ETHICS IN THECH

• HOME

Code Of Ethics

• Programmers actions change the world. To act responsibly, they should reflect upon the wider impacts of their work, consistently supporting the public good.

• The Code is designed to inspire and guide the ethical conduct of all computing professionals, including current and aspiring practitioners, instructors, students, influencers, and anyone who uses computing technology in an impactful way. Additionally, the Code serves as a basis for remediation when violations occur. The Code includes principles formulated as statements of responsibility, based on the understanding that the public good is always the primary consideration. Each principle is supplemented by guidelines, which provide explanations to assist computing professionals in understanding and applying the principle.

General Ethical Principles

• Contribute to society and to human well-being

• This principle, which concerns the quality of life of all people, affirms an obligation of computing professionals, both individually and collectively, to use their skills for the benefit of society, its members, and the environment surrounding them.

• Avoid harm

• well harm means negative consequences, especially when those consequences are significant and unjust.

• Be honest and trustworthy

• Honesty is an essential component of trustworthiness. A computing professional should be transparent and provide full disclosure of all pertinent system capabilities, limitations, and potential problems to the appropriate parties.

• Be fair and take action not to discriminate

• The values of equality, tolerance, respect for others, and justice govern this principle. Fairness requires that even careful decision processes provide some avenue for redress of grievances.

• Respect the work required to produce new ideas

• Developing new ideas, inventions, creative works, and computing artifacts creates value for society, and those who expend this effort should expect to gain value from their work.

• Respect privacy

• The responsibility of respecting privacy applies to computing professionals in a particularly profound way. Technology enables the collection, monitoring, and exchange of personal information quickly, inexpensively, and often without the knowledge of the people affected.

• Honor confidentiality

• Computing professionals are often entrusted with confidential information such as trade secrets, client data, nonpublic business strategies, financial information, research data, pre-publication scholarly articles, and patent applications.

PROFESSIONAL RESPONSIBILITIES

• Strive to achieve high quality in your professional work

• Computing professionals should insist on and support high quality work from themselves and from colleagues. The dignity of employers, employees, colleagues, clients, users, and anyone else affected either directly or indirectly by the work should be respected throughout the process.

• Maintain high standards of professional competence

• High quality computing depends on individuals and teams who take personal and group responsibility for acquiring and maintaining professional competence.

• Know and respect existing rules pertaining to professional work

• Rules here include local, regional, national, and international laws and regulations, as well as any policies and procedures of the organizations to which the professional belongs.

• Accept and provide appropriate professional review

• High quality professional work in computing depends on professional review at all stages. Whenever appropriate, computing professionals should seek and utilize peer and stakeholder review.

• Perform work only in areas of competence

• A computing professional is responsible for evaluating potential work assignments. This includes evaluating the work’s feasibility and advisability, and making a judgment about whether the work assignment is within the professional’s areas of competence.

• Foster public awareness and understanding of computing

• As appropriate to the context and one’s abilities, computing professionals should share technical knowledge with the public, foster awareness of computing, and encourage understanding of computing.

• Access computing and communication resources only when authorized or when compelled by the public good

• Individuals and organizations have the right to restrict access to their systems and data so long as the restrictions are consistent with other principles in the Code.

• Design and implement systems that are robustly and usably secure

• Breaches of computer security cause harm. Robust security should be a primary consideration when designing and implementing systems. Computing professionals should perform due diligence to ensure the system functions as intended.

COMPLIANCE WITH THE CODE

• Uphold, promote, and respect the principles of the Code

• The future of computing depends on both technical and ethical excellence. Computing professionals should adhere to the principles of the Code and contribute to improving them.

• Treat violations of the Code as inconsistent with membership in the ACM

• Each ACM member should encourage and support adherence by all computing professionals regardless of ACM membership. ACM members who recognize a breach of the Code should consider reporting the violation to the ACM, which may result in remedial action as specified in the ACM’s Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct Enforcement Policy.

code-of-ethics

If you write code for a living, there’s a chance that at some point in your career, someone will ask you to code something a little deceitful – if not outright unethical