Short on time? This page is the recap. For explanations and worked examples, use the full study guide.
Recap
- People create computing innovations, and innovations change how people do tasks.
- Not every effect is anticipated. Effects can be beneficial, harmful or both.
- A single effect can be beneficial to one person and harmful to another, or even to the same person.
- Innovations can be used beyond their intended purpose: the World Wide Web, targeted advertising, and machine learning with data mining are examples.
- Unintended effects can be beneficial (advances in other fields) or harmful (to society, the economy or culture).
- Rapid sharing or very many users can create impacts beyond the programmer’s control.
- Responsible programmers try to consider unintended uses, but cannot consider every use.
Key relationships
| Question to ask | Why it matters |
|---|---|
| What was the intended purpose? | Separates intended from unintended |
| Who is affected, including non-users? | Effects differ by group |
| What changes for each group? | Beneficial or harmful depends on the person |
| How many people use it? | Scale multiplies effects |
| What data are involved? | Data can be reused or exposed |
| What could reduce the harm? | Gives a specific safeguard |
Assumptions and conventions
- Answer in a balanced way: name a benefit and a harm when asked for both.
- Name who is affected, not “people” in general.
- A safeguard must be specific and linked to the harm.
Mistakes to avoid
- Giving only a benefit when a harm was also asked.
- Writing “society” instead of naming a group.
- Treating unintended as the same as harmful.
- Claiming developers could have prevented every harm.
- Forgetting scale.
- Giving an opinion without reasons from the scenario.
Two quick worked examples
1. A fictional app built to help people share lifts is used by a school to plan bus routes from the sharing data. This is a use beyond the intended purpose with a beneficial effect (better routes), but the data could reveal where people live, so a safeguard such as removing names is needed.
2. A delivery robot saves time for a shop and removes a delivery job. One effect, fewer staff needed, is beneficial for the shop and harmful for the driver whose work it replaces, so a balanced answer names both groups.
A revision routine
Pick any app you know and apply the five analysis questions: purpose, who is affected, effects, data and scale, and safeguards. Write one effect that is beneficial for one group and harmful for another, and one use beyond the intended purpose. Practise keeping each answer balanced and tied to a named group.
Quick self-check
- A photo app built for sharing holiday pictures is used by a charity to find missing people. Intended or unintended? Beneficial or harmful? (Unintended; beneficial.)
- Why might one effect be both beneficial and harmful? (Different people, or the same person at different times, are affected differently.)
- Why can’t a programmer consider all uses? (People use innovations in many unforeseen ways and at large scale.)
Next: practice questions.