and got replaced.

However, there are some that simply persist a lot longer than others. A perfect example

of which is the internet. From ARPANET to the World Wide Web, it has come a very

long way. It became the foundation of so many other technological advancements and

until now, improvements upon it is being made.

Just like the internet, there are other technological developments that have persisted for

some time now; though not as old. But most of the time, they are quick to change.

Here are some IT Trends of today:

1. Artificial Intelligence

Artificial Intelligence, hyped as it may be years ago, is still a growing trend. It has

already shown lots of functionalities that people 10 years ago would think are only

possible in sci-fi movies. It’s not, however, showing any sign of momentum halt at all.

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New applications for personal, professional, and business purposes are being

discovered for AI every day. If it’s the future of AI we’re talking about, the perfect

description for that would be “limitless potential.”

It’s not a surprising turn of events, however. That’s because the very notion of machines

thinking and behaving like human beings are revolutionary. From the first AI program in

the 1950s, this field has come a long way. People of today are exposed to artificial

intelligence on a daily basis; a testament to its wide range of applications.

However, as many benefits as it brings, there’s still a lot of controversies revolving

around the field. Robots uprising is perhaps the most popular concern regarding the

advancement of AI technologies. But there are more pressing issues than that such as

the dissolution of many jobs. Some experts claim that by 2030, over 73 million jobs

would become obsolete.

It’s not all bad news, however, since automation will create new jobs and welcome

various existing professions into its space. This includes developers, testers,

programmers, tech specialists, etc. A degree of retraining might be required for some

people but it’s better than completely displacing them.

What are the advantages of AI?

Efficient. AI-powered machines and applications are capable of processing data at an

amazing speed and accuracy. Thus, a task that would require an expert to do in a few

hours can be done within seconds. And the result would be just as accurate, if not more.

Less prone to errors. Human error is one of the most commonplace types of errors

and AI solutions don’t suffer from that. They don’t experience lapses in focus, fatigue,

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stress, and other issues that would lead to simple mistakes. They don’t have emotions

too so everything they do is based on logic.

Able to work 24/7. Machines don’t get exhausted and thus, require no rest. Perhaps

one of the biggest advantages of AI over humans when doing a job. As long as they’re

given proper maintenance, they’re good to go for hours straight.

Can be deployed in risky situations. The human body is fragile, compared to a

machine at least. There is a lot of work that is both dangerous and complex. A simple

machine won’t know what to do and a person’s survival would be at risk when deployed.

The solution: an AI-powered machine made of hardy materials capable of a complex

operation.

What are AI’s challenges?

Expensive. Between the cost of installation, operation, repair, and maintenance, AI

technology isn’t exactly the cheapest solution to implement. Those well-funded

industries will do fine. The smaller businesses, however, will have to wait for the prices

to go significantly down.

Machine dependency. AI is making our lives easier and thus, our dependency on

machine assistance is ever-growing. This will have repercussions over time. Whether

it’s our intelligence, our physical fitness, or mental capacity, AI is sure to whittle some of

them away.

Restricted. Sure AI applications are intelligent but they are still bound by the

parameters within their codes. They don’t have the imagination or creativity of a person

and they don’t grow with experience. They’re capable of storing loads of data and can

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process at light speed. However, in the face of something new, they’re most likely to

commit error or breakdown.

Job loss. There is no shortage of repetitive and monotonous jobs out there which could

be automated. This means displacement for millions of people. If not for the high

implementation cost, perhaps a lot of workers today are out of job.

2. Internet of Things

Internet of Things is growing at a ridiculous rate, as evident in this IoT Statistics

compilation. As of 2019, there are about 26 billion IoT devices installed around the

world. According to experts, that number will grow to a staggering 75.44 billion. This is

the very definition of trend and there’s no stopping it.

IoT is found practically anywhere in the modern world. By 2020 each person has an

average of 4 connected devices and 2030, we’d have 15 devices each. Thus, there’s no

surprise that IoT is the rage among huge businesses. In fact, according to some

studies, it has a market value of about $150 billion.

