Giving Compass' Take:

• The author discusses the trajectory of the code of ethics for computing professionals and the importance of updating the code of ethics as technology continues to expand in society. 

• How can computing professionals stay accountable for following the new code of ethics? 

• Read more about how individuals working in tech can keep to a standard of ethics. 

Computing professionals are on the front lines of almost every aspect of the modern world. They’re involved in the response when hackers steal the personal information of hundreds of thousands of people from a large corporation.

Their work can protect – or jeopardize – critical infrastructures like electrical grids and transportation lines. And the algorithms they write may determine who gets a job, who is approved for a bank loan or who gets released on bail.

Technological professionals are the first, and last, lines of defense against the misuse of technology. Nobody else understands the systems as well, and nobody else is in a position to protect specific data elements or ensure the connections between one component and another are appropriate, safe and reliable.

As the role of computing continues its decades-long expansion in society, computer scientists are central to what happens next. That’s why the world’s largest organization of computer scientists and engineers, the Association for Computing Machinery, of which I am president, has issued a new code of ethics for computing professionals.

ACM’s new ethics code has several important differences from the 1992 version. One has to do with unintended consequences. In the 1970s and 1980s, technologists built software or systems whose effects were limited to specific locations or circumstances. But over the past two decades, it has become clear that as technologies evolve, they can be applied in contexts very different from the original intent.

The code was revised over the course of more than two years, including ACM members and people outside the organization and even outside the computing and technological professions. All these perspectives made the code better.

Read the full article about tech code of ethics by Cherri M. Pancake at The Conversation