30 of the Digital Society glossary’s terms, each with the part of the syllabus where you first meet it.
The computer's main working memory, which holds the programs and data currently in use; it is fast but volatile, so its contents are lost when the power is switched off.
Malicious software that encrypts a victim's data or locks their systems and demands payment, usually in cryptocurrency, to restore access.
Linking records in a supposedly anonymous dataset back to the real people they describe, usually by matching them with other available data.
Non-volatile memory whose contents are written during manufacture and are not normally changed, used to hold firmware such as the instructions that start the computer.
A specific, existing instance involving a digital system, which can be local, global or both, and which grounds an inquiry in what has actually happened rather than in general statements.
The situation in which efficiency gains from a technology are partly or fully cancelled out because the lower cost or greater convenience leads people to use more of it.
An algorithm that predicts which items, such as videos, songs, products or posts, a user is likely to engage with, based on their past behaviour and that of similar users, and ranks them for display.
One row of a database table, holding all the data about a single item, such as one student or one transaction.
A person who has fled their country because of a well-founded fear of persecution, conflict or serious violence, and who is protected under international law from being sent back to danger.
A rule, usually made under the authority of a law, that controls how organisations or individuals behave, together with the bodies and processes that monitor and enforce it.
Machine learning in which an agent learns to make decisions by taking actions in an environment and receiving rewards or penalties, gradually finding the strategy that earns the most reward.
A database that stores data in tables of records and fields and links the tables through shared key values.
Money or goods sent by a migrant worker to family or others in their country of origin, usually in small, regular amounts.
The practice of creating new works by combining, editing or adapting existing ones, such as mash-ups, memes, samples and fan videos.
Education that takes place when learners and teachers are in different physical locations, delivered through any medium, from online platforms to radio, television and printed packs.
Collecting information about the Earth's surface or atmosphere from a distance, usually with sensors on satellites, aircraft or drones that measure reflected light, heat or radar signals.
Doing paid work away from the employer's premises, usually at home, using digital systems such as laptops, video calls and cloud services to stay connected.
Systematic work carried out to increase knowledge (research) and to use that knowledge to create new or improved products, processes and services (development).
Moving work that had been sent abroad back to a firm's home country.
A type of intervention that removes a negative aspect of a challenge. Few interventions resolve a whole challenge, but some resolve one specific aspect of it.
The difficulty of deciding who is morally or legally responsible when an autonomous system causes harm, because no single human directly chose the harmful action.
Using goods, services and resources in ways that meet people's needs while reducing waste, pollution and the use of raw materials across a product's life; the aim of SDG 12.
The right of individuals, established in EU law, to ask search engines and organisations to remove links to or delete personal information that is inaccurate, irrelevant, outdated or excessive.
The principle, increasingly written into law, that owners and independent repairers should be able to fix products, with access to spare parts, tools, manuals and software at a fair price.
An ethical framework that judges actions by whether they respect the rights every person holds, such as privacy or free expression, which may not be overridden simply to benefit others.
A ceremony or event that marks a person's move from one stage of life or social status to another, such as a birth, coming of age, graduation, marriage or death.
A programmable machine with a physical body that senses its environment, processes that information and acts on the physical world, carrying out tasks with some degree of independence from direct human control.
The debate over whether robots, especially advanced or humanlike ones, should be given moral consideration or legal rights and status, and what such rights would mean for human responsibility.
A device that connects two or more networks and forwards data between them, choosing a route for each piece of data based on its destination address.