Digital Divide

Today ICT forms the corner stone for life within the western world. Everyday employees, students, teachers and society in general use computers in aid of a task within their day. ICT has revolutionised the way in which people operate today not only in work, but leisure too. However the use of ICT in today’s world is not without its problems. Within digitalization two issues have occurred splitting society due to ICT and the infrastructure created as a result, these are the Digital divide and the Local divide.

Global Divide

· Gap between what people have in western society as opposed to the developing world.

· MEDC’s as opposed to LEDC’s.

· Microchip has been in the western world for many years.

· Allows computers to become smaller, and has lead to the development of PC’s (Personal Computer).

· Computers have allowed people to develop more in-depth technology to improve and simplifying their lives.

· Occurrence of digitalizing occurred within America first.

· Without this technology there are obvious disadvantages, this can be seen within the developing world.

· LEDC’s do not have the infrastructure to allow for computers to be correctly and efficiently used.

· Ranges of techniques have had to be developed to allow people of a young age to learn and develop ICT skills.

· Some places within the subcontinent computers are within a village, allowing communities to use a computer.

· Internet café’s in Eastern Europe allow user to access the internet.

· Nowadays without internet access countries cannot economically function efficiently.

· Internet today is essential to the use of countries for economic growth and development.

Local Divide

· Outreach centre breaches the divide within communities and their understanding of ICT.

· Often occurs due to economic problems and generation, the old age have no interest in ICT.

· This effect runs parallel to the global divide.

· Internet shopping has become a new phoneme.

· Without this, those without the internet lose out on these features, low prices, functionality, and delivery.

· Access to current information is more accessible within the internet and online.

· Operation of new terminals and touch screen may seem imposing to those who have never used ICT before.

· Using hardware today for those old aged, may seem difficult and imposing.

· New interfaces prevent those within local societies from interacting fully due to lack of knowledge.

· Local divide is as problematic as the global divide, however to our societies it can cause a more apparent gap, which those in western countries can see directly.

The Global Divide is the divide between the western world and MEDC’s as opposed to third world countries the LEDC’s.

The divide stretches far beyond the divide in the countries ability to produce the new digital devices. Civilians within the populations of third world countries are unaware of the benefits of ICT, and are limited in their ability to operate it subsequently. Therefore not only are skills required for the operation of ICT equipment to be profitable, sufficient infrastructure must also be in place to allow the countries to fully reap the rewards that computerisation brings.

MEDC do not have this problem of infrastructure, constant power supplies allow computerisation and all its equipment to be used at any point of the day. To this extent the use of ICT is the only problem LEDC may experience, however in recent years money has been invested into education to allow students the opportunities to be taught within the use of ICT. This enables those within society to become aware of the use of ICT and to familiarise themselves with it from an early age, making the transition of operating it simple, as they grow and there learning extends.

The Social Divide does not differ dramatically from the Global. It too creates barriers between individuals, however on a local scope, as opposed the Global degree seen before. The Social Divide is the divide created through communities within countries. This seen many within MEDC’s where the technology is already in place. Here society can be seen to have split, those cable of operating the new computerised devices and those not.

This split is due to two main factors, the divide in generations and the wealth of those within a country. Here those who have retired and no longer require technology for work, and those who cannot afford the new technology or similar are not given the opportunity to use it, can be seen to have of split from younger wealthier generations who have the ability to use the technology at their will.

Those within the economic and generational caption area gain the benefits of the new technology; however those outside this area do not. With this in mind MEDC’s have invested in education (as previously mentioned) and new schemes have been created to allow learning of new technology and integration of societies to use these new digital devices and technology.

The Social Divide therefore is the divide within communities today, and can be seen to have a parrel effect to that of the Global Divide, as both problems split communities and countries into segregated groups, with those fortunate enough to possess the new devices operating them, and those without left outdated and trying to catch up.

Civil Rights

Today in ICT the issue of civil rights has become ever more pressing. The impact of the security and privacy today is arising as an ever more controversial issue. Within Civil Rights the proposed introduction of certain policies such as the compulsory ID card scheme and similar Teen Arrive Alive GPS policy. All these issues have a variety of different views from individuals within society however, within the policies understanding of the advantages and disadvantages needs to be assessed in order to attain a balanced view on if they should, or should not be introduced.

