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from the Keep-everything-under-digital-lock dept.
Computer Programmers get new Tech Ethics Code
The guidelines come from the Association for Computing Machinery
Technological professionals are the first, and last, lines of defense against the misuse of technology. Nobody else understands the systems as well, and nobody else is in a position to protect specific data elements or ensure the connections between one component and another are appropriate, safe and reliable. As the role of computing continues its decades-long expansion in society, computer scientists are central to what happens next.
Personally, I am quite concerned that our Congress has not attached Responsibility with Rights when it comes to software. If someone is going to claim ownership and rights to a piece of code then protect it with electronic lock or obscurity, why aren't they also held 100% responsible if that code causes mayhem?
We just had a story here about the concerns we have about a hemoglobin based meat substitute ... and what we go through to make damn sure the substance is harmless to life before we introduce it into the food chain... and even *that* has to be completely described and its molecular structure demonstrated.
Can you imagine the uproar if Chemists started releasing anything tasty, that people would eat, and call it "food"? And would our Congress grant them the right to withhold information as to what it was? Then hold them harmless for whatever it did to people?
(Score: 2) by urza9814 on Tuesday August 14 2018, @11:24AM
I was gong to say that they DID...took a lot of research, many years, and many deaths to bring about the current (and still rather lax as you point out) level of regulation. And the general public ought to understand food additives and risks a hell of a lot better than they understand technological risks.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harvey_Washington_Wiley [wikipedia.org]
That's the problem IMO...and you can't possibly solve it just by adding some ethics discussions as a required part of a computer science degree. You can't solve it just by looking at the coders. We have this entire society that was convinced to start buying computers without really knowing what they did or how they worked; and controlling and exploiting these people is sufficiently profitable that someone is going to try. The only real solution is to educate the end users so they can stop buying this garbage.