A lot of rambling about abusive tech and people who code it
Years ago now I worked a gig that was doing some crap with ISP-grade software that was not great for privacy/safety.
When I realized what was going on I started making noise. I began filing bug reports against privacy/safety/freedom breaches I identified, they got ignored. I finally went up my management chain going "We can't sell this, it's abusive!"
I dunno if it was my cage-rattling or someone else's that got to the CEO, but he eventually announced to the company something to the tune of "We're not alone in this emerging market. If we don't do this, others will anyway so really we're not doing anything that won't happen anyway"
And that stuck with me, because at the time I didn't have a coherent argument against it. Now? My stance on it is pretty solid-- we need far more ethics training than we get now, and we need a union or unions to back up refusal to do this crap on moral and ethical grounds.
So many people in tech feel helpless because they can just ultimately be replaced. It may HURT to replace some people, but the entire industry is kind of a meat grinder and everyone is just a cog in the machine. If you refuse to turn, the org cuts you and spends 3 days to 3 months training a fresh grad to replace you, depending on role.
People need the training to identify the misuses of what they build, the conviction to refuse to build abusive software, and the backing from their peers when they put their foot down. We don't have any of that right now.
When I realized what was going on I started making noise. I began filing bug reports against privacy/safety/freedom breaches I identified, they got ignored. I finally went up my management chain going "We can't sell this, it's abusive!"
I dunno if it was my cage-rattling or someone else's that got to the CEO, but he eventually announced to the company something to the tune of "We're not alone in this emerging market. If we don't do this, others will anyway so really we're not doing anything that won't happen anyway"
And that stuck with me, because at the time I didn't have a coherent argument against it. Now? My stance on it is pretty solid-- we need far more ethics training than we get now, and we need a union or unions to back up refusal to do this crap on moral and ethical grounds.
So many people in tech feel helpless because they can just ultimately be replaced. It may HURT to replace some people, but the entire industry is kind of a meat grinder and everyone is just a cog in the machine. If you refuse to turn, the org cuts you and spends 3 days to 3 months training a fresh grad to replace you, depending on role.
People need the training to identify the misuses of what they build, the conviction to refuse to build abusive software, and the backing from their peers when they put their foot down. We don't have any of that right now.
re: A lot of rambling about abusive tech and people who code it
@trysdyn
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re: A lot of rambling about abusive tech and people who code it
@five On it's own it won't. It's more... the starting place is people handling the tech that can do this need to be taught to think about the implications of what they build. A lot of thinking about "Can" but not thinking about "Should" going on.
After that, devs who refuse to code things on moral grounds need support: either from craftsmen unions in a workplace, and legal guidelines in general.
That's my thought anyway.
After that, devs who refuse to code things on moral grounds need support: either from craftsmen unions in a workplace, and legal guidelines in general.
That's my thought anyway.
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re: A lot of rambling about abusive tech and people who code it
