Bridging The Divide

Computing technology has become so advanced; internet access has recently become very important in the world today with a large sum of people relying on the internet for daily use. However, the digital divide means that not everyone is fortunate enough to have access to the internet despite how important it may be to some people. Governments and organisations are working to help give equality to everyone to access computer technology and to try and ‘bridge the divide’.

As well as necessary equipment such as food, water and medicine, computer technology is now being seen as a ‘necessity’ something poorer countries need more of in order to help to increase education in third world countries. Certain charities and organisations are working to help provide computers and other forms of technology to poorer countries. If this is successful and it allows everyone to access a computer, it will therefore bridge the global divide between the rich and poor countries. A charity called ‘close the gap.org’, helps to provide computers to areas in need and therefore helps to ‘bridge the divide’.

Not only has there been interest in bridging the global divide, there has also been interest to help bridge the local dived as well. Microsoft is an example of one of the companies who are working towards bridging the local divide with their scheme of GetOnline@Home. Schemes such as these sell cheap computers for those who are unable to buy a normal computer which would normally cost them around £600-800 for a decent one. The scheme is also designed for charities and small businesses (who may need a large number of computers) that may need cheap computer technology more than other people do.

Across the world governments are working in their own countries to help to ‘close the gap’. An example of this would be, in India the government are working to bridge the urban- rural divide, they hope this will help to ‘bridge the local divide’. Other developing countries such as China, Brazil and Russia are also working closely on ways to close their own urban- rural divide. Ways the government are trying to achieve this is by improving broadband, selling cheaper computers and introducing more people to computer technology.

Trying to bridge the divide globally as well as locally is not an easy task to do. It has been known that some effects have been introduced to the older generation who have tried to avoid the use of computers and other forms of technology. Schemes have been created by the government which mention that they want to help older people who may not be able to afford the average decent computer. As mentioned before, there are certain outreach centres available that help to teach older people the basic things on computer usage, also available are guides who teach the elderly about how to use a computer and the internet. Outreach centres have been introduced to help people who don’t feel confident with computers or other forms of technology.

The Local Divide

As we know there is a digital divide between some countries, however there is also a local divide between the communities in those countries. Similar to the global divide, the economies of countries are also a reason for the local divide; however this time these divides are not between the rich and poor countries, they are between rich and poor individuals. An example would be the cost of a computer or laptop. Computers and the internet have become a lot more accessible in the recent years and the number of computer users is rising. Between 2000 and 2012 according to statistics there was a huge increase of 566.4% world internet users. As technology becomes more advanced and that there are so many different computers and laptops are coming out the price of them has fallen because there so common. Some technology can still be considered as being very expensive, for example, Apple products which cost anything between £1, 150, 00 to £1, 749, 00.

In today’s society, people are still using other forms of technology to access the internet, examples of which include: tablets, smartphones and laptops. These different forms of technology are becoming more popular than the average desktop computer because they’re cheaper and more convenient, you can practically take them wherever you go. Having newer, more advanced technology helps people to avoid the issue of computer costs. Regardless of this, a substantial local divide remains between the rich and poor individuals of these countries.

Another example of the local divide would be between urban- rural divide. This is a divide between people who live in richer cities to those who live in poor rural areas. An example of the urban-rural divide would be in China. As we well know, China’s economy is expanding but only cities are being affected by this growth. Rural areas of China still remain to be poorer than city areas and the urban-rural gap is begging to increase, which contributes to the local divide. The accessibility of computer technology and internet usage in China has also been affected by the urban-rural divide. Whilst the cities in China would be greatly benefitted from the latest computer and internet technology, those people who live in rural areas may not be able to access the same technology which causes there to be a unequal advantage between urban and rural areas. Not only does the urban-rural divide happen in China, it also exists in other countries such as the UK, India and France which all are another form of the local divide.

Another form of the local divide is the age divide, this is because computer technology is becoming so more advanced the older generation of people do not understand how to use it and how keep up to date with all the latest technology. Recent advice has gone out to younger people who grew up with computer technology and are renown to be more ‘computer literate’ than older people; however this may not be entirely true. Some of the elder generation may have grown up before computers and internet usage and therefore may not understand the high demand for it or perhaps they are simply trying to avoid it because they fear they don’t understand how to use it. In spite all of this, some older people do frequently use computers and the internet. In some local areas there are lessons elderly people can take at their local community centre which teaches them how to use a computer and work the internet, this may help to decrease the local divide between youths and the older generation.

