The One Thing You Need to Know About this Big Idea:

This big idea covers all the ways society is impacted by computing devices and how we can help mitigate some of the harmful effects.

AP Computer Science Principles Exam

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AP Computer Science Principles

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Big Idea 1: Creative Development

Big Idea 2: Data

Big Idea 3: Algorithms and Programming

Big Idea 4: Computer Systems and Networks

Big Idea 5: Impact of Computing 

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First Unit

Big Idea 5: Impact of Computing

Think about the activities that make up day-to-day life: going to school, shopping, working, eating, and so on. Increasingly, computing innovations have come to play a role in more and more of these activities. As new innovations come out, people will change how they go about their day to day business to take advantage of the new technology, which will lead to new societal trends and even more new technology to take advantage of them...

Computing innovations have fostered progress and creativity in many ways. Machines have vastly improved the medical field, saving countless lives. Engineers take advantage of computing innovations to collect data and design products. Communications have especially flourished; today, we can communicate instantaneously with people anywhere around the world. Even the artistic world has benefited from new ways to create, share, and sell creative works.

A new computing innovation with the potential to aid both the medical and engineering fields is 3D printing. In the image above, a 3D printer is used to make a hand brace. Image source: 

However, computing innovations have both their good sides and their not-so-good sides. (Anyone who's been scrolling Instagram at three in the morning on a school night can attest to that!) Not every side or effect of a computing innovation is known in advance, either. Innovations take on a life of their own after they're created.

Computing innovations can be used to both help and to hurt people. Identity theft, cyber-bullying... the list goes on.

Responsible programmers try to look at the big picture when it comes to the computing innovations they create. They try to catch potential channels for abuse or harm before they can be exploited.

However, although they do their best, at the end of the day it's just not possible for programmers to predict all the ways that a computing innovation could be used. There are too many possibilities and external variables involved, especially when the innovation covers a large scale. (Hence why Black Mirror exists.)

It's important to note that the effects of a computing innovation are up for debate. People can have widely differing opinions on these effects—some people might think they're good, some people might think they're bad. It's also important to mention that there have been unintended 

 effects of computing innovations as well. They've led to surprising advances in many fields.

Beneficial and Harmful Effects

 refers to the gaps between those who have easy access to the internet and technology and those who don't. Internet and technology access varies across several factors:

issue: it occurs both within countries and between countries. For example, countries in the Western world tend to have a larger percentage of internet users than those outside of it. However, there are also digital divides within countries. Take, for example, the United States, where reportedly

 lack access to reliable, high-speed internet.

This graphic shows the number of internet users in each country as a percentage of their total population. Image source: 

With the internet becoming such an important part of our lives, those without access to technology and the internet are also denied access to crucial resources. Lack of internet access leads to less efficient businesses and educational systems, for example, because those businesses can't communicate as quickly as their competitors and those students are denied access to assignments and learning resources.

This divide can also exacerbate already present inequalities: between rich and poor, between certain races, between (well-connected) urban and (not well connected) rural communities. The digital divide reflects and raises issues of equity, access and influence, both globally and locally.

Fortunately, there are steps that people can take to help reduce the digital divide. Here are some examples!

Digital Divide

As we've discussed throughout these guides, 

computing innovations can reflect existing biases.

 can be embedded at all levels of development, from the brainstorming phase to the work done after release. This can take the form of a bias written into the algorithm itself or bias in the data used.

For example**, criminal risk assessment tools** are used to determine the chances that a defendant will re-offend, or commit another crime. This information is then used to influence decisions across the judicial process. However, these algorithms are trained to pick out patterns and make decisions based on historical data, and historical data is historically biased against certain races and classes. As a result, risk assessment tools may disproportionally flag certain groups as risks.

Algorithms might also be trained on sets of data that aren't as diverse as they need to be. For example, facial recognition systems are often trained on data sets that contain fewer images of women and minorities than men in the majority.

Finally, computing innovations use data from the world around them, and that world is often biased in its own right.

People can take steps to combat these biases. They can be mindful of the potential for bias and make sure that their data is as unbiased and representative as possible. This is not only good for the program itself, but also for society as a whole. After all, algorithms are written by people, and being able to find and eliminate bias in computers can help us eliminate bias in ourselves as well.

