[HN Gopher] 75% of Software Engineers Faced Retaliation Last Tim...
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75% of Software Engineers Faced Retaliation Last Time They Reported
Wrongdoing
Author : IcyApril
Score : 35 points
Date : 2023-11-20 15:02 UTC (7 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.engprax.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.engprax.com)
| parkerhiggins wrote:
| I've found that there isn't a lot of discussion or research
| around this subject. Shoutout to engprax, a compliance company,
| for clearly approaching the issue.
|
| Is it actually an issue though? Software engineers by design (?)
| are not capital "P" professionals. There's no certification or
| board underwriting our work. Software engineering/developers have
| had the latitude to "move fast" and represent the only
| "professional" trade that has the ability to "try again" (with a
| deployment) versus a structural engineer for example.
|
| > Dr Junade Ali CEng FIET, the Principal Investigator of the
| study, said: "Recent developments demonstrate the fundamental
| importance of software engineers being free to raise the alarm
| when they become aware of potential wrongdoing; unfortunately our
| research has highlighted that software engineers are not
| sufficiently protected when they need to do so. From software
| engineers facing mass retaliation for speaking up and banned
| gagging clauses still being used, to 'industry-standard' software
| development metrics not considering the public's risk appetite;
| this investigation has highlighted systematic and profound issues
| with society-wide impact, given how integral computers are to all
| our lives.
|
| With the ubiquitous nature of software in modern society are we
| at the point were we need certification? The development and
| certification of "industry-standards"? This theme, balancing
| innovation with responsibility, is throughout the the Biden
| Administration's Executive Order on the Safe, Secure, Trustworthy
| Development and Use of Artificial Intelligence (Order).
|
| Who is really responsible though? The developers who wrote the
| code? Or the executive who ordered the change?
|
| There's are plenty of examples of this in recent history. Where
| engineers/developers released code they knew was
| harmful/fraudulent but did so anyway under fear of retaliation.
|
| > FTX (Nishad Singh) https://www.reuters.com/technology/how-
| secret-software-chang...
|
| > Pollen
| https://blog.pragmaticengineer.com/pollen/#:~:text=Later%2C%....
|
| I wonder where this is going to go.
| tekla wrote:
| > Who is really responsible though? The developers who wrote
| the code?
|
| Yes. The person who wrote the shit is responsible as much as
| the person who ordered the change.
| JohnFen wrote:
| I could not agree more.
|
| We are all responsible for our actions and the results our
| actions cause. "I was just following orders" in no way
| absolves anyone of that responsibility.
|
| That you may pay a price for doing the right thing doesn't
| make avoiding doing it acceptable.
| porompompero wrote:
| Extensible to nearly all professions? In academia it happens..
| xhkkffbf wrote:
| Just 75%? A friend was working for one of those AI startups. They
| wanted him to download and effectively steal documents for
| training their LLM. When he pointed out that the TOS explicitly
| forbade mass downloading, they fired him immediately. Sleezy
| times.
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(page generated 2023-11-20 23:01 UTC)