Software gurus: Only developers can defeat mass surveillance

Software developers should not be content with writing code that works, they have a responsibility not to harm their users, say Agile development experts Martin Fowler and Erik Dörnenburg, speaking at the Goto Aarhus conference in Denmark last week. Fowler was among the signatories of the 2001 Agile Manifesto, part of the …

[Anonymous Coward]

Well meant but still narrow minded thinking...

"Software developers should not be content with writing code that works, they have a responsibility not to harm their users"

I know I'm playing the devils advocate right now, but when it comes to surveillance then the user(s) of said software are the ones responsible for doing the surveillance. Something tells me those won't be "harmed".

As to their "dark pattern examples": Examples include ecommerce sites that add insurance to your purchase without asking, or printer drivers that refuse to print even when there is ink in the cartridge because the vendor thinks you should buy a new one after a certain number of pages..

I have to disagree that this is something related to the developer (or designer even). It's up to the people who use the product who are ultimately responsible, and these guys should know and acknowledge that fact too.

Lets talk ink: with a different setting that software can be used to simply warn the user of the printer of the upcoming obvious problem: running out of ink. Instead of being confronted with vague prints he now gets a warning up front. Its the manufacturer who chose to lower the threshold.

ECommerce: Isn't it up to the vendor to determine what he's offering and or selling? Shouldn't a developer cover as much ground as possible to provide the most optimal experience?

This line of thinking brings us back to the stone age I think; we're taking the easy way out. Instead of blaming people for their actions (which, considering the fact that we're often talking about huge corporations, might not be very effective) we're now using hindsight: "It shouldn't have been developed in the first place!". That's too easy and as said; I think it's the cheap way out.

I'm not claiming that they don't have a point here, I think they do. Its a very good thing to raise awareness of these issues going on around us. Especially since the bite with these kind of problems is that they develop slowly; slowly but steadily.

But do take it out on the people who are actually responsible. Even if those are huge corporations and your complaints or comments are probably lost with the masses who use their services.

[Jason Bloomberg]

Re: Well meant but still narrow minded thinking...

I have to disagree that this is something related to the developer (or designer even). It's up to the people who use the product who are ultimately responsible, and these guys should know and acknowledge that fact too.

I would agree it's not the developer's responsibility; they are simply wage slaves and out of a job if they don't bend personal principles to fit their employer's desires. It's not their job to be guardians of the rest of us. In fact; that even goes for the companies doing the things we don't like too.

I am not however convinced it's the user's responsibility when they equally have Hobson's Choice of accept it or do without. So called market forces don't work when people are not offered a full choice.

It is a societal problem which can only be solved collectively and probably only controlled by legislation.

[Raedwald Bretwalda]

Re: Well meant but still narrow minded thinking...

"they are simply wage slaves and out of a job if they don't bend personal principles to fit their employer's desires"

In the short term, true. But you do have some choice about your employer. You can take your labour-power elsewhere, unless you have been made redundant and/or there is a recession on.

[Anonymous Coward]

@raedwald

"In the short term, true. But you do have some choice about your employer. You can take your labour-power elsewhere, unless you have been made redundant and/or there is a recession on."

True, but that's also assuming that developers have actually applied for jobs within those "vague" companies. However, software development is usually outsourced these days. So the developer wouldn't even be directly working for the "misfits" but for his own company which got a nice deal to develop the software. Now what?

Next you have the obvious other examples such as a company changing its ways which leaves the developer little other choice between quitting or continuing his job. And well, it's always easy to tell someone that they should quit or deny a job on principle when you're not in their position yourself (so basically if you don't have to worry about your income).

These issues aren't as black and white as some people, like these so called "software gurus", want to make us believe. That is; not in the real world.

[Gannon (J.) Dick]

Re: Well meant but still narrow minded thinking...

Nope sorry.

Only an incognito wage slave looking for his Master's validation could possibly write this:

"The prevailing wisdom is that multi-tenanted cloud platforms offer more cost-effective and reliable solutions than those built on private infrastructure, but centralisation has risks of its own that should be considered."

[Warm Braw]

Re: Well meant but still narrow minded thinking...

Amazing how nobody believes it's "their" responsibilty. Always the guy above in the chain - the manager, the director, the shareholder. Particularly if it's a business sector in which they personally participate.

Look at it the other way round - the only way these "employers" get away with it is they know it's not just them but the vast majority of the population that are spineless scumbags who don't care about anyone but themselves.

It's a societal problem that can only be solved by everyone pushing back and making the lives of the perps at the bottom of the food chain as difficult as possible so their slave wages don't seem worth the candle.

Mind you, we need to get the telemarketers and first-line technical support droids on the run before we need worry about the software drudges...

[Anonymous Coward]

TRON

Come on developers, TRON 'fought' for the USERS.....what are you going to do?

[James Bosch]

Re: TRON

Well, this guy probably tried to be a Guerilla fighter, but had neither the guts nor the intelligence for this. Some simple scaring plus Mk1 Eyeball sufficed to take him out.

He should never have done this in the first place. Dont play soldier if you are not a soldier. Because the other side WILL use soldiers against you. They wont use uniforms, though. Mostly.

[Anonymous Coward]

They are not my users, friend

Your users are the people paying your salary or your fee. If those people want to rip of their users it is their problem.

[Raedwald Bretwalda]

Re: They are not my users, friend

"Your users are the people paying your salary or your fee. If those people want to rip of their users it is their problem."

That's right. You can always claim that you were "just following orders".

[James Bosch]

Größenwahnsinn

Is probably the correct term for this. Ask yourself who holds REAL power.

In my opinion these folks either wear some fancy uniform with blinky things on them or they are owners of conglomerates and large finance institutions. Some power might rest with those folks who hold major offices of state.

Those folks will "make sure" there is plenty of surveillance-state-enabling "build-in". These people hate not to control us Plebejans.

Developers will one way or the other be forced to accept this or they will "unwittingly" enable these functions by means of organizational measures (190% workloads which naturally lead to exploitable bugs) or by more or less simple lies ("we dont have the money to encrypt our data in transit between data centers. Now make the data architecture dynamic so we can shove entire user accounts back and forth between Dublin and Zurich.")

There are some good tools around like gnupg and TOR, accustomed with the usual negative spin by the folks mentioned.

[heyrick]

Money talks and....

User privacy vs embedded adverts. We know which will win.

Safe for children vs in-app purchases. We know which will win.

[James Bosch]

Also: Where Was The Outrage Regarding TRUECRYPT

Somebody has silenced that team. That system was incredibly useful. Where have your protests been, Mr Fowler ???

[DJV]

"responsibility not to harm their users"

Well, there goes all the fun!

[Anonymous Coward]

Whatever

Aren't these the same guys who gave us Design Patterns?

It's not that hard to find developers without ethics. Look at them all cranking out cheesy F2P kiddie games with in-app purchases, for one example. They're everywhere. It's up to users/buyers to avoid them.

[SVV]

Meanwhile, back in the real world.....

"How's the user tracking module going", says the project leader at the daily scrum meeting.

"Sorry, can't implement it because it's a dark pattern" says the developer.

"Clear your desk and hand in all company property before leaving, good luck in your next job"