So far, the IoT devices are mostly seen in smart homes in the form of connected lights,

smart fridge, etc. Wearable technologies such as smart glass and activity trackers are

also very popular applications of IoT technology. Furthermore, traffic and waste

management, urban safety monitoring, and water distribution are some of IoT

technologies present in smart cities.

Security is the primary concern regarding this field. IoT users are will have to face the

threat of hacks, data breach, information leakage, and so on. The problem is that most

IoT devices aren’t equipped with security features right out of the box. So to make this

technology continually enjoyable, extra steps toward security must be taken.

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3. Cybersecurity

Cybersecurity is old news that never went out of trend, nor will it do. New types of cyber

threats are being discovered every day. The only things standing between our data and

malicious activities are IT security software, antivirus, and other cybersecurity defenses.

So long as the internet is used, threats are imminent and thus the cybersecurity industry

will always continue to thrive.

Big businesses might be the one bracing the most for cyber-attacks but in reality,

smaller businesses are at greater risk. That’s because according to Verizon, 61% of

data breaches are targeted towards companies with less than a thousand employees.

However, the threat doesn’t stop with businesses since practically anyone is exposed to

them. Cyber threats come in so many forms and the most common among them is

email phishing. So to summarize, everyone who connects to a network is at risk.

While cybersecurity has been a work in progress for decades now, it can still improve a

lot. For instance, the average time it takes for a data breach to be detected is half a

year. That’s a really long window and it could certainly benefit people and businesses if

it gets considerably shorter.

Today new technological advancements for cybersecurity are emerging. For instance,

technologies to fight deepfakes and open source vulnerabilities are being developed.

There are also advancements in blockchain security, homomorphic encryption, and

zero-knowledge proofs.

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What are the latest cybersecurity threats?

1. Phishing

2. Ransomware

3. Cryptojacking

4. Cyber-Physical Attack

5. State-Sponsored Attacks

6. IoT Attacks

4. Alternatives to Cloud Computing

Cloud computing was first perceived as a major breakthrough and became the trend.

Until it was implemented and it became the norm. While the cloud still means someone

else’s computer, it does entail a plethora of benefits. This includes reliability, enhanced

disaster recovery, cost reduction, and collaboration to name a few. In fact, cloud

adoption is a must for small businesses.

However, there are new technologies today in development that might just overthrow

the reign of cloud computing. Some address the drawbacks of cloud computing like

ongoing cost, security issues, and reliance on the internet. While some simply provide a

better way of doing things.

The first in our list of alternatives is edge computing. It’s the practice of bringing data

and computation closer to the location where it’s needed. This helps save data

bandwidth, increase the response time and is most useful for IoT devices. Instead of

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sending data all the way to clouds or data centers, it is processed closer. This helps

analyze data in almost real-time.

The next one is fog computing. It’s built to bypass the issue with cloud computing not

able to process huge amount of data in time. With fog computing, every function –

storage, analysis, processing – are moved to the edge of the network. This is great for

managing data flood in a networked environment.

Another one is named Project Solid which is an initiative brought by the inventor of the

web itself, Tim Berners-Lee. This method provides users with complete control over

their data by placing them into a container. The services would then allow you to access

the data when signing in. But, they lose it when the user signs out. In essence, it means

that you bring your data with you.

Other Cloud Computing alternatives:

Mesh Networks. A service initiative that aims to provide everyone with the needed

bandwidth to process their data at tremendous speed.

Resilio. A cloud storage service which does not require servers. It follows the principle

of torrents where files are divided and shared in tiny pieces among each member.

LBRY. Combines the blockchain technology with the file-sharing property similar to

torrents. This is a great way of distributing videos without the complex RDM schemes.

5. 5G Network

5G networks are the next big thing in mobile internet connectivity. After almost a decade

of development, it has finally become a reality in some areas. It offers an

unprecedented transmission speed that far surpasses its predecessor, 4G. And since

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we’re talking gigabytes per second transfer rate, 5G is actually faster than virtually any

home broadband available.

Although it’s not just a simple, though tremendous, upgrade in speed that 5G brings. It’s

also going to make leaps and bounds to the technology of the smart devices. What

were once only done through computers can now be done in smart devices as well.

