Unit III: Society, Law and

Ethics
Digital Footprint
A digital footprint, sometimes called digital dossier is a body
of data that you create while using the Internet. It includes
the websites you visit, emails you send, and information you
submit to online services and can be traced back by an
individual.

It is of two types-

1. A passive digital footprint is created when data is

collected without the owner knowing. A more personal
aspect of your passive digital footprint is your search
history, which is saved by some search engines while
you are logged in.

2. Active digital footprints are created when a user, for

the purpose of sharing information about oneself by
means of websites or social media, deliberately. An
"active digital footprint" includes data that you
 intentionally submit online. Sending an email contributes
to your active digital footprint, since you expect the data
be seen and/or saved by another person. The more email
you send, the more your digital footprint grows.

Publishing a blog and posting social media updates are

another popular ways to expand your digital footprint. Every
tweet you post on Twitter, every status update you publish
on Facebook, and every photo you share on Instagram
contributes to your digital footprint.
Net and Communication
Etiquettes
Netiquette is short for "Internet etiquette." Just like etiquette
is a code of polite behavior in society, netiquette is a code of
good behavior on the Internet. This includes several aspects of
the Internet, such as email, social media, online chat, web
forums, website comments, multiplayer gaming, and other
types of online communication.

While there is no official list of netiquette rules or guidelines,

the general idea is to respect others online. Below are ten
examples of rules to follow for good netiquette:

1. Avoid posting inflammatory or offensive comments

online.

2. Respect others' privacy by not sharing personal

information, photos, or videos that another person may
not want published online.
 3. Never spam others by sending large amounts of
unsolicited email.

4. Show good sportsmanship when playing online games,

whether you win or lose.

5. Don't troll people in web forums or website comments

by repeatedly nagging or annoying them.
6. Stick to the topic when posting in online forums or
when commenting on photos or videos, such as
YouTube or Facebook comments.

7. Don't swear or use offensive language.

8. Avoid replying to negative comments with more

negative comments. Instead, break the cycle with a
positive post.

9. If someone asks a question and you know the answer,

offer to help.

10. Thank others who help you online.

Data Protection
Data protection refers to the practices, safeguards, and
binding rules put in place to protect your personal
information and ensure that you remain in control of it. In
short, you should be able to decide whether you want to
share some information or not, who has access to it, for how
long, for what reason, and who be able to modify some of this
information

Personal data is any information relating to you,

whether it relates to your private, professional, or public
life. In the online environment, where vast amounts of
personal data are shared and transferred around the globe
instantaneously,
 It is increasingly difficult for people to maintain control
of their personal information. This is where data protection
comes in.

Intellectuals Property
Rights (IPR)
 Intellectual property refers to intangible property
that hasbeen created by individuals and corporations for
their benefit or usage such as copyright, trademark,
patent and digital data. It is therefore unethical to copy
or steal the creativity and efforts of someone else.

Intellectual property is divided into categories which are-

  Industrial property which
majorly speaks about protecting inventions on
the other hand
 Copyright majorly protects literary and artistic works.

INDUSTRIAL PROPERTY
Which include inventions (patents), commercial names,
industrial designs, trademarks, geographic indications and
designations etc.

Plagiarism
 Plagiarism means not giving authors credit after
copying
that author’s work.

 It involves lying, cheating, theft and dishonesty. For

example, copying papers written by other people and
professional and claims it as written by you can be an
example of plagiarism.

 It can be classified as
1. Accidental/unintentional
2. Deliberate/intentional
Accidental/unintentional Deliberate/intentional
Plagiarism Plagiarism

1. Involves careless Includes copying someone

paraphrasing (changing the else’s work, cutting and
words or sentence passing blocks of text or any
construction of a copied kind of information from
document), quoting text electronic sources without the
excessively along with poor permission of the original
documentation. author.

2. Accidental Plagiarism cases Deliberate plagiarism that may

are less serious result in serious implications

HOW TO AVOID PLAGIARISM?

Plagiarism should be avoided by the following simple
measures:

 Use your own ideas and words.

 Always provide a reference or give credit to the source

from where you have received information.

 Cite the name of the website, a URL or the name of

authors, and acknowledge them if you have used their
 work after rearranging the order of a sentence and
changing some of the work.

