Right From Wrong
17 Apr 2019What are Ethics?
Ethics are a set of rules that govern the decisions people make in life. Common ethics are built over time from social influence and development of society. In today’s world, ethical rules in life are much different from the ethics back 100 years ago. If the ethical rules are ever broken, it may cause controversies and problems in the society and in the 21st century, technology advancement is at an all time high and new ethical rules have risen for the creators of these new technologies. As a software engineer, we have a major impact on what goes on in today’s world, that is why our ethical rules are important because it is a requirement that we must understand these rules in order to have a positive impact on today’s society.
Ethics in the 21st Century
In early 2018, the Facebook Cambridge Analytica data scandal happened, involving Facebook used millions of people’s Facebook profiles without consent for political issues. According to 1.6 Respect Privacy from the ACM Code of Ethics, it states that, “Computing professionals should only use personal information for legitimate ends and without violating the rights of individuals and groups.” From this scandal, many other privacy issues were brought to light, such as Facebook using your browsing history to cater user preferenced ads on Facebook. Facebook also has their own algorithm for tracking user browsing history for ads that are used by other companies.
Viewing this issue from an software engineer standpoint, what Facebook has done is ethically wrong, but viewing it from a business standpoint, it is ethically normal. We all know that the main goal of a business is to make money and they can do whatever they want as long is it runs along the lines of their policies. In this case, Facebook has stated in their policy, “We collect the content, communications and other information you provide when you use our Products, including when you sign up for an account, create or share content, and message or communicate with others. This can include information in or about the content you provide (like metadata), such as the location of a photo or the date a file was created.” Technically, Facebook has done nothing wrong since it clearly states in their terms of service that they can use the information you provide when using their products. It is also the consumer’s responsibility to read the terms and policies of a product or service before using it. It’s like signing a contract. At the end of the day, I personally feel like Facebook isn’t in the “wrong”, but from an software engineering standpoint, I find that their practices are questionable.