The increase in computer technology used in schools is one of the reasons why younger people are sometimes considered more ‘computer literate’. Younger people have lived through the advancing technology with concern to computers, smartphones and tablets. Popular social networking sites such as ‘Facebook’, ‘Twitter’ and ‘YouTube’ form part of a young person’s daily life, it is seen to be ‘un-normal’ or ‘weird’ if you are a young person and don’t have a Facebook account which just about sums up how much young people depend on the use of computers and the internet. These websites are specially designed for young people as the makers of these well-known sites know how much young people browse the web and how they are a lot more computer literate than other people. This is seen to be another form of the local divide.

The Global Divide

The information age has had many different aspects on today’s society; it has created and introduced a divide between countries because of their economies, political beliefs and cultural preferences. From the global divide it has formed a local divide. The division of communities and nations alike is known as the digital divide. There are a number of reasons as to why the global divide has formed, some of which you will be reading about in this section of my E-book.

The global divide means that the digital revolution was so enormous and so fundamental, it meant if you were not online or didn’t have access to computers it was a huge disadvantage. The digital divide was known to be a cultural and economic ‘fundamental’ problem. The digital information revolution presents a significant opportunity for developing countries to take a big step forward. The internet was formed in the UK; it was all in the high end research level. As the internet was so limited it meant that the only countries which had good education systems and money were able to involve themselves in the digital revolution. In order to access the internet people need a personal computer (PC). Back in the days PC’s were extremely expensive and for a decent one nowadays they still are, therefore, it is common that the majority of computer owners are fairly wealthy. Urgent actions are needed at the local, national, and international levels to bridge the global digital divide.

Another reason for the global divide would be the inadequate economic statuses between all of the world’s countries. For example, HIC countries such as the US, China and Russia have more access to computer technology and internet because they have enough money to invest in technology. However, countries with less stable economies (LIC’s) wouldn’t have much access to technology as HIC’s do because they don’t have the money to do so. Today there is practically no technological limitation preventing access, even a isolated village in a faraway computer station it will lack telephones and electricity however this and the internet is processed using a satellite dish and solar power. The populations of these low income countries may only have basic internet technology compared to higher income countries who have been used to technology for many years and therefore are always up to date and able to use the latest technology available. This is how there is a digital divide between rich and poor.

Not only is the global divide caused by economic status it is also caused by the social and political beliefs of certain countries. An example of this is that certain websites may be blocked in a specific country as they are associated with different political beliefs. The population of the country is less likely to consider any other political principles if the website has been blocked. Regardless of this, other countries may believe in ‘the freedom of speech’ as there is an internet restriction in these countries (LIC’s). The level of control is an effect of social and political beliefs held by some countries across the world and characterizes another procedure of the global divide.

Cultural and geographical reasons can also be linked to the global divide through different social and political beliefs. Although a difficult term to understand, this means that the location and culture of a certain country can affect the accessibility of computing technology and the use of internet access. An example of this would be that locations of some countries mean it’s difficult to access the internet compared to other countries where internet access is not a problem and is very accessible. Some cultures of particular countries will also affect the accessibility of computing technology. For example, countries with high internet usage such as Japan or the US would have accepted the internet as part of their cultures when it was first created in 1991. This shows that the locations and cultures of countries are also responsible of the digital divide.

The BBC website has shown to publish a report how the “digital divide between rich and poor- nations is narrowing fast, according to a World Bank report”. This report explains how banks around the world want to hold a campaign to increase usage and access to technology in poorer areas. The UN also hoped that widening access to technology such as mobile phones will help decrease poverty.

The most recent news story on the BBC website which was published in 2013 explains how “The UK has moved up to the UN’s net-connectivity table, leapfrogging Honk Kong and Japan to take eight places”. The report explains how South Korea has topped the list for the third year in the row while Central African Republic has come last. This is where they warned that the relative high cost of internet access in developing countries was restricting and causing a “digital divide”.

A way to help tackle and decrease the problem of the digital divide is by funding charities such as the Americans have done with their charity organisation of ‘One laptop per child’. These people have set up an overseas charity organisation of affordable educational devices for low income countries. Laptops and computers have been sent to over 30 European countries as well as Central and South American countries, these include: Colombia, Haiti, Peru, Uruguay etc. Laptops are also sent to African countries such as; Ethiopia, Nigeria, Madagascar, Rwanda etc. Lastly the organisation has also sent technological devices to Asian countries which include: Afghanistan, Nepal, Mongolia etc. The charity organisation hopes that this will help to improve the global divide.