Furthermore, IoT gadgets will be able to interconnect more smoothly. Also, things that

require complex operation are now achievable. This includes drones, autonomous cars,

and smart cities.

The biggest drawback of 5G network is it’s still far from complete. It’s also available only

in certain countries and areas as of now. Moreover, the increase in bandwidth translates

into less coverage. That’s because a lot of cells must be built in order to support the

network’s ridiculous speed. More signal droppings are to be expected as of now too.

There are issues about its capability to penetrate walls and other materials as well.

But the most concerning of them all is that some claim that the network produces

radiofrequency radiation. It’s a big health hazard since it can damage cause cancer,

premature aging, DNA damages, disruption of cell metabolism, etc. This is due to the

power of the cellular towers that will empower 5G networks. The more powerful the cell

phone towers are; the more chance it will emit radiation to the environment.

What does 5g mean for the future?

 By 2024, 5G networks will cover 40% of the globe. This is equal to 25% of

worldwide mobile traffic data.

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 An average 5G network will support millions of devices per square miles. That’s a

big improvement from thousands of devices per square miles that 4G networks

support.

 By 2035, 5G will make $12.3 trillion global economic output. It’ll also support 22

million jobs around the world.

6. Virtual Reality

Virtual Reality (VR) immerses the user into an environment. By stimulating their hearing

and vision, it makes them feel as if they are experiencing the simulated environment

firsthand. The most popular application of Virtual Reality is on gaming, with PlayStation

VR and Facebook’s Oculus leading the market.

Aside from games, VR is also used in other forms of entertainment. For instance, some

theme parks provide more immersed experience to their patrons through the VR. Some

applications aren’t for entertainment alone; it can also be used for education –

edutainment. Examples of this include virtual museums, galleries, discovery centers,

and theaters.

Another widespread application of Virtual Reality is training and simulation. This is done

in various fields such as in medicine for surgery and in aviation for flight simulation.

There are VR software, such as VirtualShip, that are used to train the US Army, Coast

Guard, and Navy.

While there are already good equipment and software for VR, the field hasn’t taken off

just yet. While it’s true that it has gained a lot of traction, there are still some issues

limiting the immersion experience. For one, most of the good hardware is expensive.

Also, at this point, you’re either tethered into a big clunky device or are using lite stand-

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alone headsets. The former is expensive and limits movement while the latter has lower

graphical performance.

What are some practical applications of virtual reality?

 PTSD treatment

 Pain management

 Recruitment and training

 Paraplegics therapy

 Workplace collaboration

7. Augmented Reality

Many confuse Augmented Reality (AR) with Virtual Reality. They do have similarities but

they are, at their core, different. Augmented Reality enhances a real-life view with digital

images. This is commonly an app that works with camera lenses. Usually, the overlay

images blend into reality in a way that users can easily tell them apart. Some of the most

popular AR software are Snapchat and the game Pokémon Go.

Many consumers welcome AR because of its numerous real-world applications. For

example, IKEA has an app that will let you see how furniture would look like in your room.

You can do this by first scanning or taking a picture of your place and then add the

furniture’s image. This way, without having to actually buy and assemble the furniture,

you’d see if it fits perfectly with the room.

The AR technology has also been of great help to different sectors. In enhanced

navigation systems, AR is used to show route over a real-time view of the road. Some

neurosurgeons use Augmented Reality to project a 3D image of a brain to aid them in

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surgery. In the military, pilots wear AR helmets to see vital statuses such as their speed

and altitude.

As with every technology, AR has some drawbacks associated with it. Perhaps the most

popular among them is the blurring of the line between the real and digital world. This

became controversial when accidents happened to many people playing Pokémon Go.

There are certain privacy concerns as well since AR is based on data collection and

redistribution. This means that there’s potential for information leakage and legal issues.

Expected revenue of Augmented Reality by 2025 (Lumus Vision)

 Video games – $11.6 billion

 Healthcare – $5.1 billion

 Engineering – $4.7 billio

 Live Events – $4.1 billion

 Video Entertainment – $3.2 billion

 Real Estate – $2.6 billion

 Retail – $1.6 billion

 Military – $1.4 billion’

 Education – $7 million

8. Chatbot

Due to the growth of machine learning, chatbots have become extremely popular for small

businesses and huge enterprises alike. Combine that with natural language processing

(NLP) and we got ourselves a more responsive, more intelligent, and more human

conversational agent. Typically, chatbots are used in customer service. It’s also one of

the most popular SMB technological trends of today.

