A Report on Social Issues in Computing: Black Box Devices in Cars

This report examines the social issues arising from the implementation of black box devices in cars. It highlights concerns related to privacy, data security, and fairness. The report explains how these devices, designed for safety, collect and store sensitive information about drivers and their vehicles, which can be misused or hacked. It delves into specific issues such as the lack of control owners have over their data, the potential for data misuse by automotive and insurance companies, and the vulnerability of these devices to hacking. The report also discusses the implications of these issues for both individuals and society, as well as the different perspectives of IT companies, car owners, and the general public. The report underscores the need for clear policies and regulations to protect drivers' rights and ensure responsible use of this technology. The report concludes by emphasizing the importance of balancing the safety benefits of black box devices with the need to address the social and ethical challenges they present.

SOCIAL ISSUES IN
COMPUTING

ABSTRACT
This report will lay emphasis on social issues in computing based on black box devices in
cars. Today social issues related to computing technology is continuously increasing and as a
result as raising some social and ethical concerns. One of the increasing social issue is Black Box
device within cars which is installed on the dashboards for tracking and monitoring of the
overall performance of car as well as monitor drivers behaviour with respect to safety and
security of the driver and all the other passengers as well. There is no doubt that this device has
helped in increasing the safety but installation of this device is also creating some social issues
such as privacy, fairness issue etc. Car owners cannot disable the device and all the information
related to the speed, distance, time, live location etc. All of these information are stored by the
automotive and insurance companies. They use this information in lawsuits, insurance claims
etc. This has created some privacy issues for the owner of the car as all of their information is
used and stored. That information might be misused or misunderstood. This information is stored
at a single place and can be hacked easily. So in this report these issues are being created in
detail.

TABLE OF CONTENTS
ABSTRACT.....................................................................................................................................2
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................1
Overview......................................................................................................................................1
Social issues.................................................................................................................................2
Implications..................................................................................................................................3
Different perspectives..................................................................................................................4
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................5
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................6