Computing Bias

The rise of the internet has led to a rise in the amount of data and human capital available to researchers. This free flow of data and information makes identifying and solving problems easier, and more people have access to the solution once it's found. Think about all the problems you've been able to solve with a quick Google Search, where before you'd have to consult a manual or a professional.

The spirit of collaboration the internet can foster (on a good day) extends to larger, more formal systems as well. Two examples are known as Citizen Science and Crowdsourcing.

 is a term that describes scientific research that the common population helps to conduct. Ordinary citizens help contribute data to research projects using computing devices. They might, for example, count birds they see at local feeders or observe the sky to find new galaxies.
Citizen science gives a wide range of people the ability to contribute to scientific studies and, in turn, provides more diverse data for scientists to work with.

 is the practice of getting a large amount of input or information from people on the Internet. Citizen science is an example of crowdsourcing, but crowdsourcing can also take other forms. Companies can turn to the "crowd," or the general public, for 

 (like those College Board surveys you get in the mail). They can crowdsource for 

. Uber and Airbnb, for example, crowdsource their labor force of drivers and renters. They can also crowdsource to 

Crowdsourcing can also take the form of financial support in a process known as crowdfunding. 

 sites like GoFundMe, Kickstarter, and Patreon allow people to raise money for all manner of causes, from creating works of art to (unfortunately) funding medical bills.

Crowdsourcing

The Internet gives people easy, quick, widely-distributed, and free access to a lot of other people and a lot of content. Naturally, this raises legal and ethical concerns. One of the key areas where concerns are raised is in the world of 

, where content creators have to contend with challenges to their rights to own, sell and use their works.

Protecting intellectual property, at its best, helps foster innovation and guarantees that people reap the rewards of their hard work.

One of the ways intellectual property is protected is through copyright.

 is the right that the creator of a work has to determine who gets to use it. It's not a new concept: copyright laws have been around since the 18th century. However, the digital age has created new challenges to copyright and demands new ways to protect it as well.

Before you use or repost content from the internet, you have to consider 

 the copyright on it is. Just because a piece of art or an image can be easily found on the internet doesn't mean that it's free to use, and especially not if you're turning a profit.

Material created on a computer, be it an image, a piece of digital art, or a piece of writing, is the intellectual property of the creator who made it (or of the organization that owns the intellectual property rights.)

Using content created by someone else without permission can have consequences, such as a fine or an order to remove the copyrighted content. If you were to claim that the content you borrowed was your own, even unintentionally, you might be found guilty of plagiarism.

It's not difficult in the age of image searches and 

 to be caught using copyrighted or plagiarized material. It can also be disheartening for content creators to see their hard work taken without permission or credit, especially if they're trying to grow their presence online.

As a good practice, you should cite any material you use that you didn't create.

So, what's an aspiring slide-show creator or aesthetic post maker to do? Fortunately, the internet offers free material for people to use.

 offer free and beautiful stock images, many of which were used to help write these guides! Image source: 

As with anything else, the potential to hurt people that computing devices provide raises concerns. A lot of concerns, as a matter of fact. Here are just a few examples:

Computing devices also play a massive role in society and politics, and not always for the better.

The digital age is still very new, and we'll run into more legal and ethical issues the more we navigate it. 

Legal and Ethical Concerns

Modern computing raises legal and ethical questions, one of which is a concern about security.

A key tenet of safe computing is protecting your 

, or (PII). This is information that can be used to identify you and includes your:

Various other pieces of personal data, such as your location, cookies, and browsing history, can also be used to find your personal information.

The collection of personal information can be used to enhance your experience online. It can help you connect with friends on social media or find products best suited to you faster.

On the other hand, people are generally concerned about the rise of PI collection, and with good reason. Without strong protections, this collection of information might be exploited for ill.

For example, some personal information about your location and travel routes might be used for stalking purposes. Other pieces of personal information, especially your social security number, can be used to steal your identity. Companies that collect personal information could put their users at risk if they're hit by 

Another type of information on the internet that might harm you is the information you put online yourself. There's potentially a lot of information you can find out about someone just by looking at their social media accounts, from their appearance to where they work or go to school.

