Social impacts of government databases

Name:

Date:

Class:

Quick Questions

Shade in the A or B circle for each question.

1. A government links health and tax records so people can be auto-checked for rebates and payments. What is the main social benefit?

A Easier and faster access to services

B Guaranteed total privacy for everyone

2. Which is a surveillance concern about large government databases?

A Databases always make data less accurate

B Combining records could let the government track people's activities

3. A data breach exposes people's health records held by a government agency. What is the likely effect on public trust?

A Trust in government rises

B Trust in government falls

4. Which statement about profiling is correct?

A Profiling uses data to label people as belonging to a group, which can lead to unfair treatment

B Profiling is when data is deleted after a set time

5. A tax database is built mostly from data about people who have stable jobs and home internet. Who is at risk of being excluded?

A People without stable jobs or internet access

B People with stable jobs and home internet

Match the Pairs

Draw a line connecting each item on the left to its match on the right.

Left column		Right column
1Medicare claim history stored in a national health database		AA surveillance concern: combining many records lets government track people's lives closely, which can reduce public trust
2Tax records linked to bank, work and address data		BA service-access benefit: records let people get health care and payments quickly, but they are sensitive data that must be protected
3A biased risk score can profile a group unfairly and exclude them from services		CThis ignores exclusion: people without internet, ID or digital skills, or with missing records, may be left out or served poorly
4Public trust falls when a government database is breached and personal data is exposed		Dif breach == true then trust <- trust - 20
5Everyone can access online health services, so no one is ever left out of the database		EThis ignores the downsides: surveillance, loss of public trust and bias that can profile groups unfairly
6A government database only has benefits, so there are no trust or profiling concerns		Fif suburb == "Area X" then risk <- "high"

Definitions

social impact of government databases

Fill in the Blanks

Complete each line of code by filling in the missing parts.

if recordFound = true ____ print "Rebate approved" end if

SELECT * FROM citizens WHERE address IS ____;

SELECT * FROM healthRecords _____ personId = 42;

if suburb = "Logan" then ____ ← "high" end if

if role = "taxOfficer" ___ hasReason then print "Access granted" end if

Spot the Error

Shade in the letter of the line that contains an error.

Question 1

A input userRole

B input patientId

C if userRole != "doctor" then

D print getRecord(patientId)

E end if

Question 2

A input age

B if age = 65 then

C print "Pension eligible"

D end if

Question 3

A for i from 1 to n

B score ← 0

C if postcode[i] = 4825 then

D score = score + 50

E end if

F end for

Question 4

A define canViewHealth(role

B if role = "nurse" then

C return true

D end if

E return false

Question 5

A total ← 1000

B complaints ← 120

C pct ← total / complaints * 100

D print pct

Answer Key

Social impacts of government databases

Section A: Quick Questions

A — Easier and faster access to services

B — Combining records could let the government track people's activities

B — Trust in government falls

A — Profiling uses data to label people as belonging to a group, which can lead to unfair treatment

A — People without stable jobs or internet access

Section B: Match the Pairs

Medicare claim history stored in a national health database → A service-access benefit: records let people get health care and payments quickly, but they are sensitive data that must be protected

Tax records linked to bank, work and address data → A surveillance concern: combining many records lets government track people's lives closely, which can reduce public trust

A biased risk score can profile a group unfairly and exclude them from services → if suburb == "Area X" then risk <- "high"

Public trust falls when a government database is breached and personal data is exposed → if breach == true then trust <- trust - 20

Everyone can access online health services, so no one is ever left out of the database → This ignores exclusion: people without internet, ID or digital skills, or with missing records, may be left out or served poorly

A government database only has benefits, so there are no trust or profiling concerns → This ignores the downsides: surveillance, loss of public trust and bias that can profile groups unfairly

Section C: Definitions

social impact of government databases — How large government databases affect people: they can improve access to services, but raise surveillance and trust concerns and risk excluding or profiling groups.

Section D: Fill in the Blanks

if recordFound = true then
    print "Rebate approved"
end if

SELECT * FROM citizens WHERE address IS NULL;

SELECT * FROM healthRecords
WHERE personId = 42;

if suburb = "Logan" then
    risk ← "high"
end if

if role = "taxOfficer" and hasReason then
    print "Access granted"
end if

Section E: Spot the Error

C — The condition is reversed. It would show health records to everyone except doctors, which is a serious privacy risk. It should be if userRole = "doctor" then.

B — Using = only matches people who are exactly 65, so everyone older is wrongly excluded from the service. It should be if age >= 65 then.

D — Pseudocode assigns with the arrow ←, not =. Using = makes it a comparison. It should be score ← score + 50. (Scoring people by postcode is also the kind of profiling that can create bias.)

A — The closing bracket is missing from the parameter list. It should be define canViewHealth(role).

C — The division is the wrong way round. The complaint rate that shows public trust is complaints divided by total, so it should be pct ← complaints / total * 100.