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A chatbot is a program whose main function is to simulate conversation with humans. By

that definition alone, we could infer that this technology has a certain degree of

application. It’s no longer just a novelty and hyped technology but instead, it has reached

the stage of maturity. That, however, does not mean that it has no room for growth

because it does, a big one even.

Chatbots today are more AI-driven and are becoming human-like. They’re now more

suited to chat with customers as a representative of the company. Smart speakers, which

delivers voice experience, are also becoming a norm. Chatbots are being steadily

adopted by more businesses too. According to IBM, there are 265 billion customer

requests recorded that businesses spent $1.3 trillion to deal with. A chatbot is a big help

in cutting some of those expenditures.

One of the biggest challenges in chatbot development is that it can only be as advanced

as NLP is. This conversational software will always be dependent on their part which

parses human language. Also, when used as customer service tool, clients might become

frustrated when the answers get repetitive or limiting. To top it off, chatbots with more

complex and robust functionalities are quite expensive.

Chatbot insights for the future

 Chatbots will handle 85% of customer interactions

 50% of big companies will be spending more on chatbots than mobile applications

 Companies will save $8 billion from using chatbot conversations

 The overall global market value of chatbot by 2024 is $1.3 billion

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9. Blockchain

Blockchain, in its most bare form, is a data which you can only add to. It’s like creating a

link of blocks to form a chain, hence the name. The fact that the previous blocks cannot

be altered is the central point of its security. Another main feature of blockchain is that no

single entity governs it. The technology is usually related to cryptocurrency such as

Bitcoin but it’s more than that.

When it was first introduced, blockchain has attracted a lot of snake-oil salesmen. They’re

making use of get-rich-quick schemes to rake money out of less informed crowd. It got so

bad that regulators had to enter the scene. Scammers aside, however, many businesses

legitimately believe in the potential of blockchain as the next big breakthrough.

Blockchain is also becoming big in the field of Internet of Things. It turns out that the

technology is a good solution for providing security to IoT devices. It’s also making noises

in the financial sector, especially the big ones since it’s a potential disruptor to their

business. In this light, it’s more likely that the upstarts will be the ones to offer services

built around blockchain.

The emergence of this technology, however, does not signal the end of cryptocurrencies.

In fact, Bitcoin is still a big thing and there are other cryptocurrencies to watch out for.

This includes Tether, Ripple, and Ethereum who are all making their way to improve upon

Bitcoin.

What is the significance of Blockchain?

 Provides good defense against hackers

 Built around security and transparency that prevents tampering of information

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 Eliminates the need for middleman for a transaction

 Provides privacy

 Innovative businesses can take advantage of it

IT Landscape continually changes

Latest technology trends in 2019 have picked up the momentum from the last few years

of technological development. Artificial intelligence is continually improving and it powers

more applications and machines each day. IoT devices are becoming more and more

widespread. Cybersecurity is a steadily busy field.

There are also game-changing technological trends for businesses. IT trends in business

will reshape the future of commerce and industries. Automation and digitization will make

a lot of changes in customer experience. Many jobs will become obsolete but a lot will

also open up.

There are technologies that aren’t on their stable and mature stage yet. But still,

businessmen and analysts view them as a minefield of potential. This includes 5G

networks, blockchain, virtual reality, etc. A conclusion we could draw is that there is simply

no stopping IT trends train.

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Lesson 2.5 Issues and Challenges of Information Technology

IT is rife with opportunity and challenges. There are plenty of options to learn new and

exciting skills, and also to earn high salaries. But new technologies have disrupted the

industry, and IT staff and management aren’t always on the same page.

Information Technology have a wide area of applications in education, business, health,

industries, banking sector and scientific research at a large level. With the leading

advancement in information technology, it is necessary to have the knowledge of security

issues, privacy issues and main negative impacts of IT. To deal with these issues in IT

society it is important to find out the ethical issues.

