Societal Impacts | Class 12 Informatics Practices Notes
By ConceptScroll Team · Published on 17 July 2026 · 6 min read
Societal Impacts – this guide gives you a concise, exam-ready overview of Societal Impacts from Class 12 Informatics Practices, written by ConceptScroll editors and reviewed against the latest NCERT textbook.
6.4 DATA PROTECTION
Data protection in the digital age focuses on safeguarding sensitive data from unauthorized access, misuse, or breaches. Sensitive data includes biometric information, health records, financial details, and personal documents. Privacy is ensured through encryption, authentication, and secure methods to restrict access to authorized users only. Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) protect creators' original works through copyrights, patents, and trademarks. Copyright grants creators exclusive rights to reproduce, distribute, and display their works, preventing unauthorized use. Patents protect inventions by granting exclusive rights for 20 years, encouraging innovation. Trademarks protect brand identifiers like names and logos, preventing misuse or confusion. Licensing agreements define how copyrighted material can be used legally. Violations such as plagiarism, copyright infringement, and trademark infringement are unethical and illegal. Public access and open source software promote collaboration by allowing use and modification under specific licenses like Creative Commons and GNU GPL. Software piracy, unauthorized copying or distribution of software, harms the industry and economy and should be avoided.
📊 Diagram: Table 6.1 Creative Commons (CC) Licenses
🧪 Activity: Activity 6.4: Explore creativecommons.org and gnu.org to learn about public licensing.
🔗 Connection: This section leads into the discussion of cyber crimes that exploit digital data and systems.
Table on page 13 (7×4)
| License Name | Symbolic name | License icon | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Attribution | CC BY | This license lets others distribute, remix, tweak, and build upon your work, even commercially, as long as they credit you for the original creation. | |
| Attribution-ShareAlike | CC BY-SA | This license lets others remix, tweak, and build upon your work even for commercial purposes, as long as they credit you and license their new creations under the identical terms. | |
| Attribution-NoDerivs | CC BY-ND | This license lets others reuse the work for any purpose, including commercially; however, it cannot be shared with others in adapted form, and credit must be provided to you. | |
| Attribution-NonCommercial | CC BY-NC | This license lets others remix, tweak, and build upon your work non-commercially, and although their new works must also acknowledge you and be non-commercial. | |
| Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike | CC BY-NC-SA | This license lets others remix, tweak, and build upon your work non-commercially, as long as they credit you and license their new creations under the identical terms. | |
| Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs | CC BY-NC-ND | This license is the most restrictive of our six main licenses, only allowing others to download your works and share them with others as long as they credit you, but they can't change them in any way or use them commercially. |
Table on page 24 (5×2)
| Column A | Column B |
|---|---|
| Plagiarism | Fakers, by offering special rewards or money prize asked for personal information, such as bank account information |
| Hacking | Copy and paste information from the Internet into your report and then organise it |
| Credit card fraud | The trail that is created when a person uses the Internet. |
| Digital Foot Print | Breaking into computers to read private emails and other files |
Frequently asked questions
After practicals, Atharv left the computer laboratory but forgot to sign off from his email account. Later, his classmate Revaan started using the same computer. He is now logged in as Atharv. He sends inflammatory email messages to few of his classmates using Atharv's email account. Revaan's activity is an example of which of the following cyber crime? Justify your answer. a) Hacking b) Identity theft c) Cyber bullying d) Plagiarism
The correct answer is (b) Identity theft. Explanation: Revaan is using Atharv's email account without permission, pretending to be Atharv. This is an example of identity theft, where someone assumes another person's identity to commit a crime or mischief. It is not hacking because Revaan did not break into the system; he used an already logged-in session. It is not cyber bullying because the question focuses on the misuse of identity rather than bullying. It is not plagiarism because no copying
Rishika found a crumpled paper under her desk. She picked it up and opened it. It contained some text which was struck off thrice. But she could still figure out easily that the struck off text was the email ID and password of Garvit, her classmate. What is ethically correct for Rishika to do? a) Inform Garvit so that he may change his password. b) Give the password of Garvit's email ID to all other classmates. c) Use Garvit's password to access his account.
The correct answer is (a) Inform Garvit so that he may change his password. Explanation: Since Rishika found Garvit's password, the ethical action is to inform Garvit so he can secure his account by changing the password. Sharing or using someone else's password without permission is unethical and illegal.
Suhana is down with fever. So, she decided not to go to school tomorrow. Next day, in the evening she called up her classmate, Shaurya and enquired about the computer class. She also requested him to explain the concept. Shaurya said, "Mam taught us how to use tuples in python". Further, he generously said, "Give me some time, I will email you the material which will help you to understand tuples in python". Shaurya quickly downloaded a 2-minute clip from the Internet explaining the concept of tuples in python. Using video editor, he added the text "Prepared by Shaurya" in the downloaded video clip. Then, he emailed the modified video clip to Suhana. This act of Shaurya is an example of — a) Fair use b) Hacking c) Copyright infringement d) Cyber crime
The correct answer is (a) Fair use. Explanation: Shaurya used the downloaded video clip for educational purposes and added his own credit. This is considered fair use, especially in an educational context, as he is not distributing it commercially or claiming original ownership. It is not hacking or cyber crime because no unauthorized access or crime is involved. It is not copyright infringement because educational fair use is generally allowed.
After a fight with your friend, you did the following activities. Which of these activities is not an example of cyber bullying? a) You sent an email to your friend with a message saying that "I am sorry". b) You sent a threatening message to your friend saying "Do not try to call or talk to me". c) You created an embarrassing picture of your friend and uploaded on your account on a social networking site.
The correct answer is (a) You sent an email to your friend with a message saying that "I am sorry". Explanation: Sending an apology email is a positive and non-threatening communication and is not cyber bullying. Sending threatening messages or creating and uploading embarrassing pictures are examples of cyber bullying.
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