 Take the information in the form of bulleted

notes in your words.

 Use online tools to check for plagiarism.

 Develop your writing skills.

Licensing and copyright

 A Software license is a legal permission or right to
use oredistribution
r of that software.
 The software can run on a certain number of computers
as per license agreement.
 The software license usually answers questions such
as-
1. Can you copy, modify or redistribute it?
2. Where and how many times can you install the
software?
3. Can you look at the underlying source code?
 Software
licenses

Proprietary Free & Open

licenses Source licenses

copyleft
licenses

permissive
licenses

PROPRIETARY LICENSES
Exclusive rights in the software are retained with the owner
/developer/publisher. They reserve all the freedom and
rights to use and distribute this proprietary software.

FREE AND OPEN SOURCE SOFTWARE

 Refers to software that users can safely run, adapt and
redistribute without legal restraint, and which emphasizes
freedom.

 Open source software (OSS) is software with a source

codethat is publically available under general public licenses
 that give users the right to study, modify and distribute that
software and emphasizes security, cost saving, and
transparency.

 Hence FOSS (free and open source software) allows

using,copying, studying and modifying the software and the
source code to be openly shared and allow copyrights to
other users.

PERMISSIVE LICENSES
 Permissive licenses provide a royalty-free license to o
d
virtually anything with the source code.

 They permit using, copying, modifying, merging,

publishing, distributing, sublicense and/or selling ,but
distribution can only be made without the source code as
source code modifications can lead to permissive license
violation.

COPYLEFT LICENSE
 In the case of copyleft licenses, source code has to be
provided.

 Distribution and modification of source code is permitted.

Example General Public License (GPL), Creative Commons
 License (CC), Lesser General Public License (LGPL), Mozilla
public License (MPL) etc.

copyright
It is a form of protection given to the authors of “original
works of authorship”. This is given in the field of literature,
dramatics, music, software, art etc. This protection applies to
published as well as unpublished work.

Software copyright is used by software developers

and proprietary software companies to prevent the
unauthorized copying of their software. Free and open
source licenses also rely on copyright law to enforce their
terms.

Copyright protects your software from someone else copying

it and using it without your permission.

When you hold the copyright to software, you can-

 Make copies of it.

 Distribute it.
 Modify it.
Cyber Crime
 Cybercrime is defined as “cybercrime (computer crime)is
an illegal behavior, done through electronic operations,
that targets the security of computer systems and the data
processed by them”.

 In other words cyber crime is a crime in which the

offense is done using a computer or we can say a
computer is the object of the crime. Common types of
cybercrime include identity theft, unauthorized computer
access, online bank information that and online predatory
crimes. Cybercrime includes a large range of activities but
it can be classified into 2 categories :

 Crimes that target computer networks or devices.

These types of crimes include viruses and denial of
service (DoS) attacks.
  Crimes that use computer networks to advance other
criminal activities. These types of crimes include
cyber-stalking, phishing and fraud or identity theft.

Cyber Laws
Cyber law is the part of overall legal system that deals with
the Internet, cyberspace, and their respective legal issue.
Cyber law covers broad area including freedom of expression,
access to and usage of the Internet, and online privacy.
Generally cyber law is known as “Law of the Internet”.

Importance of Cyber Law:

1. It covers all transaction over internet.
2. It keeps eyes on all activities over internet.
3. It touches every action and every reaction in cyberspace.

Hacking
Hacking is identifying weakness in computer systems or
networks to exploit its weaknesses to gain access. Example
of Hacking, Using password cracking algorithm to gain
access to a system

Computers have become mandatory to run successful

businesses. It is not enough to have isolated computers
systems, they need to be networked to communicate with
external businesses. This exposes them to the outside world
and hacking. Hacking means using computers to commit
fraudulent acts such as fraud, privacy attack, stealing
corporate/personal data, etc.

EAVESDROPPING: The term eavesdropping has been derived from

the literal practice of secretly listening to the conversations of
people by standing under the eaves of a house. Unlike snooping,
where the network traffic can be stored for later analysis,
eavesdropping is an unauthorised real-time interception or
monitoring of private communication between two entities over
a network. Also, the targets are usually the private
communication channels like phone calls (VoIP), instant
messages, video conference, fax transmission, etc.

