2.7 Professional concerns about IT and society

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Respondents were asked what their greatest concerns about the future impact of IT on society were. Without a doubt the answers to this question demonstrated that the respondents are definitely impassioned individuals. Twenty-nine of the 67 respondents who answered this question commented about the future loss of privacy or freedom as a result of the widespread adaptation of IT. Table 2.14 shows the concerns about IT and society that the survey respondents shared.

Table 2.14: Concerns about IT and Society

Responses from Survey Participants	Privacy- or Freedom-Related Response
Advanced IT will reduce the need for people to interact.
Blurring of the lines between work and personal life beyond what individuals would prefer; decreased control over personal information (i.e., that obtained by telemarketers); 'data smog' decreased examination of where our technologies are taking us alienation due to technology that is created without regard to its use or practical effects; extreme corporate intrusion into personal	P
lives in the face of lax governmental controls on how companies use IT to monitor and steer consumers; environmental impact of the continuous cycle of planned obsolescence; and, in the worst case, IT enabling totalitarian states via the currently available technologies of national ID cards, face-recognition technologies, GPS, smart money, RFID tags, and subcutaneous microchips.
Continuous exploitation by unknown attackers for the benefit of conducting and/or continuing to conduct cyberwarfare.
Cybercrime and cyberterrorism.
Dehumanization of society and moral beliefs.
Digital divide; ethical use of technology; communication exchanges, including rumors, myths, and other nonfactual information.
Ease of access to private data-either through malicious intent or lax policies.
General fear that technology leads to job reduction. General fear of 'big brother' technology such as GPS and Web browser tracking.	P
Greater depersonalization, less commitment to local talent.
Greatly reduced face-to-face social interaction.
Homeland security unfunded mandates.
I am not an engineer and I feel that the mindset of the technical person feels that everything revolves around technology. These people either forget or do not understand that other issues are more important to the day-to-day business activities of corporate America. I have seen a trend in the last several years to become more dependent on the decisions and recommendations of the IT department. This can lead to many bad corporate decisions and must be tempered.
I believe that machines are getting faster and smarter, thus allowing users to be less coherent on the general aspects of IT.
Identity theft and loss of privacy.	P
I'm concerned with the risk of having my life hacked. As technology is used for home automation or personal convenience-type things, the risk of an attacker disrupting your life is much greater. Appropriate investigation into preventing these things needs to occur. I also feel that technology can have a very positive impact on society if used properly. A computer in the home makes life much easier by managing your finances, scheduling contacts, etc. Once all the glitches of using and integrating these types of applications are overcome people could spend less time on these tasks and more time with family, friends, or working on hobbies. Basically quality of life might be improved.	P
I'm most concerned that technology is used by people who understand only a small part of it, but it was developed by people who think it should do everything. If this trend continues, I see problems with people using technology that is doing more than they want it to and are unaware that this is even happening.
Inappropriate access and use of personal information.	P
Individual privacy rights in the public domain!	P
IT will continue to lead to the displacement of jobs. This will occur as a result of productivity increases (efficiency) and outsourcing to foreign countries.
Intrusion into business data and personal stored data.	P
Invasion of privacy and too much information being kept, with the inevitable errors.	P
Isolation of people!
IT provides leverage. Organizations and people who have IT (such as the U.S. government, TIA, or Experian) have leverage over those (especially individuals) who do not. We are not educating new IT workers in ethics or responsibilities or even the relevant laws.	P
