• kitonthenet@kbin.social
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    1 year ago

    This is true, but when safety is on the line it actually goes further than that. As an engineer you have an ethical duty to say no to making a product unsafe for end users or the general public.

    It doesn’t matter if you get fired, if your boss goes to the media to bitch about you, if your boss threatens to sue you, you as an engineer hold a position of public trust to keep the people that use your product safe. If you don’t respect that and take it seriously, well we see where oceangate ended up.

    • EthicalAI@beehaw.org
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      1 year ago

      Yeah my boss has been going back and forth with me on this for months. Wanting to release unsecured products to the general public. I’m getting exhausted with him. I hold the keys and frequently I’ve told him no, and threatened to quit. Each time they just retreat back and hold a meeting how it will “stay on dev for now”. The features aren’t even feasible to release in the near future but I know they will force the issue. My resignation letter is on the table.

    • dark_stang@beehaw.org
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      1 year ago

      The number of times I’ve rejected something because of security flaws (usually database injection), only to see other engineers later approve and merge the pull request is infuriating. There seems to always be an engineer who is willing to make an unsafe product.

      • kitonthenet@kbin.social
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        1 year ago

        Yep, it’s a damn shame, but we’re gonna let them do that because we don’t want to be responsible for deaths or security flaws and ultimately there’s organizations and people out there who value that if our current jobs don’t

    • chrisn@beehaw.org
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      1 year ago

      That value is instilled in many types of engineering, but not as much in software engineering.

    • RandoCalrandian@kbin.social
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      1 year ago

      Ocean gate hasn’t faced any consequences yet

      And neither have FAANG companies for the massive social consequences to ubiquitous surveillance

      This moral high ground you think you’re standing on doesn’t exist, and won’t until engineers who push back get the support from society to do so. They currently are very much expected to stand up to a corporation on their own, risking their own livelihood, and that’s plain bullshit