Computer Misuse Act

The Computer Misuse Act that was made a law in 1990 was passed to stop unauthorized access to computers, this frequently got called hacking. There are three offences in the act, this stand as: unauthorized access to computer material is an offence, opening with intent to commit or facilitate obligating another offence and unauthorized modification to computer material. Canada and the Republic of Ireland now also stand by the Computer Misuse Act.

In 2006 the penalties for the Computer Misuse Act got increased by the Police and Justice Act. Each of the offences get categorised as sections 1, 2 and 3 when prosecuting someone. The maximum penalty for the section 1 offence is two years imprisonment and a fine. Designed for a section 2 offence, the maximum penalty is 5 years imprisonment and a fine. In place of a section 3 offence, the maximum penalty is 10 years' imprisonment and a fine.

Robert Schifreen and Stephen Gold
Stephen Gold and Robert Schifreen are famously known for being the people that hacked into the British Telecom Prestel computer system and gained admission to Prince Philip’s message box. Authorities charged both Gold and Schifreen with forgery and fraud, but the House of Lords cleared them in 1988. Gold and Schifreen did not use any of the data in a malicious way, they gained nothing from hacking the system, however, they both did commit an illegal act as they abused someone’s privacy.

Firewalls and Antivirus Software
A firewall can stop other people from hacking into your computer. A firewall is a commonly known program which filters data coming in through the Internet to a computer or network. The firewall programme stops people hacking into your system, getting control of your computer and using your device as a multitude to access or run programs. It is very important that if you own a computer or laptop to install anti-virus software programmes so that your machine is protected from electronic infections such as: virus’, e-mail virus’, worm and Trojan horse. The most popular types of anti-virus software are, MacAfee, Norton Security, Kaspersky antivirus and Kingsoft Antivirus.

Advantages of the Computer Misuse Act
-Protects computer owners if their system is compromised and used for misconduct.
-The act also holds hackers responsible for their actions.
-It means that paedophiles are held accountable for the content that is found on the computer during an investigation.
-Ensures your private accounts are being protected.

Disadvantages of the Computer Misuse Act
-A law shouldn’t have had to be made to stop people hacking into other peoples computers. -It’s expensive to install anti-virus software.
-There is always going to be people that carry on hacking and are clever enough not to get found out.
-The penalties for hacking are the same for someone that has got a charge for GBH (grievous bodily harm) or being caught in the possession of drugs etc.
-It is easy for a hacker to delete any history they have on their computer; this could make it difficult to prosecute criminals sometimes.

Personal Experience
I think that the Computer Misuse Act is a good law to have because it helps to protect people’s data. In the past I haven’t installed antivirus software and my computer has been riddled with viruses, luckily I managed to get it fixed and I then downloaded MacAfee antivirus software; since then I haven’t had any problems with viruses or email viruses on my computer. When my mum had her AOL email account it got hacked by someone who was deleting her messages etc therefore she had to delete her account and ever since she has been really careful about who she gives her address to when giving it out online.

Data Protection Act

The Data Protection Act was introduced in 1998 by Parliament. The Data Protection Act is a law that got introduced to design and protect personal data stored on computers or in a planned filing system. The data protection act was introduced to stop personal information being spread or being misused by other people, it was also said by Parliament that by introducing this new law we can control the way information is handled and to give legal rights to people who have information stored about them. Lots of information gets stored around not only around England but in other European countries therefore they have also passed on a similar law to the data protection act.
The Data Protection Act only covers information about living individuals, it does not include businesses. Data subjects are the people who have the data held about them whereas data users are the people that hold the data; however, there are more data users than people think there are. For data users there are only certain types of data which you are allowed to store, these are: what they want to use it for, how long they will keep it for and people who they might pass it on to. Data subjects are only allowed to change their data if any is incorrect, if the national security is at stake you cannot demand to see your data.

There are also 8 data protection principles, these conclude of:
1) Fairly and lawfully processed (used).
2) Used for limited purposes.
3) Adequate and relevant. Only what is needed may be used.
4) Accurate.
5) Not kept for longer than is necessary.
6) Accessible to the individual and able to be corrected or removed where necessary.
7) Secure.
8) Not transferred to countries without adequate protection.