It seems to me that most companies continue to develop and enhance IT by taking every expedient to avoid honest thought about solving real problems or satisfying quantifiable needs, while placing marginal consideration on security or personal privacy and the effect of their efforts on society and the economy.	P
It's enabling people to be constantly accessible-not ever able to turn off. We are constantly bombarded with more information than we can process. There is no time off.
Job loss, privacy loss, security issues.	P
Joblessness.
Kids accessing porn and getting molested.
Lack of built-in security and lack of privacy.
Less personal interaction in business.
Lessen traditional research and thinking skills. Create less patient society. Also much, much less privacy.	P
Loss of individual privacy.	P
Loss of individual privacy.	P
Loss of privacy.	P
Many people react without thinking of the impact of their answers or actions.
My greatest concern is educating the employee who is not directly involved in a security project. He or she has an impact on the company's security, our customers' information security, our company's reputation.	P
People will become lazier. Having almost any type of information at your fingertips allows individuals to perform many tasks without understanding the fundamentals of the problem (e.g., mathematics and engineering).
People will have little privacy.	P
People will lose their skills in interacting with others. They will not think for themselves but will accept anything the computer tells them as the truth.
Personal privacy concerns (will we get to the point where it is easy to track and retrieve very specific data on individuals), digital divide-people are being left behind.	P
Personal security.	P
Privacy.	P
Privacy.	P
Privacy and identify theft.	P
Privacy and security.	P
Privacy management of personal data is probably the highest concern I have.	P
Protecting personal data.	P
Society will be more informed by various sources rather than just what they were able to get locally from newspaper radio and television.
Stolen identity.	P
Stress of available 'data' and bombardment with it-inadequate security for personal communications of all sorts-lack of understanding of available security and/or scaring people unnecessarily or making them vulnerable to personal attack.
Technological improvement is faster than social evolution.
Technology has the tendency to isolate people from one another. Human interaction on a face-to-face level seems to drop off as the technology of IT grows.
Technology is outpacing the general public's ability to learn about the dangers and risks of using technology-for example, using the Internet to conduct business.
That proper security measures don't stay current with technology.	P
That society (primarily folks who reach upper-management levels) may become too dependent upon IT and lose the interpersonal skills that are so desperately needed and woefully inadequate to manage a large number of personnel.
That users do not have time to be adequately trained and retrained as technology is introduced into their job functions. Users don't respond well to change. Even less so if they won't/ can't take time for training.
The ability to infiltrate systems more easily and take personal and other private information for criminal or unethical use.	P
The acceptance and understanding of how technology can remove the divide between being trained in technology to using technology for the better of society.
The digital divide between the haves and the have-nots of both our society and the world.
The loss of privacy.	P
The unknowns of security requirements within government combined with a lack of policy enforcement.
Threats to innovations due to patent litigation.
Too much trust placed in systems not proven trustworthy. Too much is assumed by the average citizen about these black boxes and their programmers and operators. Too much complexity for anyone to truly manage or control the systems and those who operate them.	P
Uninformed or misinformed politicians will rush to legislate that which should not be legislated and won't legislate what should be legislated.
We already have trouble communicating with one another in person and as more transactions become automated, human interaction and people skills are likely to deteriorate.
Widening of the digital divide and the concurrent impacts on society.
Will IT and the training required to use, improve, and leverage the various technologies it creates be available to all members of society?

