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A Modern Day Take on the Ethics of Being a Programmer
- gjolund 11y agoThis is especially relevant given the AM data dump. I have often found myself in situations where the timeline and feature requirements meant that testing and security were put to the wayside. CEO's and product owners don't want their timelines bogged down, and don't want to spend dev dollars on "edge cases". As an engineer who takes the quality of his work seriously I find this frustrating, and it has accounted for many of my early departures from companies. We build our reputations on our work, and one bad line of code can potentially end a career. As programmers we need to push back against over zealous timelines that leave our users at risk due to inadequate testing and security precautions. No system will ever be bug free and unhackable, but it is our job to make sure it is to the best of our ability. I hope that the tech community as a whole will take the time to realize the data we are hoarding can have extremely negative impacts on people's lives if leaked. If we can't be sure it is secure we should not be storing it. Instead of rushing to a buyout or IPO, we should instead be building scalable secure apps that protect the trust our users have placed in our work.