[SubuSS]

Lol isn’t it odd you consider the defense confrontational while the op started with calling a bunch of folks morally challenged?

Fwiw - I don’t work on ad systems. I was just stating my opinion about how borderline ethical considerations from misuse are pervading engineering and science today. What about intent?

[gfodor]

I didn’t say anyone was morally challenged. I said there are a lot of people I’ve encountered in my career that are ethically apathetic. I highlighted ad systems (not all ad systems, just some) as the kind of thing I personally consider toxic and where I have encountered people who check themselves out from caring about the ethical dilemmas involved in developing such systems, focusing instead on the fun puzzles involved.

My point isn’t that I won’t hire people who worked on such things, my point is I won’t hire people who are completely disinterested in the ethics of what they are doing. I’m not imagining this, I have worked with many people like this in my several-decades long career. Beyond the ethics, this is just good business, since people plowing ahead on things while being blind to ethics is how people get harmed and lawsuits get filed.

This isn’t a revolutionary concept in other engineering fields: you can lose your license if you violate certain codes of ethics, either maliciously or due to ignorance or apathy towards following them.