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posted by
martyb
on Tuesday November 22 2016, @08:04PM
from the "code"-of-ethics-needs-debugging? dept.
from the "code"-of-ethics-needs-debugging? dept.
Earlier this week, a post written by programmer and teacher Bill Sourour went viral. It's called "Code I'm Still Ashamed Of."
In it he recounts a horrible story of being a young programmer who landed a job building a website for a pharmaceutical company. The whole post is worth a read, but the upshot is he was duped into helping the company skirt drug advertising laws in order to persuade young women to take a particular drug.
He later found out the drug was known to worsen depression and at least one young woman committed suicide while taking it. He found out his sister was taking the drug and warned her off it.
By sake of comparison, take a look at the ACM Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct (Adopted by ACM Council 10/16/92.)
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Programmers Talk About the Unethical and Illegal Things They’ve Been Asked To Do
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"History is a tool used by politicians to justify their intentions."
-- Ted Koppel
(Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Tuesday November 22 2016, @08:32PM
Right on time, and exactly on message. Dude, doesn't it bother you that a reasonably competent programmer could perfectly replicate your posting habits with a Markov generator and some parsing algorithms? :/
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 2, Interesting) by art guerrilla on Tuesday November 22 2016, @08:50PM
yeah, but, he also has a point...
most of us are 'work for hire' types, and
1. HOW do we know our ultimate client is an upstanding and admirable person we are proud to be associated with ? ? ? i know i generally dont know shit about the clients for our work..
2. am i remiss for not interviewing them all and ensuring ALL meet my stringent requirements for morality and ethics, or is that none of my fucking bidness for the services i render ? ? ? (oh wait, i would be fired for presuming that was any of my bidness and harassing customers over stupid shit like that)
3. ultimately, we is hos, aint we... we sell our souls to the company store, it aint OUR fucking company, so we have no say in who they serve...
4. lastly, i think this is a good thing: stupid, short-sighted SJWs insist only pure and righteous pwogs can avail themselves of their services will find out several things, including that shoe may pinch when on the other foot when they call a conservative plumber when the shit is overflowing, and the plumber determines YOU are not pure and righteous according to their lights...
(Score: 2) by ikanreed on Tuesday November 22 2016, @09:28PM
"I was just following orders"
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 23 2016, @02:39AM
You must mean Befehl ist Befehl [wikipedia.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 23 2016, @07:37AM
Said in unison every morning at Google and Facebook and _insert-USAian_big_data_corporation_. The new Pledge of Allegiance, just like in Grade 1.
(Score: 2) by art guerrilla on Monday November 28 2016, @07:57PM
ok, i take your point, but you tell me: so YOU take it upon yourself to not only know the clients you work for (perhaps many degrees of separation away such that you may not even know who the client is), and their stances on all the social issues which concern you ? and your company doesnt have a problem with you sending said clients a list of ethical litmus tests they must pass to your satisfaction ?
no ?
then you are a ho just like the rest of us ? ? ?
if you ain't pimpin', then you is ho'in...
(Score: 2) by Thexalon on Monday November 28 2016, @04:45PM
Sometimes, we do have choices though. For example, imagine you are faced with choosing between the following employers:
- A scientific research institute trying to design better batteries.
- A non-profit dedicated to providing medical services for veterans.
- A search engine spamming outfit.
My guess is that many of us would choose the scientific institute or the non-profit, even if the pay is lower.
And I have to say, I make the same sorts of decisions with potential clients too when I'm doing contract work: If the company in question is scuzzy, I try to avoid working for them. Among other things, I know sooner or later that they'll be scuzzy to me, not just their clients.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 2) by art guerrilla on Monday November 28 2016, @07:44PM
1. yes, you are making some bright-line distinctions that we may very well not be cognizant of BEFORE getting in the company...
2. as you commendably confessed further upstream, you took a job you felt was marginally ethical because you needed food in your belly ( AND if you are in charge of other bellies, your ethics will not even come into play)...
3. bottom line : practically and generally speaking, you can only afford strict morality and the highest ethical standards if you are independently wealthy with 'fuck you' money... the rest of us can't afford ethics when there are bellies to fill...
4. the idea of having a true 'choice' in which of the many jobs available to me, i could pick one for its high ethical values, TOTALLY presupposes a world which no longer exists, if it ever did: the job market -for most of us- is so shitty, THERE IS LITTLE TO NO CHOICE...
sure, you can 'choose' shitty job A from shitty employer A, or you can 'choose' shitty job B from shitty employer B... some choice, IF you are 'lucky' enough to have two shit jobs to choose from...
(Score: 2) by Thexalon on Monday November 28 2016, @08:45PM
I agree completely that lots of people, myself included, make compromising choices because they need to eat and pay the bills. On the other hand, you shouldn't deny your own ability to make choices entirely. If you have a choice of 2 bad jobs to choose from, you can at least choose the least-bad option.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 22 2016, @09:51PM
with a Markov generator and some parsing algorithms
Do those have a "Douche Bag" setting? You're going to need one to come across as genuine jmorris.