This presentation considers the Code of Conduct adopted by Association for Computing Machinery, and of raises a number of ethical questions related to the fields of IT and software development. We will discuss real-world cases of software producers facing ethical dilemmas, and how these dilemmas can be approached. The topics include considerations of privacy and information sharing, failing to deliver a service, security vulnerabilities and bugs, and building software that encourages evil behavior. IT professionals wield a lot of power in today’s society. The ways technology influences society can be overt and subtle, immediate and long-lasting, bring out the best and the worst in people at large. We all need to be better informed to make ethical and moral choices in our work.

1. ETHICS
in software development
Jane Prusakova
@jprusakova

3. Professional Code of Conduct
• What is right and proper?
• Questions of morality
• What should always or never
be done?

4. Jeff Atwood, “Coding Horror”

5. Jeff Atwood, “Coding Horror”

6. Moral questions are hard
• IT is truly global
• Effects and results of a technology can occur far away and a long time
after its development
• Unintentional consequences can be significant

7. P:
«The culture of any organization
is shaped by the worst behavior
the leader is willing to tolerate.»
Gruenert and Whitaker

8. Technology and its consequences
• Dispensing drugs
• Testing automobiles
• Emissions
• Working brakes
• Transforming users and their data into product

9. Technology and its consequences
• Dispensing drugs
• Testing automobiles
• Emissions
• Working brakes
• Transforming users and their data into product

10. Technology and its consequences

11. Ethical concerns
• Evil software
• software that is likely to do harm
• Data
• what to keep, what to publish, how to use
• Bugs
• is it OK to not fix a bug or vulnerability
• Quality
• is it acceptable to deliver poor or untested product

13. Software and hardware bugs
• What is the harm?
• Who was harmed,
if anyone?
• What is the ethical
course of actions?

14. Picking into private matters
- Devices listen for specific word.
- Record audio and send out.
• Can this technology be trusted?
• What is the harm, if any?

15. Ethics of software products
• Does software add to the good of the people?
• Is there “evil” software?
• Who is responsible for software misuse leading
to harm?
• Should we, developers, be concerned about improper use?
• Is it OK for software to extend privileges to
some groups over others?
• Programmers have the power to decide who is “worthy”

16. Video jail visitation
- Leads to bans on in-person visits
- Limits accessibility of visitation
Encrypted communication makes
It harder for authorities to detect
Illegal and terrorist activities
Allows to target real-life harm to people.
Alt-right uses social networking sites
to spread their message.
Fake news
Advertising
Disseminates false information
for financial or political gain

17. Software development industry
ethics
• Is where a trade off between productivity and
diversity and inclusion?
• Is it OK to fail?
• Is it ethical to require a “death march” from the
team?
• Is it acceptable to keep a high-performing
person who is a bully?

18. What ethical dilemmas
are you facing?

20. ETHICS
in software development
Jane Prusakova
@jprusakova