Ethical and Legal issues related to computers
Torrents
Torrenting is a method of file sharing where many individuals can share their files online. Torrenting itself is not illegal, but torrenting copyrighted content is illegal. People often unintentionally end up torrenting copyrighted movies, video games or even music without knowing it's illegal. Doing this comes with many consequences. Your Internet service provider can see everything you do online (even if it's in private mode). If they notice you are torrenting copyrighted material they could slow down your network or tell you to stop. You won't go to jail if you get caught, but you could get sued. Many people work their way around this by using a VPN to make it harder for their ISP to track what they do online. A VPN (Virtual Private Network) gives you the advantage of hiding your IP address and temporarily giving you another one in any chosen location.Piracy
Selling copyrighted material online is known as piracy, and has much more serious consequences than torrenting because profit is gained off of it. Piracy was much more common around 10 years ago, before there were popular streaming services such as Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime Video or Spotify. Even though these streaming services are available, Pirated content is still all over the web. Research shows that in the United States Of America, 23% of software downloaded was downloaded illegally. You could be fined up to $250,000, face up to five years in jail and also be left with a criminal record if caught selling copyrighted material online. 1Phishing
There are many scams online that are used to retrieve personal information. These scams are often disguised as "surveys" and could easily fool a child or a very inexperienced adult. The "surveys" use the victims personal information for several purposes. Sometimes they'll sell the personal information to data collection firms, who will then sell the information to companies. This leads to having the user who took the survey spammed with random promotional offers in their email, without them having any idea why. Other types of fake surveys will persuade the victim to purchase "memberships" that don't actually do anything.It is fairly obvious to tell if a survey is legitimate or not 2 as fake surveys will often ask for credit card information, have very little information on the website, will try to persuade the user and "reward" them for registering for multiple offers (commonly resulting in spam with no reward), and will have unrealistic rewards such as free vacations or large sums of money for free. Below are an examples of fake surveys.
Obvious fake survey
Popups and viruses
It is very common to see pop ups on non-legit websites claiming that your computer has a virus. This is a scam to get you to pay for a fake anti-virus software. 3 You can find these types of pop ups by going on TV and movie streaming websites, downloading random software from a non-credible source or by opening email attachments. These scammers ads sometimes have broken english in them although they are still able to fool some people. These ads that claim that your computer has a virus will try to appeal legitimate by using the names of big companies like Apple for an example. They try to convince the victim to tell their friends and contacts about the "warning". The ads usually suggest for the viewer to "call immediatley" They try to scare the victim into downloading the "antivirus software". If you actually download or buy the fake antivirus software, the "anti virus software" will actually infect your computer with a harmful virus and sell your personal information to other scammers and companies as soon as you install it. With an infected computer you will get several ads and pop ups even when you are not connected to the internet. Sometimes the software will download random browser plugins or desktop icons. Pop ups that suggest that your computer has a virus are never true. If a computer was vulnerable to potential viruses, Windows 10 would notify the user on the notifications tab next to the taskbar. Downloading an ad blocker off of a trusted website can prevent you from coming across these pop ups. If you ever do come across a pop up, It is crucial to not click on the ad at all, not even on the "x" in the corner because most of the time they are fake and will only open tabs that make your computer harder to use to evade the ad. Its best to open task manager and force quit whichever browser you are using.Popup Example