Compulsory ID
The Compulsory ID scheme has still not been introduced; however it is the idea for the policy that all British citizens must obtain an Identification Card. The card itself will provide much more than merely the personal details of the citizen which are shown on the card. It will allow for a wealth of information to be stored on a database ranging from personal contact information and details, to medical history and even to identification tools, such as recording retinal, vocal and finger scans. However some members of the public are against the scheme and see it to be a breach of their privacy and civil rights.
The civil rights themselves are class of rights that protect the members of society, the British citizen, from unwarranted government action. As the policy of ID cards has not yet been introduced, members of the public still retain an element of privacy within their lives. With this said many fear that with information like this stored on a database, anyone at any time can dip and out of their personal details, doing as they see fit with the information at their disposal. ICT therefore has been the prime reason for this scheme being allowed to arise, and with a national database looking to be invented, one can argue that the private information of a citizen, is not something a government neither needs nor requires.

Teen Arrive Alive
Aside from the National ID scheme wishing to be emplaced, many today argue about the further infringement through Teen Arrive Alive GPS. This is an additional gadget which allows parents to monitor the actions of their children who own a car, be it their own or the families. An additional onboard device records a mass of data such as the location of the car, the speed travelling etc. However all this information is logged within the device and can be reviewed by the parent, revealing hidden information such as sudden acceleration or handbrake usage.
For some parents Teen Arrive Alive is a must have. Currently it has only been launched in America; however it is set to soon be migrating to the UK and other European countries. Some see this as just an excuse to disguise a breach of privacy and this is more than mere teenagers. Civil Rights activists argue, how long until this technology is used by government to track all cars and citizens. With Team Arrive Alive, a location update can be received every two minutes, how long until a constant live feed prohibits anyone from venturing out unknown and alerted.
Teen Arrive Alive is therefore seen to many as the beginning of the end, for all privacy seen today. It is true that the service offers benefits, however personal breaches within privacy and one’s personal life are set to be intruded and undermined.




Email & Internet Monitoring
Breaches in Civil Rights can be seen to occur today throughout all walks of life, many see that within workplaces and schools email is an error which needs to be corrected. Monitoring of email and internet use is today argued as an area of correction. The ability for employers and ISP’s (Internet Service Providers) to monitor what an employee / consumer has viewed, is again a breach of privacy. To some it is a way in which one can assure employees are staying on task, or similarly for ISP’S to reveal and view downloaded data of a client. However to some this is too much, and breaches their private life for the means of an analysis.
Monitoring what an individual does on the internet and what email they receive, is seen to many as intruding on their personal information, such as reading their post and recording what books they’ve read. It unveils a part of a consumer that should be private and away from a recorded database, for it to be accessed when seen fit. To this extent the introduction of Email and Internet monitoring breaches the rights of an individual and Civil Right activists are campaigning to stop ISP’S and Employers monitor there personal files and viewing history, be it at home or at work.

US Passports & RFID
American has come to light in recent news due to civil rights with the introduction of US Passports being intended to contain Radio Frequency Identification chips. The intention of the chips is to allow custom officials to scan the passports using special radio receivers, in doing so the official will not have to approach the passport holder. Instead they can scan the passport from nearby attaining numerous information specifying, much more about the holder than a regular passport would.
The passports themselves will contain biometric information, which will contain; Photographs, signature examples, fingerprints and much more. With all this information at the disposal of customs officials civil Rights Activists argue that it is a breach of their personal information unnecessarily being displayed via a simple radio frequency. It is not the display of information to customs officials that is the minor problem, the disposal for others to receive this information via a mere frequency is something of a concern. With this in mind information can merely be distributed an received when a passport is kept within someone’s home, therefore the information is always on access and able to be received via those who may use it for their own means and principles. The security side of this new technology is something that needs to be addressed and it is for this reason that many argue for it to be reconsidered, as they would prefer the standard passport with its simplistic nature, rather than the new digital model.

Advantages & Disadvantages
Advantages and Disadvantages of all topics covered such as; Compulsory ID Cards, Teen Arrive Alive and Internet and Email monitoring can be seen below. Although there are numerous positives this technology can quickly be used for the wrong reasons and abuse the rights it was implemented for primarily.

Advantages:
· Records of Citizens can be useful in ties of emergency, for medical records and contact numbers.
· Regulating age restrictions would be much more effective with ID cards.
· Teen Arrive Alive would allow parents to monitor their children in case of an emergency, such as being lost.
· Similar a parent can prohibit their child from driving through certain areas where accidents are common.
· Monitoring Email and Internet usage would ensure employees kept on task.
· It would be possible to cut down on piracy crime.

Disadvantages:
· ID schemes would make fraud a lot easy if cards where lost or stolen.
· ID schemes would allow for sensitive medical information to be viewable at any time.
· Teen Arrive Alive could spread to a government monitoring system.
· Teen Arrive Alive may be costly an ineffective if satellite has temporary glitch.
· E-Mail monitoring and Internet usage would mean therefore the internet may become restricted and freedom of speech within it lost.
· E-Mail monitoring may prevent some individuals from using computers and phoning or texting instead.