Lesson video

Hello, my name is Irfan Amin and I'm going to be your computing teacher for this lesson on privacy and surveillance.

In this lesson, you will identify the implications of having personal data online, learning the laws that protect us directly and others that enable the security services to protect us from harm.

You will then learn to explain the social and environmental impacts of social media.

And finally, you will explain the positive and negative effects of online content, thinking about how intrusive social media is in the harvesting of your data.

In this first part of the lesson, you will explore a little bit about privacy and some of the laws that protect us.

Let's start off with a question.

Do you believe that it is the responsibility of the government to keep its citizens safe? By the end of this lesson, you will have a clearer sense of how you might respond to this question, and understand the complexities of this issue.

It's time for a task, on the worksheet for each of the following statements.

Decide whether you agree or disagree or both in the opinion column and explain your opinions.

It is the government's responsibility to protect me from threats to my personal data.

The government shouldn't listen to my private phone calls.

If I have nothing to hide, law enforcement should have access to my password protected phone.

I have the right to determine which digital services have access to my personal information.

The government should store information about its citizens indefinitely.

Intelligence services should collect data on people in order to solve crimes before they happen.

And the government should be able to read encrypted messages of suspected criminals.

Pause the video now to complete the task.

When you finish, resume the video It is not expected that you should hold a specific viewpoint, but should be aiming to develop a clear point of view on matters relating to privacy.

So what extent do you believe that we have the right to privacy? And what is the effect of this? In lesson two and three of this unit on the impact of technology, you have already studied the Data Protection Act and the Freedom of Information Act, which are Acts designed to protect us from having our privacy exploited for nefarious or exploitative commercial purposes.

The Investigatory Powers and telecommunication Acts or two Acts related to security.

So let's find out more.

The Investigatory Powers Act 2016 sets up rules on the use of Investigatory Powers by the police and the security and intelligence agencies.

Phone companies and internet service providers are required to keep copies of users emails and browsing histories for 12 months.

It also gives police and security services the authority to access computers and phones to search for data.

The Telecommunications Act 1984 allows the Secretary of State to give secret directions to Ofcom the office of communications, or any other providers of public electronic communications networks.

For example, after the 9/11 attacks, our National Security Agency MI5, use the act to collect bulk telephone communications data.

Both of the acts have proved controversial, with opponents concerned over how they impact people's right to privacy.

It's time for another task, on the worksheet, filling the missing words.

The sheet presents an example long-form answer showing how laws linked to privacy.

The bottom of the sheet has a word bank to help you decide which words go in the spaces.

This passage references the current UK laws and their approach to handling personal data.

Pause the video now to complete the task.

When you finish press play to go through the answers.

A society can't guarantee security without also invading the personal privacy of its citizens.

Laws that allow the collection of data directly infringe upon individual's privacy.

The ability to collect data for use in investigations is invaluable to police and other law enforcement agencies.

The Telecommunications Act 1984 has been used by police to monitor and collect data on the phone calls and text messages of suspected criminals.

The Home Secretary has stated that communications data is used in 95% of criminal cases.

The Investigatory Powers Act 2016 allows agencies to safeguard national security by collecting data from a huge range of sources.

This data is used to track threats and foil plots before they can cause harm to the citizens of the UK.

There is an argument that guarding individual privacy, especially around data is a better way of stopping malicious individuals from inflicting harm.

The Data Protection Act 2018 defines how organisations should handle personal data in the future.

The Act tells organisations what sort of data they can hold, where they can hold it, and how long they need to keep it for.

This could be seen as a move towards guarding privacy for individuals.

Organisations and governments collect huge amounts of personal data.

And this data is extremely valuable.

Its value applies not only to organisations that collect it, but also to other malicious individuals such as hackers and rival governments.

There is also no way to guarantee that the data is being used appropriately within the government either.

The Freedom of Information Act 2000 was implemented to end a culture of secrecy in the government, in a move to other concerns over the government's conduct.

However, not all data collected is available to be requested via this Act.