An interesting and perhaps telling note regarding the surveyed population is that 58 percent of them reported that they have read the book 1984 by George Orwell. For those of you who have not read the book and who have concerns about the impact of technology on society, now may be a good time to do so.

Respondents were also asked about what they believe to be the greatest benefits that the Internet provides society. Overwhelmingly, access and speed of access to information was the main theme of responses to this question. Of the 90 responders to the question, 76 referred to access to information as one of the greatest benefits of the Internet. Access to information is considered by many to be essential for the democratic process to be effective and successful. Table 2.15 shows the responses concerning the greatest benefits of the Internet.

Table 2.15: Views on the Greatest Benefits of the Internet

Responses from Survey Participants	Relates to Greater Access to Information
1. Easy access to information; consumers can make better decisions with the information. 2. Creates global village.	P
A better background on what is possible if you put your mind and self to a task. There are more than enough examples of how to do things right and how to do things wrong on the Internet. In addition to that-the Internet provides a far greater scope of experience and knowledge than one person could find through traditional means.	P
A forum for debate and a repository for information that is beyond the control of any central authority, a vast online library on virtually every subject imaginable (many subjects about which very little is available anywhere else), the potential for instant communication with nearly any other connected person on the planet, a truly global marketplace, a way to discover events close to home one might not have known about otherwise.	P
A gateway to information on almost any topics right in your own home.	P
Ability to obtain and exchange information.	P
Access.
Access to all information that was previously inaccessible. Enhanced communication globally.	P
Access to information.	P
Access to information.	P
Access to information.	P
Access to information-any information at all-we just have to find a better way to let information be free.	P
Access to information, eease of communication.	P
Access to information and free exchange of ideas.	P
Access to information in a timely, qualitative, and quantitative unprecedented level.	P
Access to information, ease of crossing social boundaries.	P
Access to information.	P
Access to news sources and communications unfettered by commercial censorship.	P
Access to research company information.	P
Access to useful information.	P
Access to vast amounts of information.	P
Allows terrific access to information that was previously only available through tedious use of paper documents.	P
Allows users from all over the world to communicate on any number of topics.
Availability of information.	P
Availability of information cultural exchange of ideas.	P
Availability of information to the masses.	P
Availability of lots of data and information on many topics available relatively easily with search tools. (e.g., medical, home maintenance, vehicle maintenance, recipes, history, art, etc.)- personal connectivity with family, friends, etc, is dramatic.	P
Communication.
Connectivity, ease of access to information repositories and other resources.	P
Direct access to information. One-stop shopping if you will. Direct communication.	P
Dissemination of information easier	P
Ease of transferring information.	P
Easy access to information.	P
Easy and rapid access to information, access to information not previously feasible to see. Collaboration on subject matter. Saves time ordering things, doing banking making appointments.	P
E-commerce, communication, telecommuting, etc.
Entertainment (online gaming), wider range of news sources, connection to others who share similar interests (sewing, crafts, music).
Exchange of information.	P
Expansion of Internet creates greater expansion of knowledge to greater number of people allowing more informed populace.	P
For one it provides true freedom of speech and enables everyone who has access to gain information on just about any topic.	P
Free speech.
Freedom and access to information.	P
Freedom for anyone to discover and access any type of information and to freely communicate and exchange information and ideas with anyone and everyone 24 / 7.	P
Freedom of information (not the accuracy), freedom of communication, liberate the knowledge from confines of libraries.	P
Global access to information and products.	P
Global communication and information transfer.	P
Great for information searches. Great for a marketing tool. Great for instant communication between people over long distances.	P
Immediate access to information on almost any subject.	P
Improved communication between diverse cultures, greater access to information.	P
Information.	P
Information.	P
Information access.	P
Information accessibility, information exchange, information store.	P
Information and education.	P
Information and knowledge.	P
Information is readily available to everyone.	P
Information warehousing.	P
Information.	P
Instant access to information.	P
Instant access to information, access to more people with similar interests in different locations, opportunity for small businesses to sell on large level, location is less important-more opportunities to live away from large cities.	P
Instant access to information and improved communication globally.	P
Instantaneous access to information and ideas.	P
Instantaneous information and a much greater source of information.	P
Intercommunication across all socially/physically dividing boundaries (i.e., religion, race, color, politics, etc.).
It allows individuals to communicate with each other as well as form virtual communities without regard to race, location, or (usually) socio-economic level. It is a society of the mind, where your ideas are more important than what you look like, sound like, or live.
Knowledge.	P
Knowledge and information.	P
Making information more readily available to all people regardless of location.	P
Massive amounts of data and information. Whatever the question the answer can be found on the Internet.	P
More information sharing.	P
Online economic transactions- saving on postage and not limited to the 8 A.M. to 5 P.M. work schedule. More shopping variety. Easy communication-can communicate with anybody anywhere at any time for almost no cost.
Provides unlimited freedom to information. Provides a platform to research (i.e., family history and genealogy). Connects the world into a global society.	P
Quick and available knowledge of all kinds.	P
Quick and easy access to Information.	P
Rapid access to information.	P
Rapid information and advanced learning.	P
Research tool, learning tool, help people learn about other countries and culture.	P
Saves time.
Sharing of knowledge and information.	P
Speed and diversity of information available.	P
Speed to information.	P
The greatest benefit is the global audience it provides. The vast number of communities allows people to get many different perspectives in any topic they choose. A large problem with society is with the understanding and acceptance of different people. If people took a second to listen to other perspectives, then it may be possible to begin to understand and maybe even accept.
The greatest benefits of the Internet today are the availability of information and the ease of communication.	P
The Internet has greatly enhanced learning in our schools and has also allowed family members to keep in closer contact.	P
The Internet shrinks the global divide. Global communications are now commonplace. Ideas, cultures, and information can easily be shared/exchanged. Likewise, solutions can be addressed by a greater audience now.	P
The knowledge that information is out there and instant access to information that previously was extremely difficult to locate.	P
To be able to be friends with people across the world.
Turning a local community retail-wise to global. I know can shop among worldwide retailers, where a decade ago I was for the most part limited geographically.
Unlimited access to information. Exposure to previously unimaginable places and possibilities.	P
Variety of means for information, education, and business.	P
Vast amount of all kinds of information and data that we can all use in our everyday lives.	P

