🙌🏿 👩‍👩‍👧 🌸 Does a programmer need ethics? 👝 🕠 😛

I want to consider the issue that suddenly became relevant. Every year the figure is increasingly entering our lives, which means that more and more people are using the results of the work of programmers and all representatives of the IT sector.

But the latest events related to the spread of coronavirus and subsequent measures by authorities around the world make us talk about the degree of responsibility that our workshop bears when it comes to the contours of a new, perhaps not the most rainbow-colored world.

If, prior to the general quarantine of the population, IT was certainly important, but still one of the industries, then with the transition of everyone to a remote location, many things became simply irreplaceable. However, the figure is not only used to solve business and personal problems. But also to tighten control over their own population, often without any reasonable grounds from the point of view of the interests of society.

The most vivid reason to talk about ethics is the activity of the Moscow Government’s DIT , in particular, their Social Monitoring program, which is essentially an electronic collar worn on the body of a citizen without good reason. All kinds of jambs of this application have already been dismantled: for example, on Habré or in the media: "A disabled Muscovite was indignant after receiving a new fine for violation of isolation . "

Although why "shoals"? It all depends on the point of view. City Hall officials seem to be just proud of their share, saying this :

« », , 60 000 , «» . 54 000 – 216 ., . 30% : 2–3 , .

Any normal person from the industry would first have a suspicion: how adequate is the product to the tasks assigned to it? In other words, is it so buggy and gives so many errors? It can be seen from the description of the product itself that it is not very adequate: for example, determining the location by satellite, which is obviously impossible in urban conditions with good accuracy, or photographing against the background of home carpets, which can also be a weak point in proving user violations (there are still many examples of bullying over the citizens here ).

It is clear that for people who perceive the state as business, and the population as a huge and free resource, any mistake is interpreted in favor of the weak. It is clear that the general leadership of the city, headed by Sobyanin, with the tacit approval of the Prosecutor's Office and the FSB, is responsible for general issues such as putting this raw product into circulation, working with complaints, and so on.

It is clear that the head of the department and other tops from state and city IT also pursue their own interests: such people usually work not for the idea, but for much more tangible and quite impressive benefits: from solid salaries to participating in the distribution of budgets, departmental apartments, cars getting personal political perspectives.

But what about us developers? Those who are engaged in the direct production and debugging of such programs? After all, someone specifically drew a module that would decide whether to send a POST request to the API indicating the data of the “intruder” by its geolocation. Someone wrote specifically with their own hands the demon who will send push-notifications with the requirement to take a picture without taking into account the local time, for example, at 4 am ? “I was just following the order”?

It is clear that at all times there was crime, and he could not pass the IT sphere. Someone is writing phishing sites, bot attacks, trading map data, prohibited content and similar things.

But quite legal corporations and states are increasingly starting to creep into the territory of private life. Organized systems of total surveillance, automatic collection of fines. Against the background of the epidemic, the states and politicians of many countries have become preoccupied with measures for some absolutely fantastic control over all aspects of citizens' lives. All this is done by the hands of our colleagues.

Can the community within itself develop and clearly formulate criteria for what is acceptable? Like a medical “do no harm” - “don't do surveillance”, for example? Can we say how to relate to those of us who are involved in this? In modern companies, primarily Western ones, they have recently become preoccupied with any equality of opportunity, the destruction of bullying, discrimination, sexism, and other things. Can this energy be directed towards intolerance towards those who create tools to heal their fellow citizens for many millions of dollars for nothing? Is it possible to ask a candidate when applying for a job not only about how he relates to women in the team of programmers, but, for example, did he participate in the projects of the Moscow Children's Institute?

It is clear that someone will ask: “Author, do you have anything other than naive questions?” I admit, not yet. But it seems to me that the course of history is pushing us toward a certain crystallization, the formation of our own position. Indeed, many developers themselves are faced with a contradiction: on the one hand, we like the wide possibilities of the modern digital world, freedom, including receiving information, expressing ourselves, finally, simply moving (to another country, for example). On the other hand, more and more large businesses are hiring developers in order to sculpt another system of tricky microloans or tracking their own kind with the help of geolocation. At least uncomfortable.

After all, it may happen that one day we all get a very strong iron cage, tested for all sorts of vulnerabilities, into which they will put us. We will ask ourselves: how did we get to this? Why is this done with our hands? why did I sculpt this twig, for what? And most importantly: did we have a choice to act differently?

Does a programmer need ethics?

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