Phishing
 Phishing is an attempt to capture a user’s login password and
credit card details by including a URL in a spam e-mail that
links to a fake website controlled by the attacker as a
trustworthy entity.

PHISHING AND FRAUD EMAILS:

It is an unlawful activity where fake websites or emails appear

as original or authentic .This sites when clicked by the user will
collect sensitive and personal details like usernames, password,
credit card details etc. Phishing is an unlawful activity where fake
websites or emails that look original or authentic are presented
to the user to fraudulently collect sensitive and personal details,
particularly usernames, passwords, banking and credit card
details. The most common phishing method is through email
spoofing where a fake or forged email address is used and the user
presumes it to be from an authentic source. So you might get an
email from an address that looks similar to your bank or
educational institution, asking for your information,

RANSOMEWARE :This is another kind of cyber crime where the

attacker gains access to the computer and blocks the user from
accessing, usually by encrypting the data. The attacker blackmails
the victim to pay for getting access to the data, or sometimes
threatens to publish personal and sensitive information or
photographs unless a ransom is paid. Ransomware can get
downloaded when the users visit any malicious or unsecure websites
or download software from doubtful repositories.

CYBER TROLL :The comments or posts demean other users or people,

or their content is called Cyber Troll. An Cyber troll is an excellent
example of social laws and ethics missing out. These are generally
done to respond to any person or their posts negatively. Trolling can
be done by sending hate direct through messages, posts, or
comments. Their way of stating things is suppressive and oppressing,
and trolls are visible on all social platforms such as Instagram,
Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, etc. The main target of the people who
create trolls is people with good fan-following, whether influencers
or celebrities.
Cyber Bullying
Cyber bullying is the harassment or bullying executed through
digital devices like computers, laptops, smart phones, and
tablets. The platforms where cyber bullying can occur include
social media, chat rooms, and gaming platforms where people
can view and participate in the sharing of content.

The different types of cyber bullying involve causing

humiliation through hateful comments on online
platforms/apps, or through SMS or messaging. It comprises
posting, sending or sharing negative, nasty or false
information about another individual for causing humiliation
and character assassination.

CYBER SAFETY: Cyber safety refers to safe and responsible use of

Internet, to ensure safety and security of personal information
and not posing threat to anyone else’s information. Safely
Browsing The Web Everyone must know the threats while
browsing the web. Safe browsing on web needs to know many
important things like:
• What are possible threats? • How to avoid these
threats/dangers?

• How to be safe while browsing web • Not every site you visit is
safe. • Every post or activity we do online is visible to others. •
Not everything you see or is promised online is true.

Identity Protection :

while using Internet ▪ The online world is full of chances to

interact and share with others. A lot of what you do and say online
can be seen even if you delete it ▪ Anyone can accesses your
profile on social networking sites. keep your material private. ▪
Use strong passwords and change them often. Don’t share with
others. ▪ Don't respond to inappropriate requests.

Confidentiality of Information :

▪ Never share your password or account numbers/Ban Details over

an e-mail or message. ▪ Do not follow links from e-mails ▪ Beware
of fraud callers, pop-ups, websites, or e-mails asking for personal
information. ▪ Use secure passwords and change it regularly. ▪ Use
anti-spyware, and antivirus softwares.

Malware : is a short term used for Malicious softWARE. It is any

software developed with an intention to damage hardware
devices, steal data, or cause any other trouble to the user.
Viruses, Worms, Ransomware, Trojans, and Spyware are some of
the kinds of malware.

Viruses: A virus is a piece of software code created to perform

malicious activities and hamper resources of a computer system
like CPU time, memory, personal files, or sensitive information.
a computer virus infects other computer systems that it comes
into contact with by copying or inserting its code into the
computer programs or software (executable files).

Trojan :

A Trojan is a malware, that looks like a legitimate software and

once it tricks a user into installing it, it acts pretty much like a
virus or worm. However, a Trojan does not self-replicate or infect
other files, it spreads through user interaction such as opening an
email attachment or downloading and executing a file from the
Internet.
 Adware:

An Adware is a malware that is created to generate revenue for

its developer. An adware displays online advertisements using
pop-ups, web pages, or installation screens. Once an adware has
infected a substantial number of computer systems, it generates
revenue either by displaying advertisements or using “pay per
click” mechanism to charge its clients against the number of
clicks on their displayed ads.

