(1) Work: The Electronic Communications Privacy Act does not prohibit universities from reading student email on its computers, just it does not prohibit businesses from reading employee email on company computers.
Find your university's policy about access to student computer accounts and email (on university computers) by professors and university administrators. Describe the Policy. Tell what parts you think are good and what should change.
(2) Evaluating and Controlling Technology: In a murder case, a mix of DNA from at least three people was found on a piece of evidence, making it difficult to determine if any belonged to the suspect.
A computer program that analyzes DNA samples concluded that the suspect's DNA was indeed there. The defense attorneys asked to have the software examined by an expert to see how it worked and to look for errors. The company that produces the software said disclosure of the code would expose trade secrets and would harm the company.
a. Discuss arguments on favor of both sides.
b. Suggest and evaluate alternative methods for judging the validity of the software without seeing the code.
(3) Professional Ethics and Responsibilities: Research how automobile manufacturerscurrently perform updates of driving-assistance software in cars (including, for example, software that keeps the car within its lane and software that causes automatic braking when the car detects an obstacle).
a. Describe your findings.
b. Find out if there are any government regulations controlling how manufacturers handle such updates.
Suppose, a few years from now, you work for a manufacturer of fully self-driving cars and are developing policies and procedures for updates to the software in the cars.
c. How would the update policies differ for different systems? For example, should the entertainment system have different update policy than the steering or braking systems?