Introduction

The widespread use of digital data and its ease of transmission, particularly over the Internet, has created a whole new set of social and ethical issues. Today it is simple for anybody to publish information. This certainly increases the ability of individuals to communicate their thoughts and ideas, however determining the accuracy of such information or its original source can be difficult.

Today many of us use email, newsgroups and instant messenger systems to communicate with people known to us and also to complete strangers. These systems are primarily text based, hence emotions, gestures and other human communication signals are difficult to communicate.  A series of unwritten rules has evolved, they determine reasonable and acceptable communication and include techniques for humanising communication.

The Internet connects the world, this opens up incredible opportunities for even small businesses to market their products globally. However the world includes individuals from all walks of life. Most, we hope, are honest but clearly some are not. We therefore need to secure data during transfer to ensure messages sent arrive at their destination without having been read, copied or altered.

In this section we concentrate on social and ethical issues arising as a consequence of the widespread transmission of digital data.