INTRODUCTION
Social issue is a problem that influences various individuals within a society. Today due
to increasing use of computing technology various social issues are increasing continuously with
the increasing use of computing technology. Many social issues such as environmental
imbalance, adjustment of people according to the technology or conventional way of living. One
of the computing social issue that is increasing nowadays is Black Box device within cars
(Gotlieb and Borodin, 2014). Black box is a device that is installed within cars on the
dashboards for tracking and monitoring the overall performance of the car and drivers behaviour
with respect to safety and security of the vehicle and all the other persons who are sitting within
the car. This device mainly focuses on rash driving issue, provide assistance in case of car
accidents by monitoring speed, distance, time etc. One of the main social issue created by this
device is privacy. This assignment will lay emphasis on social issues created by Black Box in
cars.
MAIN BODY
Overview
Black Box device is designed especially for safety purposes of both the car and its
passengers. Nowadays, this device is available with a unique feature which is called breath
analyser which helps in detecting the level of alcohol consumption of the driver who is driving
the cars. This feature is beneficial in one way which is whenever this device detects level of
alcohol above a certain limit, it disconnects car ignition and doesn't allow the driver to drive the
vehicle. Not only this its detection of sharp turns, speed, acceleration of vehicle helps the driver
to take control of their overall speed according to the road or turns (Winfield and Jirotka, 2017).
Other than this it it consist of various other features such as Live vehicle locator, theft detection,
panic buttons, call button, live video footage. There is no doubt that this black box device has
helped in increasing the safety measures of both the driver and the passengers but other than that,
this device is also creating some social issues as well which is having drastic effect on both
society and organization. Due to implementation of this device within cars many privacy and
other concerns are arising. What data should be recorded and what should not be recorded is not
decided, yet implementation of this device in cars is made compulsory. Without the concern of
the driver or the owner of the car this device is installed within their vehicles. They are not
informed completely of this device records and what it doesn't.
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Social issues
As explained above various social issues have been created due to this installation of
black box device within cars. This device collects information for safety measures as well as for
investigators to investigate the cause of any accident. But there are no such policies related to the
information that is collected from this device (Marabelli and et.al., 2017). It is an issue of
concern because in what ways and where this information is used or can be used is not fixed
which creates a concern of privacy as well as fairness. It has been seen that this black box data
has been shown and is used in various investigations, lawsuits, accidents as well as in criminal
cases. It is a reason of fairness because whether the information presented and collected from the
black box is correctly resented or not, whether it has been tempered or not etc. All these factors
remain unknown in many cases. It has been seen that in few cases this black box data was
tempered which creates a social issue of fair practice. Due to this individuals in a society get
influence in a wrong way and considers using such unfair practises as well. This social issue is
not beneficial for the car companies as well as it damages their reputation as well. This social
issue is continuously increasing and not only this many people who drive a motor vehicle does
not have any idea of installation of this device within their vehicle (Baesens and et.al., 2016).
Those drivers or owners are completely unaware that all of their informations are being recorded.
Another issue that has been discussed above is privacy issue. It is not possible for the car
owners to disable the recorders. All the information related to the vehicle and the passengers
including drivers information is recorded. Not only this live video footages are also recorded
which is one of the main privacy issue for the owner of the vehicle. Whatever activities that
happen within the car are directly recorded and the owner or driver cannot disable it. There is no
policy or instruction where clear use of this recorded data and live recording footage has not
been explained. Many cases have been identified where such data has been misused or leaked by
the organizations. Another issue that is a concern area is hacking. This black box device is
created for the safety and security of the vehicle and its passengers. However, safety and security
of this device is not appropriate. These devices can easily be hacked by hackers and as a result
the data stored in it can be hacked, misused or can be altered (Gotlieb and Borodin, 2014).
Which is also an area of concern. GPS systems installed within the device is also an area of
concern because the location of the vehicles 24 * 7 will be record and viewed by the automotive
and insurance companies. It is also one of the main privacy issue as car owners locations will be
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tracked 24 * 7 by the organizations. These companies have not thought about all the social and
ethical issues it can create such as their live locations or live footage can be hacked and viewed
by those hackers can be misused (Holstein, Dodig-Crnkovic and Pelliccione, 2018).
All these social and ethical issues are continuously arising. These issues are increasing
continuously because most of the automotive companies and government has made it
compulsory to install and put these black box devices within the vehicles. Many times car
owners are not clearly explained the use of this devices, all the information that this device
records, its live recording features, live tracking feature etc. and because of this their privacy is
breeched, they become unaware of the fact that their information can be misused or hacked.
Social issue related to the rights of the car owner are not clear such as whether the owner should
have the right to disable the device or whether they should have a right to view all the
information or footage that is recorded. Default policy says yes the owner have all such rights
but however they are not explained or taught any of such thing and are not even explained their