Data Collection allows law enforcement to investigate and convict criminals, they would not otherwise be able to.

The use of communications data and investigations exemplifies this.

The telecommunications Acts, while useful, also allows the mass collection of very personal data about a country citizens.

This data is valuable to people outside the government, and so steps must be taken to ensure it's kept secure.

Strong encryption, firewalls and careful monitoring of any identifying data are all steps that must be taken if the collection of this data is to continue.

The current UK laws try to provide a balance data is collected by law enforcement for security.

But there are guidelines on how organisations should treat the data that they have.

These laws aren't always used appropriately, with mass surveillance by government and commercial companies, leading to concerns about the data and how it will be used.

How was that? Okay, let's jump straight into the next task.

Many technology devices or programmes have privacy implications.

The task three on the worksheet match the technology below with the privacy implications statement on the sheet.

The technologies include phone calls, web browsers, electronically tagging criminals, vehicle black boxes, mobile phones and CCTV cameras.

Pause the video now to complete the task and resume when you're finished.

Great job.

Let's go through the answers.

For number one.

The issue was that there are regulations determining what images and film can be used for, and that members of the public should be warned of its presence.

Businesses must register their details with the Information Commissioner's Office or ICO and pay a data protection fee.

This relates to the use of CCTV cameras.

For number two, the use of GPS to ensure that criminals stick to a courtmandated curfew to be at a specific location at a specific time, was related to electronically tagging criminals.

For number three, this technology can be integral or added to cars to record for example, speed, braking, belt usage, airbags and GPS usage.

This information can be used in road traffic accident, investigations.

This of course was related to the use of vehicle black boxes.

For number four service providers, advertisers, law enforcement and criminals may have access to the data on your personal device.

This was related to the use of mobile phones.

For number five, your history is recorded and may be used by service providers, advertisers, law enforcement and criminals is related to web browsers.

Finally, for number six phone calls are routinely recorded in the workplace and trends are tracked.

That was brilliant, let's move on.

In this final part of the lesson, you will explore the impact of social media on your privacy and on the environment.

Social media companies routinely collect, analyse and archive your data.

This isn't a secret, but do you actually know how much, for example, did you know that your data including search history, location data using places you've checked in places you've visited in the past, and even your running or fitness data, as well as your advert profile, which includes information about your gender, age, hobbies, career, interests, or relationship status and income are used to target adverts to you, the apps and extensions that you've installed and how you use them, plus things like your YouTube history, not to mention photos, videos and messages, and much, much more.

After having looked at ten years worth of Facebook and Google data, writer Dylan Curran concluded, this is one of the craziest things about the modern age.

We would never let the government or a corporation put cameras or microphones in our homes or location trackers on us, but we just went ahead and did it ourselves.

Because to hell with it.

I want to watch cute dog videos.

What do you think about that conclusion? It seems like such a far fetched thing to say.

But actually is true.

We are often guilty of trading our privacy for seemingly trivial purposes.

Further to the effects on privacy social media impacts the environment in two direct ways.

One being, the infrastructure needed to provide access to those platforms such as data centres, internet routers, and the mobile internet base stations, and two the manufacturing, use and disposal of the devices used to access social media platforms, such as smartphones, laptops and PCs.

Despite this, can you think of any ways in which social media positively impacts the environment? Some of the ways in which social media can positively impact the environment include online meetings replacing travelling.

Raising awareness through social media and viral videos.

Environmental pressure groups advertising via social media, and crowdfunding and online positioning.

When it comes to privacy and sharing and even the environment, there is a lot to think about.

But considering this if you could make one change, what would it be? Have the intention to be more mindful about what you share and who you share it with online.

Thank you for watching this lesson on privacy and surveillance.

I really hope you've liked it.

Don't forget to complete the exit quiz after this lesson, and remember that you can share your work with Oak National.

If you'd like to please ask your parent or carer to share your work on Instagram, Facebook or Twitter, tagging @OakNational and #LearningwithOak.