Homeland security and the threat of terrorism has created a juxtaposition between this key element of democracy and the need to keep information away from potential terrorists. Even the National Archives of the United States has reevaluated its dissemination of information to assure that no information will be dispensed that could aid terrorism.

Governments, organizations, and private business have been rapidly moving to evaluate what information is available on their Web sites and through other normal public challenges that could aid terrorists in planning or executing an attack.

Survey participants were also asked what they felt were the worse things that the Internet enables in society. Table 2.16 shows the response about the worst things that the Internet enables. Interestingly, 32 of the 91 respondents commented that the access to information was the worst thing that the Internet enables. This shows that just as people value the access to information, they can also fear the access to information.

Table 2.16: Views on the Worse Things That the Internet Enables

Responses from Survey Participants	Relates to Greater Access to Information
1. Disinformation. 2. People sit in front of their computer/TV and are not as active as they should be. 3. Ease of computer crime.	P
Access.	P
Access to harmful information.	P
Access to hate site, porn site for people who are underage.	P
Access to information. Ease of communication including too much junk mail.	P
Access to information regardless of moral or ethical boundaries.	P
Access to porn and crazy information is too easy. Too many people do not know how to protect themselves from the dangers lurking on the Internet.	P
Access to unlimited information. Never leave home tendency.	P
Addiction to being online. Dissemination of false information. Too easy to obtain personal information about other people.	P
All things can be misused or abused.
Allows criminals to have easy access to information about our children and private information.
Allows people to participate in activities they normally would be ashamed to do in person. Allows the bad part of society to be as readily available as the good information.	P
Another avenue for information hackers to steal personal data.	P
As with all technologies it is abused by the dark side of criminals, pornographers, scammers, and thieves. Kind of like the old western movies.
Availability of socially unacceptable material information available on destructive nature of creating dangerous objects.	P
Boosts technocracy. Provides possibility to be anonymous (hackers' violence). Personality redouble possibility (virtual me).
Chat rooms.
Child porn.
Child predators!
Crime.
Crime.
Crime.
Deception.
Diminishes personal contact.
Dissemination of pornography and hate-based material.	P
Exploitation of children.
For the most part the Internet has no boundaries. The Internet may provide too much information.	P
Freedom for anyone to discover and access any type of information and to freely communicate and exchange information and ideas with anyone and everyone 24 / 7.	P
Greed and fraud are more easily perpetuated.
Hard question to answer. Ease of obtaining bad stuff. Ease of conducting illicit activities.	P
Hate crimes.
ID fraud.
Illicit info.	P
Inactivity, sloth, porn available to children, predators, spam.
Inappropriate and/or offensive spam.
Inappropriate material available to everyone.	P
Information is unreliable, no check & balance to Internet usage, moral depravity/pornography.	P
Information that, while not warranting suppression, poses problems when readily available to anyone-bomb-making information. Information on business scams and tax havens, fringe pornography (i.e., bestiality), etc.	P
Instantaneous access to (bad) information and ideas.	P
Intrusive attacks by hackers or cyberterrorists.
Isolation.
It allows the same old crimes and abuses to occur only at a distance and in new aspects.
It brings out the good and bad of all of us. The good to assist others in time of need. The bad that exploits the weak in chat rooms, the gullible with faceless threats of need, the ability to peddle or sell nearly anything, the continuance of fraud schemes much like the ones received via snail mail, and the challenges by some savvy and/or those not so savvy but highly interested in distressing our lives through the implementation of viruses, worms, and Trojan horses.
It is still allow a person who is going to do bad thing, in the general public to do them on the Internet.
Junk mail spam, noncertified information, etc.	P
Made it easy for hackers to get into other people's systems. People glued to computers more, leaving them with little time for social interactions.