Some of the major ethical issues faced by Information Technology (IT) are:

1. Personal Privacy

2. Access Right

3. Harmful Actions

4. Patents

5. Copyright

6. Trade Secrets

7. Liability

8. Piracy

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1. Personal Privacy:

It is an important aspect of ethical issues in information technology. IT facilitates the users

having their own hardware, operating system and software tools to access the servers

that are connected to each other and to the users by a network. Due to the distribution of

the network on a large scale, data or information transfer in a big amount takes place

which leads to the hidden chances of disclosing information and violating the privacy of

any individuals or a group. It is a major challenge for IT society and organizations to

maintain the privacy and integrity of data. Accidental disclosure to inappropriate

individuals and provisions to protect the accuracy of data also comes in the privacy issue.

2. Access Right:

The second aspect of ethical issues in information technology is access right. Access

right becomes a high priority issue for the IT and cyberspace with the great advancement

in technology. E-commerce and Electronic payment systems evolution on the internet

heightened this issue for various corporate organizations and government agencies.

Network on the internet cannot be made secure from unauthorized access. Generally, the

intrusion detection system is used to determine whether the user is an intruder or an

appropriate user.

3. Harmful Actions:

Harmful actions in the computer ethics refers to the damage or negative consequences

to the IT such as loss of important information, loss of property, loss of ownership,

destruction of property and undesirable substantial impacts. This principle of ethical

conduct restricts any outsiders from the use of information technology in manner which

leads to any loss to any of the users, employees, employers and the general public.

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Typically, these actions comprise of the intentional destruction or alteration of files and

program which drives a serious loss of resources. To recover from the harmful actions

extra time and efforts are required to remove the viruses from the computer systems.

4. Patents:

It is more difficult to deal with these types of ethical issues. A patent can preserve the

unique and secret aspect of an idea. Obtaining a patent is very difficult as compared with

obtaining a copyright. A thorough disclosure is required with the software. The patent

holder has to reveal the full details of a program to a proficient programmer for building a

program.

5. Copyright:

The information security specialists are to be familiar with necessary concept of the

copyright law. Copyright law works as a very powerful legal tool in protecting computer

software, both before a security breach and surely after a security breach. This type of

breach could be the mishandling and misuse of data, computer programs, documentation

and similar material. In many countries, copyright legislation is amended or revised to

provide explicit laws to protect computer programs.

6. Trade Secrets:

Trade secrets is also a significant ethical issue in information technology. A trade secret

secures something of value and usefulness. This law protects the private aspects of ideas

which is known only to the discover or his confidants. Once disclosed, trade secret is lost

as such and is only protected by the law for trade secrets. The application of trade secret

law is very broad in the computer range, where even a slight head start in the

advancement of software or hardware can provide a significant competitive influence.

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7. Liability:

One should be aware of the liability issue in making ethical decisions. Software developer

makes promises and assertions to the user about the nature and quality of the product

that can be restricted as an express warranty. Programmers or retailers possess the

legitimate to determine the express warranties. Thus they have to be practical when they

define any claims and predictions about the capacities, quality and nature of their software

or hardware. Every word they say about their product may be as legally valid as stated in

written. All agreements should be in writing to protect against liability. A disclaimer of

express warranties can free a supplier from being held responsible of informal,

speculative statements or forecasting made during the agreement stages.

8. Piracy:

Piracy is an activity in which the creation of illegal copy of the software is made. It is

entirely up to the owner of the software as to whether or not users can make backup

copies of their software. As laws made for copyright protection are evolving, also

legislation that would stop unauthorized duplication of software is in consideration. The

software industry is prepared to do encounter against software piracy. The courts are

dealing with an increasing number of actions concerning the protection of software.

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Lesson 2.6 Privacy

Privacy is a well-known subject for quite a few years and yet very few have a better

understanding fully. Privacy is an essential element for maintaining humanity and social

responsibilities and relationships. Humans value their privacy and protection of personal

data. Any individual does not want anyone to access their personal data at any time, but

recent developments in the technologies and competition among the corporate giants to

expand the market threaten the privacy of individuals than ever before. 21st century has

seen the world of Big Data and advanced information technology gave a new sphere to

access data and processing them at a very convenient phase. Many researchers stated

the worries that threaten privacy and security are now real that we have the capabilities

to access, collect, analyses data in large quantities of internet search, telephone

conversations, electronic payments and personal information are been breached by

varies government agencies and for business firms having this data is a huge assets to

expand their market. Apart from all this the privacy remains the considerable point to be

discussed and redefine the policies agreements and ethics for a better place to live

(Santanen, 2019).