Not only is there the data protection act, similar acts have now come into force, some of which are: Copyright, designs and patents Act” which began in 1988, “Computer Misuse Act” which began in 1990, “Regulation of investigatory powers act” Which began in 2000 and the most recent act, “Freedom of information Act” which began in 2005.

Julian Assange

Julian Assange was born on July 3rd 1971, in Townsville, Australia. Assange is most famous for being the founder of WikiLeaks, a site which intended to collect and share confidential information on an international scale. WikiLeaks officially launched in 2007, it was banned from Sweden at the time because of the strong laws to protect a person’s secrecy. Later on that year the site released a U.S military manual that gave information about the Guantanamo detention centre. Carrying on from this, WikiLeaks also shared emails from Sarah Palin (vice president candidate at the time) from an anonymous source.

In early 2010 there was a sexual assault controversy for Julian Assange. He had been under investigation by the Swedish police since early August, in connection with two sexual assault cases. On the 6th of December after a European Arrest Warrant was issued by Swedish, Assange turned himself in to the London police.

Edward Snowden

Edward Snowden was born in North Carolina in 1983. In May 2013 Snowden began copying top-secret NSA documents while at work, building a record on practices that he found offensive and alarming. The documents contained vast and critical information on the NSA's local surveillance practices, including spying on millions of American people under the authority of programs such as PRISM. On June 6th the Guardian and the Washington Times released Snowden's leaked information on PRISM, an NSA program that allows real-time information to be collected, only information on American citizens. On June 14th the U.S government charged Snowden with theft of government property, unauthorized communication of national defence information, and wilful communication of classified intelligence with an unauthorized person. The last two charges fall under the Espionage Act. Edward Snowden still remains in hiding. In November 2013 Edward Snowden request for clemency was rejected. The USA has said that they want Snowden to return home and face criminal charges for leaking NSA documents.

Copyright and Piracy

Copyright
The Copyright and Patents Act aims to protect people who invent things from having their ideas stolen.
Copyright gives originators of some types of media rights to control how they're used and distributed. Music, books, video and software can all be covered by copyright law. If you’re the sole owner of the work, you have the right to: make copies of your work; issue copies of your work; perform your work publicly through plays, films, dances or music and you can also display your work publicly through artwork or stills from audio-visual work, or any other material used on the Internet or television. Most people feel that they have the right to be paid for the work they do, that’s why we need copyright laws.
When you buy software, you don’t actually buy the software itself. You buy the right to use it, which is called a license, however, you can only use it in the way the license says you can. The three most common licences are the single user licence, multiple user licence and the site licence.
The single user licences are the most common. This licence allows you to use one copy of the software on a single computer. Sometimes they let you use it on a laptop as well, as long as both are not used at the same time. The second most common licence is the multiple user licence. These are commonly bought by companies who need lots of copies to run on a network. A 25-user licence allows them to have 25 copies of the software running and it also costs less than 25 single user licences. The third most common licence is the site licence which allows as many copies to run as the user wants as long as they are on the same site. This is common for schools to buy software such as this.
Software is expensive to buy because companies don’t make enough money from the software, and they won’t spend money on improving and developing it.

Piracy
Piracy is obtaining, make money on from, using or making changed to copyright material without earlier permission. Piracy costs over £3 billion each year in Europe; this keeps the cost of software higher for those who do pay for it. Some common types of software piracy include fake software, OEM unbundling, softlifting, hard disk loading, corporate software piracy, and Internet software piracy. Software piracy is almost impossible to stop.
The Federation Against Software Theft (FAST) originated in 1984 by the software industry and is now reinforced by over 1,200 companies. It is a not-for-profit establishment with an aim to stop software piracy and has a policy of take legal action to anyone found to be breaking the copyright law. FAST also works to teach the public about good software practice and legal requirements.

Advantages on the rights of copyright
-Copyright prevents users work getting stolen or misused by other people.
-It gives the owner the right to authorize others to produce or duplicate your work as well as the right show your work.
-Copyright allows the holder of the copyright to say no to other people using their work if they find it morally irrelevant.
-The copyright policy lasts for rather a long time; this is normally around 50 years.

Disadvantages on the rights of copyright
-The failure to share work. Copyright does not allow you to agreeably permit others to use your work or to issue it, even if this isn’t for a profit.
-Authorship is not ownership. You have to own the copyright to be able to get the rights that it allows, being the creator of the work does not always guarantee ownership of the work.
-In countries such as Canada, the Canadian copyright law does not allow for parodying of work without permission.
-It takes a lot of time and effort to apply for a copyright registration.

