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Computer use in the UK is widespread and new technologies have provided many benefits to society. However, this technology has raised various ethical, legal and environmental concerns relating to areas including:

• cyber security
• mobile technologies
• wireless networking
• cloud storage
• theft of computer code
• issues around copyright of algorithms
• cracking
• hacking
• wearable technologies
• computer based implants

It has also highlighted important issues surrounding privacy.

Ethical concerns

Ethics are moral principles, or rules, which govern a person's attitudes and behaviour.

Ethics apply to the use of computers as much as they do to other things in life. Ethical issues in computing include:

• Ensuring public safety - the introduction of new technologies brings safety concerns. For example, driverless cars may soon be on the roads in the UK. The designers of driverless cars have not only had to ensure the safety of passengers, but also of other drivers and pedestrians.
• Security of data - there are people that attempt to hack systems in order to gain access to other people's data. Social media accounts, phone mailboxes and networks that computers connect to are all prone to hacking.

Legal concerns

Computer use has brought new concerns and new crimes. With the rise of the internet, computers are increasingly being used for illegal activities.

Computers might be used unlawfully in many ways, for example:

• allowing someone to illegally share personal data
• helping to steal financial information, such as credit card numbers or bank account details
• helping to illegally copy and distribute films, television programmes and music
• extorting information or blackmailing someone

Legislation is needed to cover new technologies and protect the public.

Environmental concerns

Environmental concerns are those where the manufacturing and use of computers has had a negative impact on the environment.

Resources are needed to in order for computers to be produced, distributed and used. Metals and plastics are used to manufacture components, while energy is expended in distributing equipment and in using it.

Many computers, such as web servers, domain name servers and data centres, need to be left running continuously. This requires lots of energy to maintain. Additionally, businesses, organisations, schools and homes all now have greater access to technology.

Many computer components are either hard to recycle or contain toxic materials, such as lead. Also, users discard ICT equipment quite quickly:

• people have new smartphones every couple of years
• many organisations replace computers after three or four years
• many people replace older technology before it fails simply because they perceive it to be old-fashioned or out of date

All of this means that computers have a heavy impact on the environment, which is unlikely to decrease in the near future. However, many devices are now more power efficient than their predecessors and some companies have come up with innovative ways to save power.