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by miki123211
27 days ago
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Software engineers have a widely-shared belief that most software issues are far less severe than those found in civil engineering. Even a security breach — arguably the worst issue there is — rarely results in any meaningful consequences for those whose data has been breached. I don't think this belief is entirely justified, but as programmers, it's really hard to predict when our actions suddenly become life-threatening, so the belief persists. My college ethics professor told us a story where a few people died at some concert somewhere in South America, because a software developer at a data analytics company pushed a config change that made all apps with their SDK crash on launch, and that included the ticket app needed to get into the concert venue. The mob, when learning that they wouldn't be seeing their favorite artists due to a software bug, got very agitated and trampled a few people to death. |
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So it wasn't even anything related to the app's purpose, it was a frivolous surveillance SDK that got people killed.