Personal Experiences
The only experience I have to do with copyright is when I copy and paste a picture from the internet in to a piece of work I’m doing, other than that I don’t have any personal experiences when it comes to copyright and piracy. However, someone I used to know used to copyright CD’s and DVD’s but they got found out twice, the first time it was a heavy fine and the second time he got arrested for it.

Crime Prevention

HOLMES2

Computers play a large part in helping with crime prevention. The first ever computer programme to help officers make sense of large amounts of information was called HOLMES2 Incident room. HOLMES2 incident room identified and helped plot lines of enquiry, kept track of vital pieces of evidence and reduced the amount of paperwork. This great new piece of technology also had a special function called Casualty Bureau- this was a special function that helped to coordinate the repercussion of major incidents, such as terrorist attacks, floods or train crashes. The way in which the system worked was by the relatives providing information about the missing person, this new information would then get put into the system where it would directly and automatically match casualty details from accident scenes, evacuation centres and hospitals. In most cases, if the system has found a match the police will contact the relatives that provided the information with news on the missing person. On September 11th 2001 there was a series of terrorist attacks in the United States, HOLMES2 helped identify British victims by matching them from the missing person’s reports back in the UK to the casualty list in the USA.

For minor crimes such as theft, criminal damage and damage or theft to a motor vehicle people can now report these types of minor crimes online via the online police website- www.online.police.uk.

Identification Techniques
Biometrics is also another factor which helps to contribute to dealing with crime prevention. Biometrics is another new technology device which identifies people using physical characteristics such as fingerprints or retinal scans. Biometrics works by recognising someone’s individual/ unique finger pattern. A couple of years ago to record somebody’s fingerprint you had to put your fingertip on a pad of ink and then stamp it down on a piece of paper, however, as technology has become more advanced over the years you can now electronically scan your fingerprint, this also helps to enhance the image if the print isn’t clear enough when you scan it. Computers match the prints against a database of fingerprints which have already been catalogued. DNA is used to help collect information about victims and criminals. Everyone has their own unique DNA; however, identical twins are exempt from this as they share identical DNA. The majority of the time samples of DNA get left at crime scenes; these can be broken down into a profile and compared with that of known criminals or suspects. DNA is all the same and can be found in samples of body fluid, tissue or hair.
Other identification techniques which include the use of using computers include facial recognition and Automatic Number Plate Recognition also known as ANPR. Facial recognition systems are becoming more popular and many are now installed in airports in order to help manage CCTV. ANPR are cameras that can tell police officers within seconds whether a vehicle has been stolen, is known to be involved in crime, or is untaxed. There are many digital cameras which scan and record vehicle registration marks of every passing car. Once the numbers have been collected over a certain amount of time they get cross-checked against a number of databases, including the Police National Computer, the DVLA and police intelligence records.
Evidence collection, tracking, analysis and availability have improved dramatically. Some people think that police officers have become to dependant on modern technology and they have begun to look back on the days of ‘bobby on the beat’ which was the local police officer who knew about what was happening in the local community.

Advantages

-Technology allows for quicker DNA testing.

-High-speed cameras can quickly scan databases and license plates faster than law enforcement recruits can manually capture and track them.

-It is safer using GPS systems to track down a specific car rather than taking part in a high speed chase between the offender and the police.

-Helps to reduce the amount of crime that goes on because everything is monitored so closely.

-A lot of room is saved by having electronic fingerprinting systems rather than lots of pieces of paper in a filing cabinet.

-Facial recognition, DNA printing, DVLA is the most accurate way of collecting data about someone.

Disadvantages

-Police officers are becoming dependant on all the new technology available to them.

-Sometimes inaccurate information can be produced.

-If the system ever breaks there is the possibility that all the data that has been collected could get cleared from the computer.

-Not everyone has Wi-Fi access so if you wanted to report a crime, you wouldn’t be able to do it online.

Personal Experience

I haven’t had much experience when it comes to technology that helps deal with crime prevention; however, I have had one or two experiences. Back in April last year I went to Florida with my friend and when we arrived at Miami airport we had to go through immigration, this is where we had to get our fingerprints scanned. Also when we went through immigration we had to look into this camera so it could record and identify our facial recognition. As I am too young to drive I haven’t had any experiences to do with APNR cameras.