Moral degradation the Internet is just as bad as it is good.
More misinformation blurring of concept of reliable source, pornography, intellectual property theft, less emphasis on critical thinking, less ability to determine who information originated with.	P
Negativity of the human image to the masses.
No monitoring of what is allowed to be published. Information can be dangerous in the wrong hands-like children, for example. The benefits can be turned around and used in a harmful way in the hands of the wrong person.	P
Pedophilia and cyberterrorism try to abuse this medium.
People feel that they are entitled to everything-nobody wants to work for anything.
People rely on information on the Internet as 'the truth.' Very easy for people to be taken advantage of if they are not educated on using it defensively.
People taking advantage of others, more ways to be fraudulent.
Porn.
Porn, spam, loss of control over information.	P
Porn.
Pornography. Gambling. Addictive behaviors.
Pornography and e-commerce. Here is a tool (the Internet) that the entire world can communicate through. We can have a free exchange of information and ideas to better society and solve problems, yet pornography and e-commerce are two of the most prevalent uses of the Internet technology.	P
Pornography and perverts preying on the young. Another way that crooks can prey on all of us.
Pornography and spam.
Pornography has grown at an alarming rate due to the Internet.
Potential fraud.
Predators, unethical profiteering.
Privacy invasion.
Proliferation of pornography.
Promotes some bad things like porn, spamming, and gambling.
Quick and easy access to information.	P
Rapid and anomalous access to people (where trust can be easily made and broken).
Rumors, half-facts, no real interaction between people (but calling it total interactive experience).	P
Social and personal isolation in the way of human contact and communications. Also, personal freedom demands a personal responsibility-the Internet allows otherwise anonymous irresponsible behaviors that have not been confronted until now.
Society feels the need to reinvent the ethical structure that existed in radio, TV, etc.
Spam, ability to easily misrepresent, access to more people.
Spam and porn are constantly pushed in your face.
Spam, sleazy people preying on children.
Spawned a new breed of cyberperversion and increased the ability to seduce and take advantage of the gullible.
Spreads misinformation too easily. Easier to be hurtful to others. Time waster. Much easier access to things the general public should not have access to-like how to make chemical weapons. Pornography.	P
Technological predators. False information. Loss of social skills, talking, reasoning, critical thinking skills.	P
That it is more important than it really is.
The ability to anonymously harass or terrorize anyone else on the Internet no matter where he or she is.
The ability to find personal information on others and use it unethically and criminally.	P
The anonymity that the Internet provides allows people to act in a way they would not in other situations.
The efficiency with which less than honorable people can harm others-and be very difficult to trace.
The Internet provides a great service in providing access to any kind of information desired. This service is very dangerous as well, since this information may be malicious in nature. For example, this could give some ten-year-old boy access to information on how to make drugs or a bomb or something along those lines.	P
The lack of physical contact. Having said that though-it does tend to break the traditional barriers of language distance and racial concerns that may be experienced with physical contacts which at time can be a concern.
This is a philosophical question about a technology. Not sure how to answer. It is only another pathway or vehicle or tool that will be used. As such it doesn't enable anything that is not already going on in some form within the fabric of society. All it truly does is make such enablement faster.
Too often caters to lowest common denominator.
Undesirable products. Often illegal products.
Unfortunately it allows dishonest and bad people to do dishonest and bad things to the large number of good and innocent individuals.
Unfortunately with freedom of speech there is always the abuse. I am not referring to being able to voice my opinion but rather some of the information that may be inappropriately available to kids. Also the technology allows for a push of information whereas I for one do not appreciate spam being pushed to my email or Internet screen.

