70 of the Digital Society glossary’s terms, each with the part of the syllabus where you first meet it.
A user interface design that deliberately manipulates or deceives users into choices that benefit the company rather than themselves, such as agreeing to data collection or a subscription that is hard to cancel.
A part of the deep web that is deliberately hidden and can only be accessed with special software such as Tor, which conceals the identity and location of users and sites.
Raw facts, figures, symbols or observations that have been recorded but not yet organised or interpreted, such as a list of readings from a temperature sensor.
The process of examining data, often with software and algorithms, to find patterns, draw conclusions and support decisions.
A systematic error in data, caused by how it was collected, selected or recorded, that makes it unrepresentative of the reality or population it is meant to describe.
A company that collects personal data from many sources, such as public records, purchases and online tracking, combines it into profiles and sells them to other organisations.
A building or group of buildings that houses large numbers of servers, storage systems and network equipment, together with the power supplies and cooling systems needed to keep them running continuously.
Encoding data using fewer bits than the original, so that it takes less storage and less time and bandwidth to send.
Permanently removing data from a storage device so that it cannot be recovered, by overwriting it, destroying the encryption key that protects it, or physically destroying the device.
The accuracy, completeness and consistency of data throughout its life cycle, protected from unauthorised or accidental change.
The sequence of stages data passes through, from creation or collection through storage, processing, analysis and access, to preservation and reuse.
A legal requirement that data about a country's citizens or activities be stored, and sometimes processed, on servers located inside that country.
Hiding sensitive parts of a dataset by replacing real values with altered, scrambled or realistic but fake values, so the data can be used without exposing the original information.
The legal rights and practical control a person or organisation has over data, including the right to decide how it is collected, used, shared and deleted.
The right of individuals to control how information about them is collected, used, stored and shared, and the practices that protect that right.
A law that sets rules for how organisations collect, store, use and share personal data, and gives individuals rights over their data, such as the right to see it, correct it or have it deleted.
The extent to which data is accurate, consistent and from a trustworthy source, so that it can be depended on.
The measures used to protect data from unauthorised access, alteration, theft or loss, so that it stays confidential, accurate and available.
The representation of data in a visual form, such as a chart, map or interactive dashboard, so that patterns and relationships can be seen and understood quickly.
An organised, structured collection of data stored electronically, usually managed by software that allows users to search, add, update and delete the data.
Rules about what may be shown or said in media, especially to audiences that may include children, covering sexual content, violence and strong language.
Work that is productive and pays a fair income, with security in the workplace, social protection, freedom to organise and be heard, and equal treatment, as defined by the International Labour Organization.
A form of machine learning that uses artificial neural networks with many hidden layers to learn complex patterns directly from large amounts of raw data such as images, audio or text.
The parts of the web that search engines do not index, such as private accounts, databases and pages behind logins.
Synthetic video, audio or images, generated with machine learning, that realistically show a real person saying or doing something they did not say or do.
A form of democracy in which decisions are shaped by informed, reasoned discussion among citizens and their representatives, aiming at shared understanding or consensus, in addition to voting.
Changes that electricity customers make to when or how much they use power, in response to prices, payments or signals from the grid operator, so that demand better matches available supply.
An attack that overwhelms a server, website or network with traffic or requests so that it cannot serve legitimate users; a distributed attack (DDoS) uses many devices at once.
An ethical framework, associated with Immanuel Kant, that judges actions by whether they respect moral duties and rules, such as honesty or respect for persons, rather than by their consequences.
A theory developed by Everett Rogers in 1962 that explains how, why and how fast new ideas and technologies spread through a population, dividing adopters into innovators, early adopters, early majority, late majority and laggards.
A way of representing data with discrete signals that take only a finite set of values, usually encoded as binary digits.
A pattern of compulsive use of digital media or devices that the user struggles to control and that continues despite harm to their health, relationships or daily life.
An organised collection of digital records, either digitized from analogue originals or born digital, that is stored, described and managed so that people can find and use it over the long term.
A boundary in virtual space, usually linked to a physical territory, where access to content, services or data changes because of the location of a user, a server or the data itself.
The gap between individuals, groups or countries in access to digital systems, in the skills and motivation to use them, and in the benefits they gain from that use.
The branch of ethics that examines the moral questions raised by the design, use and governance of digital systems, such as privacy, fairness, accountability and the treatment of users.
