[randomdata]

The problem is that unless there is a licensing body that enforces adherence the ethics, they will be ignored. Doctors and lawyers have such licensing requirements, tech does not. The question is not what the ethics should say, but whether or not tech should require licensing to be involved in it.

[Jtsummers]

Then establish something comparable to the PE concept for software engineers, and require it for certain categories of software (aviation and medical software already have to get certified, have a Professional Software Engineer on the hook too, and then extend this to other types of software systems like certain financial, legal, or personal data systems).

[mountainofdeath]

+1 I've long advocated for a higher degree of professionalism and credentialing to establish a minimum bar of competence. Unfortunately, people who only work on yet-another-Rails-SaaS thing complain that excludes those that are not formally credentialed. Even then, try asking a customer of said SaaS product if they would trust something not built with a high degree of professionalism.