THE VALUE OF PRIVACY:

Privacy and latest technologies almost go hand in hand ranging from high tech

technologies such as genetics, biometrics to social media, smart phones, cybersecurity

programs, Big Data and search engines. There are two receptions with wide spread of

technology and the impact on the privacy and personal information. The first one is all our

data is somehow held by IT industry which resembles that we have no privacy in the world

of technology where digital age has taken over and there is no alternative to protect our

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privacy and get over it. The second one is that our personal information and privacy is

more important than ever(Hoven,2014). As technology has become a part of our life and

there is no secret that it got integrated to our lives. Privacy is an important element in the

society for the formation of the relationships by allowing us to know parts of our self to

family and friends withholding from the rest of the world. Varies study found that 91% of

adult’s own mobile phone or laptop and our personal information is stored in the devices

is increasing and is been gathered constantly.

MORAL REASONS AND ETHICS FOR PROTECTING PERSONAL DATA:

Privacy, trust and security are all very closed interlinked to form laws and ethics. The

measure privacy and security may vary from each individual and depend on various other

factors. Privacy in health department may have ethical values different to when compared

to financial sectors like banking. The trust relies on privacy safeguarding and security.

Ethics give us the measure of law allowing us to trade various data fairly. Breach in

privacy can lead us loose trust and diluting the security measures, which shows dishonor

to the law and violation of the ethical values.(lee & zankl, 2016)

Ethical regulations regarding privacy are referred below

· Unauthorized access to private information

· Incongruous use of data

· Guidelines to be followed when collecting data of an individual

· Data availability subjected to legal rights and ownership.

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Data Privacy Protection:

The need of protecting data and personal information is of urgent importance and

complex. As way the technology has evolved in the last two decades the need for data

protection in of utmost important in everyone’s life. We are living in a space of technology-

driven and information abundant corporate world. The positive side of this is we are

benefited with transparency in the market, where customers or consumers are well

informed about business models and trade opportunities and gives the opportunity for all

individuals to be aware of what is going around. The other side of this technology has a

deep scare which include socio-techno risk, evolved with technology and users (e.g.,

cyberterrorism, identity theft, warfare on information, online scams) and organized social

crime to exploit other personal information. So, the need for data protection is much

needed than ever before.

The essential need for protecting data of personal information is an important factor to

develop and execute various strategies to make sure that data privacy policies, guidelines

and set up standards which work efficiently with enhanced technologies to prevent threat

for data privacy. The policies or law regulations must be efficient, economically good,

ethical and should be accepted by all on all bases. This is very important as problems

evolve only after implementation of these polices or laws. Data privacy protection is so

complex and critical in today’s world with huge leap forward in the socio-techno changes

in the recent time to process and store large junks of data through internet usage. The

figure below shows the information privacy for various environments and are categorized

into three dimensions i.e. time dimension where computation of data for analyzing and

processing for market place. Matter dimension which has privacy and protection of data

such as web browsing to and from user to browser and social media data. And, the last

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is the space dimension which deals with the data privacy of individual or group or an

organization.

IMPACT OF TECHNOLOGY ON PRIVACY:

Information technology is referred as automated systems for processing and storing huge

junks of data and circulating information. The quantity of processing and storing data has

increased rapidly along with the innovations in technology over the last decade. These

developments in technology has changed the digital world and now on the brisk of taking

over the privacy of an individual. As the connectivity and access of information increased,

also increases the risks of personal data breach, inequality in social life.

