When it comes to ethics there is always a wide range of opinions of whats right and whats wrong. Using ethics standards will allow you to figure out if what you are doing it the right thing. I my opinion, I think that ethics means attempting to do something good. However, while doing something good you must also be aware of the harm it may cause. Ethics requires an awareness to the things that are not as obvious. What you think maybe beneficial to others may make things worse else where.
It would be easy to think that because we only do software it can’t do any harm as it is not physical. But there is so much power in software engineering as it has a major impact in our society. Ethics in software engineering is trying to create something that will help users. For example, creating an app that lets people across the world communicate with their loved ones wherever they are. An ethical thing this app needs to do is keep their users information safe. They were given peoples trust, the ethical thing to is respect their trust and do what they need to do to protect their users.
There is a fine line where ethics comes in to question. Going back to the messaging app. Because it allows anyone to communicate anywhere, cyber bullying is a major issue. But, would the company be held responsible? It would cause ethical issues as they would have to monitor everyones messages and that violates their privacy. What would happen if they were not held responsible? If someone suffered because of the app, who would get blamed? The users? The company? Should they just get rid of the app? The company meant to do good, but they can’t control what their users do with their product once it’s released. Ethics really comes in to question when they try to figure out who is to blame. But, is is really only ONE person fault?
In my opinion ethics play a major role in the software engineering world. Especially because of its major role in society. However, I feel as though ethics cannot solve everything as the question “what is ethical?” has so many different meanings. The best that you can do in this world is to strive to do good. But, you also need to be aware of the harm that may come.