right and the way in which they can view or control this device (Shadrin, Varlamov and Ivanov,
2017). Most of the information or data related to the car is recorded. It is not defined that which
data should be recorded and when it should be recorded. Owners or drivers information should
recorded in such a way that it does not breech any of the privacy policy. Organizations should
not have full and complete control of the device they should also focus on giving some control to
the owner of the vehicle as well so that some of such issues can be reduced till some extent. Such
kind of social issues are continuously increasing and are becoming major topic of concern. These
technologies are no doubt beneficial till some extent as they help in improving road safety but
the social and ethical issues which are being created due to these technologies are harmful as
they are taking control and are the cause of breech in the privacy of the owner of the car (Chung,
2018). Not only this due to this installation of black box devices transparency within the system
has decreased and has become a case of interference in the owners life.
Implications
There are various implications of this black box device in cars. At both national and
international level the main implication is hacking. Billions of car owners data is stored at one
place. It is both a national and international implication as all such data is stored at one place
only (Fearnside, 2016). Hackers can easily hack the data and personal information of billions of
car owners can be obtained by the hackers. That information can be manipulated and can be used
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used for wrong purposes as well. However if positive side of this device is seen then it has
helped in reducing road accidents in various ways. But if both positive and negative implication
of this is seen then it has more of negative social issue implications which has not only affected
the society but has also affected IT industry as well. For IT industry these implications are both
positive and negative. Positive as they can easily record events and can analyse it whenever
required and negative implications as they need to focus on security of these data collected so
that this data stored cannot be misused or manipulated or more importantly it cannot be hacked
and used for wrong purpose (Heeks, Subramanian and Jones, 2015). Similarly for society also it
is both good and bad in the same way as for IT industry.
Different perspectives
Various people have different perspective regarding Black box devices in cars, its use and
all the issues related to it. Perspective of IT and car companies is completely different from the
owners of the vehicles. IT companies support this technology and find it beneficial in many ways
where as car owners find it interfering within their personal and private life or in other words
sees it as a privacy issue. Some people think it is beneficial and some sees it as a device which is
the main cause of many social and ethical issues. Some people think that it is one of the most
helpful device for youngsters as they are the one who are count in rush driving and their speed
risk is highest especially after obtaining their driving licence. Those people think that black box
device will help them in controlling their speed limit. However some people think that it cannot
control the speed limit of a driver until and unless they are in some unfortunate situation (Green
and Stern, 2017). They says that only drivers understanding helps them in maintaining their
speed limit. Some individuals says that it is one of the best option in improving safety and
security in terms of road, car and drivers safety. However same says that it is best for solving
after accident cases and claims. Road safety and drivers safety is completely in hands of driver.
As they black box data provides clarity on all the information that helps in providing prior
accident and after accidents details which helps in solving cases. However, one thing is common
that most of the individuals think which is privacy of an individual is interrupted. Privacy of the
owner is hindered as their live location is tracked, live recording is done and other data s
recorded. All of these data is stored by the companies and there is no such guarantee that this
stored data is safe or not, or whether this data will not be misused in future.
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CONCLUSION
From the above assignment it can be concluded that black box device in cars has both
advantages and disadvantages. It is beneficial for automotive or insurance companies as they can
track all the data of all the vehicles and in case of accidents this data can provide them a clarity
of pre and post accident updates which helps them in solving case clearly. However due to this
black box devices many social and ethical issues have been created which is faced by the owner
of the car. Issues such as privacy, hacking, manipulation of data etc. are continuously increasing
due to this black box device.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Baesens, B., and et.al., 2016. Transformational Issues of Big Data And Analytics in Networked
Business. MIS quarterly. 40(4).
Chung, Y., 2018. Injury severity analysis in taxi-pedestrian crashes: An application of
reconstructed crash data using a vehicle black box. Accident Analysis & Prevention. 111.
pp.345-353.
Fearnside, P.M., 2016. Environmental and social impacts of hydroelectric dams in Brazilian
Amazonia: Implications for the aluminum industry. World Development. 77. pp.48-65.
Gotlieb, C.C. and Borodin, A., 2014. Social issues in computing. Academic Press.
Green, F. and Stern, N., 2017. China's changing economy: implications for its carbon dioxide
emissions. Climate policy. 17(4). pp.423-442.
Heeks, R., Subramanian, L. and Jones, C., 2015. Understanding e-waste management in
developing countries: Strategies, determinants, and policy implications in the Indian ICT
sector. Information Technology for Development. 21(4). pp.653-667.
Holstein, T., Dodig-Crnkovic, G. and Pelliccione, P., 2018. Ethical and Social Aspects of Self-
Driving Cars.
Marabelli, M., and et.al., 2017. The light and dark side of the black box: Sensor-based
technology in the automotive industry. Communications of the Association for Information
Systems. 40(1). p.16.
Shadrin, S.S., Varlamov, O.O. and Ivanov, A.M., 2017. Experimental autonomous road vehicle
with logical artificial intelligence. Journal of Advanced Transportation, 2017.
Winfield, A.F. and Jirotka, M., 2017, July. The case for an ethical black box. In Annual
Conference Towards Autonomous Robotic Systems (pp. 262-273). Springer, Cham.