Who gets harmed: the five targets
The exam frames every harm question around who is affected. The Five harm targets are individuals, groups, society, organisations and ecosystems - and harms are not singular: one system (e.g. facial recognition) can hit several at once.
The exam frames every harm question around who is affected. Learn the five buckets and what sits in each.
| Target | What sits in it |
|---|---|
| 👤 Individuals | Civil rights · economic opportunity · safety |
| 👥 Groups | Discrimination towards population subgroups → gender, race, ethnicity, socioeconomic status |
| 🏛️ Society | Democratic process · trust in government · educational access · job redistribution |
| 🏢 Organisations | Reputational · cultural · economic · acceleration risks |
| 🌍 Ecosystems | Natural resources · environment · supply chain |
Harms are not singular - one system can hit several targets at once. The set-piece example is facial recognition → harms individuals (journalists, protesters, domestic-violence victims, wrongful identification for a crime), groups (identifying marginalised people who gather regularly at one location), society (deepfakes and spoofing eroding public trust) and organisations (privacy violations and security breaches through biometric theft).