[tarmstrong]

> their primary obligation is to the ethical standards of their profession, not to their employers.

OP here. The intended subtext of my post was that it would be nice if our industry had ethical standards as well. (:

[ForHackernews]

That would be nice. It also seems unrealistic in the current climate. What you're suggesting is setting up some kind of Software Engineering Guild, which would require a fundamental shift away from the naive individualism we see today and toward a recognition of collective interests.