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---
# vim: tw=80
title: The rise of unethical software
layout: post
---
Something that frustrates me to no end today is the increasing absence of ethics
in software. It's nuts! Everywhere we have software that lies, deceives users,
breaches their privacy, and overall can be seriously lacking in scruples. It's
everywhere! What irks me the most is that it *had* to involve a programmer at
some point. A programmer, someone who's supposed to "get it" and who's supposed
to fight for doing what's right in technology, sat down and wrote the code for
these unethical unfeatures.
<style> img { width: 75%; } </style>
Why is it okay to lie to our users? Money is, of course, the motivation behind
bullshit like this. Companies that can't find money without sacrificing ethics
quite frankly deserve to fail. If you're a programmer who is asked to compromise
on ethics to write some feature, if you find yourself uncomfortable with what
you're writing, say no!
Developers enjoy some of the best job security in the market. We make high
salaries for comfortable work and *everyone* needs developers. You should always
be accepting interviews and networking and thanking that recruiter for spamming
you on LinkedIn, because you will always have lots of jobs on tap if you do.
But it probably won't get that far, anyway. Most companies stand to lose more
money by losing a developer than by not implementing a [dark
pattern](http://darkpatterns.org/). With the kinds of salaries our profession
demands, the company has made a large investment in you and would be unwise to
squander it.
I was once on a team consulting for a project where customers were refunded in
store credit, and they were asking us to implement a system in which they could
change the value of the unit this credit was stored in (i.e. $100 refunded could
later be made to be worth $50; store credit wasn't stored in dollars). It felt
wrong. I spoke up and it didn't happen - and I wasn't fired!
I think we need to establish a code of ethics for programmers. Doctors, social
workers, and even lawyers have a code of ethics, with tangible consequences for
skimping on them. Why not programmers as well? We need an organized code of
ethics for programmers. I want to live in a world where a programmer who hasn't
agreed to follow our code of ethics has a hard time getting employed, and a
programmer who writes anything like the software pictured below stands a good
chance of losing out on future employment. It is simply not acceptable to write
code that is harmful to your users. What the hell is wrong with these people?
Please let me know if you would participate in such a code. Let's make it
happen. Maybe we can, over time, eradicate these harmful practices.
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