Social media posts can also harm you if the wrong message gets into the wrong hands. A nasty message or unwise photo may cause trouble for you if employers or college admissions officers get a hold of them, and it can be very difficult to delete information once it's out there.

think carefully before you put anything on the internet.

 When in doubt, defer to the side of caution.

 In 2000, the ILOVEYOU virus, named for the fake love-letter email it attached itself to, caused over ten billion dollars of damage across the world. In 2017, the WannaCry worm attack caused a similar amount of damage by encrypting hard drive files and holding them for ransom.

A key way to practice safe computing is to 

 You never want to open or click any links in an email that you don't recognize the sender of. (Hackers can also gain access to people's accounts, so also be wary if you get a strange message from a friend.) Furthermore, be careful about what you download onto your devices; only download from websites you trust.

Fortunately, these concerns haven't gone unnoticed, and today there are many systems in place to help protect you on the internet.

 keep people from gaining unauthorized access to your accounts. We're going to look at two of them here: making a strong password and implementing a multi-factor authentication method.

 is a password that's easy for you to remember but difficult for someone else to guess, regardless of how well they know you. You don't want to use a generic phrase to create your password ("password," "12345,") or something that could be easily guessed at (your name, the name of your family members, etc.) Strong passwords often use a variety of characters, such as uppercase letters, numbers, and symbols (M4r13_cur13).

 can help you determine how strong your password is, and also highlights what makes a password weak or strong.

You're mostly in charge of creating your own strong passwords, although many companies have implemented requirements for passwords to make them stronger. (They may require you to have a capital letter in your password, for example, or a symbol).

 is provided by the website you're using, although you can generally choose to opt in or out of it. Multifactor authentication is a way to control who gets access to your accounts by requiring 

Typically, these proofs will fall into one of three categories, and they'll usually be in two separate categories.

A multifactor authentication system can provide multiple verification options for user convenience, as well as security. For example, a multifactor login method used for your email account might let you choose between sending a verification code to another email 

 to your phone in order to get in. That way, if you don't have your phone on-hand, you can still get into your account.

The more layers of verification you have, the more secure your account generally is, although there are limits and exceptions to the rule.

, another way of protecting people's data, is the process of encoding data to prevent unwanted access. (

 is the process of decoding data.) Traditionally, encryption was used to send and receive secret messages between spies or military generals. Coding mechanisms like the Caesar Cipher and the French Great Cipher became famous.

, or a secret piece of information, to keep their messages secret. Only the person the message is intended for should know the key.

For example, the Caesar Cipher works by shifting all the letters in a message down or up a given alphabet. In this case, the key is the number of letters that the message is shifted by. In the image below, all the letters are shifted up by 3: E becomes B, D becomes A, and so on. Therefore, the key is 3.

Today, you can use the computer to decode such simple codes quickly, and therefore more complex methods of encryption are needed.

Two common approaches to encryption are: 

The public key encryption system relies on 

 (CAs) to trusted sites. They allow other computers to verify that a website is who they say they are. These certificates are essential to the public key encryption system because they foster trust between websites. Think of the certificates to be a little like the signature on a check—once we see that signature, we know that the check is trustworthy.

 is used in order to determine if a digital certificate itself is legitimate. (You won't have to understand how these models work for the AP test.)

You've made it through all five of the Big Ideas for AP CSP. 🙌

Coming up: a quick and easy guide to the exam!

Big Idea 5: Impact of Computing

AP Computer Science Principles

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study guides

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Free Reviews

Big Idea 1: Creative Development

Big Idea 2: Data

Big Idea 3: Algorithms and Programming

Big Idea 4: Computer Systems and Networks

Big Idea 5: Impact of Computing

Exam Prep

Blogs

Big Idea 5: Impact of Computing

AP Computer Science Principles

all

study guides

browse by units

Free Reviews﻿

Big Idea 1: Creative Development﻿

Big Idea 2: Data﻿

Big Idea 3: Algorithms and Programming﻿

Big Idea 4: Computer Systems and Networks﻿

Big Idea 5: Impact of Computing ﻿

Exam Prep﻿

Blogs﻿

Free Reviews

Big Idea 1: Creative Development

Big Idea 2: Data

Big Idea 3: Algorithms and Programming

Big Idea 4: Computer Systems and Networks

Big Idea 5: Impact of Computing

Exam Prep

Blogs