I've talked about this in a few places before... when this subject comes up, I try to talk about it because I think the ethics aspect of software engineering of

I've talked about this in a few places before... when this subject comes up, I try to talk about it because I think the ethics aspect of software engineering often goes overlooked in our industry. I'll copypasta from the last time I spoke about it. It's coming up on ten years now since this happened. I was a young, naive software engineer, addicted to the adrenaline rush of solving problems on tight deadlines and not giving much thought to what those solutions were being used for. The company I was working at suddenly folded, leaving me looking for work. The father of an old friend of mine hit me up, telling me about this new idea he had for a service that doctors' offices would use to contact patients, or for universities to contact their students, all over SMS. For some reason, he was very insistent that it be done over long codes. I didn't understand why at the time and was too naive to press him on this odd requirement. Fuck does it matter if a university texts you from a long code or a short code? I decided to go for it, and made a prototype of a system that would allow folks to automate sending SMS messages to all their clients (what I was told was the "v1" on which the more interesting features would be layered). He told me he already had some clients, but said they were from "the other side of the tracks." I will be honest, I was too scared to call him out. I was prepared to take the cowards' path of not asking so I didn't have to know: a fact that still fills me with shame today. It was another guy working there on a separate project who heard him and and pushed for what he meant. Finally he admitted what the whole thing really was. There were no doctors' offices, no universities lined up. Just porn sites looking to spam people over SMS, with long code numbers so it looked like it was coming from a person and not a business. I flipped the fuck out, partly at him for decieving me and partly at myself for the fact that I was so willing to not even fucking ask when he said that shady shit. I told him to fuck this and everything, and walked out the door. About a week later my friend tried to resurrect the originally proposed business without his dad, and I reluctantly said I would if his dad wasn't involved. But he wasn't in a position to actually keep him out of it, and I walked away for good. If you are reading this and you are a young software engineer, please do not follow my path. Ask the hard questions. Read the ACM code of ethics and the duties to society that it demands of you. Your job is not just to solve problems: you may be called on to be the one to put your foot down for the sake of ethics, and it is so easy to turn away from that duty when money and comfort are on the side of shutting up and doing as you are told.