And we have an ethical responsibility as software developers – and, for some, “hackers” – to consider the implications of what we create and do.
Users are people. Real people, like us, living real lives.
What we do has a real effect on people’s life. Now, and in the future.
Example: https://www.troyhunt.com/heres-what-ashley-madison-members-have/ and Troy has also noted some people have committed suicide over this breach.
If you were a software developer “just writing code” and created something that, how you feel if I:
- Collected all your data, collated it and create a “profile” of you to sell to others for the profit of others?
- Could learn so much about you it could create a “virtual you” that over an actor that could make you say and do things you never did?
- Allowed your identity to be stolen?
- Allowed your most personal information to be stolen?
How would you feel?
Well, all these scenarios have happened over the last couple of years, and all thanks to just 2 reasons:
- Developers who did not think about the implications of what they were asked to do;
- Vulnerabilities in the code they wrote.