The record of data a person leaves through their use of digital systems, including what they share on purpose (an active footprint) and what is collected about them, often without their awareness (a passive footprint), such as location data and browsing history.
Cultural and scientific resources that are created in digital form or converted into it, such as 3D scans of monuments, digitized archives and born-digital works, and that are worth preserving for future generations.
The information about a person, group or organisation that exists in digital systems, including both the identity they present online and the attributes and credentials that systems use to recognise and verify them.
Ensuring that all people and communities, including those disadvantaged by disability, poverty, age, location or language, have affordable access to digital systems, the skills to use them and services designed for them.
The skills needed to find, evaluate, create and communicate information safely and effectively using digital technologies.
A European Union law, applied from 2023, that names the largest platforms as gatekeepers and sets them rules in advance, such as bans on self-preferencing, with fines of up to 10% of worldwide turnover.
Content such as text, images, audio, video, animation and games that is encoded as digital data, so it can be created, stored, edited, copied and distributed with computers and networks.
A person who has grown up surrounded by digital technologies such as the internet, mobile phones and social media; the term, popularised by Marc Prensky in 2001, is criticised because digital skills vary widely within the same generation.
A person who works remotely using digital systems while travelling or living in different places, often in other countries, for months or years at a time.
The study and practice of teaching approaches that use digital technologies to support learning, chosen for how they help students learn rather than for the technology itself.
The policies and actions that keep digital material accessible and usable over the long term, despite failing storage, changing hardware and software, and obsolete file formats.
A digital record linked to a physical product, often through a QR code, that stores information about its materials, origin, environmental footprint, repair and recycling, so that consumers, repairers and recyclers can use it.
Copying content from its original format, such as paper, microfilm or magnetic tape, into a digital format, so that it can be preserved and accessed without handling the original.
Human rights as they apply to the use of digital systems, such as privacy, free expression and non-discrimination online, together with related claims such as access to the internet and control over personal data.
Technology that restricts how digital content can be copied, shared, played or transferred, used by publishers to enforce copyright and licence terms.
A contested term for contemporary life in which digital systems are part of how people communicate, work, learn, govern and form communities, and in which analogue processes and objects are increasingly turned into digital forms. Because experiences differ so much between places and groups, there may be many digital societies rather than one.
The ability of a state or region to control the digital systems, data and infrastructure used within its territory, and to make and enforce its own rules for them.
Telling a story with digital tools and media, often combining text, image, sound and video, and sometimes letting the audience shape or add to the story.
A technology, application or platform that creates, stores, processes or distributes digital data and information, such as a smartphone, a gaming platform, an AI-enabled personal assistant or a robot.
Very deep digitalization that changes an organisation's purpose, business model or a whole industry, rather than only its processes.
A virtual model of a real object, system or person that is continuously updated with data from its real counterpart, so that its behaviour can be monitored, simulated or predicted.
A state in which a person's use of digital technology supports, rather than harms, their physical and mental health, relationships and goals; the term is also used for tools and practices that aim to achieve this.
The use of digital systems to change the structure and/or operation of an organisation, for example its processes, services, roles or business model.
The conversion of analogue data and information, such as text on paper, film photographs or sound recordings, into digital form. It changes the form of information, not how an organisation works.
A model that arranges data, information, knowledge and wisdom in four layers, each built from the one beneath it and adding context, meaning and judgement.
A break with established ways of understanding or doing things, after which the old way no longer works or is abandoned.
Treating a person or group less favourably than others because of a characteristic such as sex, race, ethnicity, disability, religion or age. It can be direct (an explicit rule) or indirect (a rule that looks neutral but disadvantages one group in practice).
False information that is created or shared deliberately to deceive people, for political, financial or personal gain.
A significant change, often driven by digital systems, that upsets the established organisations, jobs, markets or practices of a sector, creating new winners and losers.
A new approach, often simpler or cheaper at first, that reaches people ignored by existing providers and eventually changes how a whole field works, such as mobile money for people without bank accounts.
A human-readable name, such as unicef.org, registered by an organisation or person and linked to the IP addresses of its servers.
The distributed system of servers that translates domain names into IP addresses so that devices can find each other on the internet.
An aircraft with no pilot on board, controlled remotely by a person, autonomously by onboard software, or by a combination of the two.