Although there is a high level of personal dilemma about the good and the bad of the Internet, only 8 percent of the survey respondents felt that content and activity on the Internet should be regulated by the government. Overwhelmingly, 59 percent responded that content and activity on the Internet should not be regulated by the government. Meanwhile, 15 percent were undecided. Table 2.17 shows the views of respondents on government regulation of the Internet, and Table 2.18 shows the comments of those who responded to the question with the answer of 'other.'

Table 2.17: Views on Government Regulation of the Internet

Response	Percent
Yes	8
No	59
Undecided	15
Other	17

Government should provide resources to investigate fraud and national opt out functionality for spam. These services should be optional for people who choose to use them. They should not be mandatory or regulated.

I do feel that certain things should not be viewed by or even made available to certain individuals. Porn, for example, should not be as accessible as it is for young to teenage children. If these sites were not shoved down our throats, I've got to believe that if adults wanted to get to porn sites they'd figure it out with all the forceful advertising. I do believe, however, that since this is not being controlled by the government that it is squarely in the parents' court to prevent this or any questionable entertainment source from being readily available to minors. I mean, come on, with all the available resources today to allow you to monitor every stroke of the keyboard (if you wish), certainly falls upon a parent's realm of responsibility.

I don't think the government should be regulating everything on the Internet. If something is illegal based on that government's laws, then it should be able to act on it within the jurisdiction of its laws.

I feel that fees for e-mails will be necessary. This would cut down the number of e-mails that just spam the Internet. Then stiff fines for violations could be added for major violations.

I think that it needs to be regulated from a criminal perspective. We should not overlook criminal behavior and Web sites promoting such just because they are on the Internet and not on the street.

Not by the government but possibly the private sector.

Only as it relates to criminal or unethical behavior that is destructive in nature (hacking, worms, viruses).

Only if there is a compelling reason that trumps the argument that it not.

Our children need to be protected in public areas (i.e., schools and libraries). There is no reason that deviant behavior should be allowed. If an institution really feels that strongly that freedom of speech is more important than protecting our children, the organization should be required to establish an over-21 area, just like establishments that serve alcoholic beverages.

Some things should be regulated, such as spam, malicious code, and protection of child exploitation. Most everything else should not be regulated.

Sometimes porn, etc.

Somewhat.

The Internet is a global medium. Any government regulation would only be useful for each specific country.

The United States is only one part of the Internet. If government is to be included, then it should be a UN-led/backed regulation.

There is no government with this much authority. The PRC has tried to manage this and failed.

Unfortunately, yes. If the technology were not abused for children, I would feel otherwise because adults can adjust, but unsuspecting children may not know how to cope with it.

While some material should be subject to regulation, I don't think it will ever happen. How do you overcome the constitution and the freedom of speech?

An interesting note on which to wrap up the presentation of the survey results concerns two questions about how these professionals deal with their children's use of the Internet. Of all of the respondents, 46 percent reported that they counsel their children on the use of the Internet, 17 percent reported that their children are old enough to handle the Internet, and 36 percent reported that they do not have children. (Note that one respondent skipped this question.)

Respondents were also asked, 'If you have children, do you monitor their use of the Internet?' The majority, 33 percent reported that they monitor their children's use of the Internet, 6 percent reported that they do not monitor their children's use of the Internet, and 24 percent reported that their children are old enough to handle the Internet.

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