Ethical Software by Alex Bunardzic

Hello, and welcome to the first blog post on Ethical Software . In this blog’s subsequent posts, we will try to discuss the discipline and the issues related to the practice of ethical software.

Granted, the idea, and the very moniker of ethical software is not very well entrenched in the mainstream culture of software development. In fact, the concept is so unexpected, that there is a danger that many of us may feel that the discipline itself is not necessary.

To remedy this misconception, I’d like to briefly outline some of the issues surrounding software applications, and how these issues relate to the consensus when it comes to ethical standards. Here is, then, what we propose no software product should ever do:

1. It should not assist in killing human beings
2. It should not assist in spreading racist or hate related content
3. It should not assist in spying on humans
4. It should not serve pornographic material for consumption
5. It should not assist users in engaging in gambling activities
6. It should not assist users in pressuring unsuspecting people to buy unwanted/unneeded products and services
7. It should not assist in any way in exploiting humans

Once these core criteria for building ethical software products have been met, we can turn our attention to some other, not so glaring requirements that distinguish ethical products from less ethical ones.