June 2010 Edition
Computer Science Department, University of Cape Town
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Table of Contents
Jan studies computer science at university but does not major in it. She wishes to be involved in public service and so accepts a fund-raising job for a big university. She is asked to get information on Frank – a potential donor. Frank has been recommended by another donor who said that Frank is keen on providing some funds to the university but has not previously donated to this university.
Jan was asked to find out about all the information on Frank, with special focus on his wealth and the likely area where Frank will be most keen. Using the Internet and databases, Jan was able to find out the following:
Via a public database, his board memberships
Via databases of associated organisations, contributions he has made to others and his support for any religious organisations
Newspaper archives – information written about Frank
Governmental records – if he has had any encounter with the law
Credit card agencies – his credit history
Other routes that Jan tried to get information include:
Contacting Amazon.com about the types of books he read
Wonders if his ISP will tell her about his online activities
From the university records she finds that he was treated at the university hospital.
She finds that she can access his medical records and discovers that he was treated successfully for a kidney complaint
She then proceeds to recommends that he be approached for a donation for kidney research.
Discuss whether or not you think she has done anything wrong?
Max works for a government department working against alcoholism and drug abuse. The department maintains a database of people with these problems. Max’s job is to track the success or failure of treatment programs. He has to prepare a report indicating:
Number of clients seen per month in each program
Length of client treatment
Criminal history of clients
Distribution addresses
He gets this information from various databases located in different locations. To do this, he downloads information to his computer in his office, then copies the data to a portable hard drive and takes that home to finish his report there. However, he also leaves a copy of the information and the report on his machine at home.
Is he wrong to move the data to his house and is he wrong to leave the data there when he is done with the report. What policy should Max’s agency have concerning taking work home? Discuss.
Estelle works for Medical Insurance Company. She supervises the claims department and her brief is to improve efficiency there – each unit must process a minimum number of claims per day. In order to achieve this goal, she installs a software system which monitors:
The number of claims processed by each clerk
Number of keystrokes done by each clerk
Log information on when each clerk is on or off his/her post
The system allows her to watch all the above information in real-time on her screen. She can also see all e-mails sent by each clerk regardless of whether the e-mail is business-related or not.
Should she use this system and if so should each of the clerk be informed? Do you think any limitations should be placed on companies employing such systems? Discuss.
Ravi works for a credit card company, developing new products. He read about data mining and convinces his supervisor to buy this tool. With this tool Ravi can get information on customers’ buying habits, as well as finds out postal codes correlation to loan defaults. Based on this new information a new policy can be formulated resulting in his company refusing credits to clients in ‘bad’ postal code areas. Doing this could reduce his company’s exposure to bad loans.
Ravi also discovers that Zoroastrians who donate to charity charges a substantial amount to their credit cards. He promptly recommends a new policy of soliciting more Zoroastrians for credit card in hope of increasing his company’s profit.
Are either of these two recommendations wrong? What about the way Ravi use these information? Is the company wrong by implement these policies? Discuss.