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Social Media: As every day passes social media plays a major role in our lives and

been integral part in our daily activities. This made the privacy on social media has been

more important than ever and may have huge impact on our life on either way. Hacking

a social media account such as Facebook, twitter, Instagram may impersonate us and

may share valuable information. Online hackers or criminals targeting to breach personal

data to blackmail, spread virus, scams and much worse is identity theft. Stalking and

cyberbullying in the recent times has become a threat, and social media provides an easy

way for them to carry out. There is been a conflict serving the advertising customers and

the users of social media, and as a result we see privacy breach and collecting information

for marketing. Location-based services increase the threat on privacy and security. Well

governed regulations need to be put in place to secure user’s privacy. (Jan 2016)

Various activities on

social media

Big Data: when public uses internet they generate huge junks of data when surfing

online. This gives an insight of the user and apart from this provide voluminous statistical

data. Employing data mining gives us the patterns from the data, and this patterns are

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used to determine about the user interests and behavior. Big data impact only online

users but, depending on the information shared to other third-party services it may impact

online users completely on different bases. It is a well-known fact that these companies

can know about the user than the people around them and this is a frightening thing in

privacy and security issues. The multinational companies dealing with big data has a huge

concern on data privacy on ethics and laws and regulations and companies may have

breached privacy, unfair analysis over users.

HOW TECHNOLOGY SOLVE PRIVACY CONCERNS

Design methods: providing a set of rules and regulations in the initial stage of the

design process keeping in mind certain ethics and values. ‘Privacy by Design’ approach

which focus on privacy which has seven principles guidelines for preserving the privacy

of the users (Cavoukian, 2010). In this approach privacy has been a proactive rather than

aftermath. This approach has made privacy as a centered stage in all phases from initial

design to final product.

Privacy enhancing Technologies: various tools are readily available for the users

to provide privacy in some or the other form. On such example is a Tor(Dingledine,

Mathewson, 2004) which is a communication-anonymizing tool. it allows users to browse

and share content in the internet through unspecified means and number of cryptographic

techniques are used to provide the privacy and security for the user. Apart from this they

also have the other side where this Tor tool is suspicious to attack over the internet.

Various tools such as Freenet are also available but have the same downside as Tor

which is suspicious to hacking.

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Cryptography: It has been used as a means of protecting data for a very long time.

Modern cryptography techniques such as homomorphic encryption has become a

potential technique to provide protection to data (Gentry, 2009). Homomorphic encryption

performs the calculations on the data that is already encrypted without decrypting the

data in the first place. by doing so this provides a way more secure computing in cloud

computing. It plays an important role in cloud computing companies providing a secure

atmosphere for privacy and data.

Identity management: it is a means of authenticating and authorizing individuals or

groups to have access to their accounts or systems in an organization through network.

Policies and ethics in identity management plays an important role in this world of

technology to minimize the fraud and misuse. Identity management in corporate

companies plays a key role in security plans and breach of data, as many organizations

provide access to the employees beyond their actual usage of the system. In that case

hackers or attackers can take advantage and threats like hacking, malware attacks could

occur. It plays critical role in any organization or individual by protecting assets and

information from unauthorized users or attackers.

Many researchers have agreed on two broad conclusions regarding one’s privacy. Firstly,

privacy is critical for preservation of human self-respect and secondly privacy plays a key

role in the society to maintain relationships which are the stepping stones of a happy and

well-functioning society. If there is no concept of privacy, social and affectionate

relationships among people would take down side and difference among relationships

are hardly seen. There should be always given importance to privacy and security for

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individuals and society should recognize it and various actions need to be taken to protect

it for the humanity to survive in the long run. Privacy is a nonrenewable entity, once

personal data is collected and exposed cannot be undone. They have been threats to

privacy throughout the existence of humanity but with the constant growth in the

technologies which has been part of life by now is the single largest threat that humanity

has ever faced. With increasing Capabilities and Processing power in technologies that

keeps a close watch on every single move and processing and recording most of the data

details of our lives to rapidly growing data related marketing. This data is processed,

analyzing the patterns and then sharing this data to anyone who are willing pay for the

data has been the greatest threat which has a potential harm to forever change the human

experience in the society. very little effort has been made to fill the vacuum in policies

related to privacy. we can argue that there is lot of potential and we should make serious

considerations how society address the loop holes in the policies by the technology to

provide a better place to live without the fear of insecurity (Santanen, 2019).

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