Indian-IT Act, 2000

 Information technology act 2000/ITA-2000/IT act is an act
of the Indian parliament notified on 17 oct 2000.
 This primary law deals with cybercrimes and electronic
commerce in India.
 It consists of 94 sections that are divided into 13 chapters
and 4 schedules
 A person of others nationalities can also be indicated under
the law if the crime involves a computer or network located
in India, which means the law applies to the whole of India.
 The IT Act,2000 has provisions that permits the interception,
monitoring of traffic data

The cyber laws in India and the provision for legal action and
punishment have been explained -

Section Offense Penalty

67A Publishing images containing Imprisonment up to
sexual acts seven years and/or fine
up to 10 lakh

67B Publishing child porn or Up to five years and/or

predating children online fine up to 10 lakh On 1st
imprisonment conviction

67C Imprisonment up to three

Failure to maintain records years and/or fine up to 2
lakh
68 Failure/refusal to comply with Imprisonment up to
orders seven years, and/or
possible fine

69 Failure/refusal to decrypt data Imprisonment up to three

years, and/or fine up to 1
lakh

70 Securing access or attempting Imprisonment up to ten

to secure access to protected years, and/or fine
system

71 Misrepresentation Imprisonment up to three

years, and/or fine up to 1
lakh

IT Act, 2000 Amendment

 A major amendment was made in 2008.
 It introduced section 69, which gave authorities the
power of “interception/monitoring/decryption” of any
information through any computer resource.
 It also introduced 66A which penalized sending of
“offensive messages”.
  Amendments also contained
penalties for child pornography, cyber
terrorism, and surveillance.
 The act was passed in December 2008 and came into
force in October 2009.

E-Waste, Hazards and

Management
E-waste broadly covers waste from all electronic and electrical
appliances and comprises of items such as computers, mobile
phones, digital music recorders/players, refrigerators,
washing machines, televisions (TVs) and many other household
consumer items.

E-Waste Hazards
 Mostly all electronic waste comprises of toxic chemicals
such as lead, beryllium, mercury etc.
 Improper disposing of gadgets and devices increases
the amount of these toxic chemicals thus contaminated
the soil, causing air and water pollution.
 The contaminated water which is highly polluted it thus
making it harmful for drinking purposes.
 Improper e-waste recycling, such as by open burning
and acid baths creates hazardous and toxic compounds
like- dioxins, furans and acids.
 Damage to the immune system
 Skin disease.
 Multi ailments.
 Skin problems

E-Waste Management
E-waste management requires proper recycling and
recovery of the disposed material. The recycling and
recovery process includes following steps-

1. Dismantling:- removal of parts containing valuable

items such as- copper, silver, gold, steel and removal of
 parts containing dangerous substance like- mercury, lead,
Beryllium etc.
2. Separation metal and plastic
3. Refurbishment and reuse:- it means used electrical and
electronic items that can be easily remodel to make it’s
to reuse.
4. Recovery of valuable materials
5. Disposal of dangerous materials like- mercury, lead,
Beryllium etc and disposed off in underground landfill
sites.

Awareness about health concerns

related to the use of Technology

Today, computer technologies provide people with many

benefits, educational activities can be designed, online
shopping is available, it is possible to get in touch with
people overseas and to chat with them. It is possible to
search for anything and sometimes. It is even possible to
do one’s job at home without going to his or her office. If
these technologies, which dominate our lives more each
passing day, are not used carefully.
Then it is inevitable for people to end up with
certain illnesses like-

1. Neck strain
2. Vision Problem
3. Sense of isolation
4. Sleeping disorder
5. Stress
6. Loss of attention
7. Problem in social relationships of individuals.
8. Computer anxiety
9. Internet addiction etc.

In order to avoid these problems-

 One should learn how to use these technologies
without experiencing any problem rather than avoiding
using them.
 Some of the users of computer technologies are not
even aware of their health-related problems that they
have.
 Some of those who are aware of their illnesses
see adoctor for various reasons. Users of computer
 technologies should immediately take education on the
healthy use of these technologies.
 If the necessary precautions are not taken about this
issue, individuals may have serious health problems,
and the institutions may face a serious decrease in
work force as well as financial losses.