zlacker

Imagine being asked by your boss to implement such a thing and actually doing it. How spineless and unethical would you have to be to even consider following such an order.

>>Larisc+(OP)
You're assuming the speculation is the actual intent. What if it was something more benign, like allowing it to turn off cameras in a nuclear power plant or secure facilities or something like that.

>>Larisc+(OP)
They'd probably take the Volkswagen strategy:

Team A builds a feature that detects when the device is in a localized area. (This already exists)

Team B builds a feature that disables the camera. (I could see this being a parental control)

Both features are reasonable by themselves. It's when they are combined that they become an issue. The trick is that Teams A and B don't know of each other's existence.

>>Larisc+(OP)
If it was a choice between following the order and being out of a job? Not very, particularly since your sacrifice would almost certainly be in vain.

>>Larisc+(OP)
imagine being able to turn your boss over to authorities and trusting that you wouldn't be retaliated against.

>>Larisc+(OP)
How would you go about implementing the feature so that it passes inspection but completely fails in the field? It's like a high stakes game of TDD-golf.

>>3wolf+K
Someone would have to add their integrations though. The features won't be joined magically together.

>>mr_spo+U
What would you turn them in for? To whom would you report them? Would you quit or continue working at that place? Abuse of authority? Moral or ethical code violations? Those sound more like in-house problems with in-house HR and legal team solutions, which usually favor the bosses over the whistleblowing workers.

>>3wolf+K
There are also countless people who’d gladly knowingly sign up to implement such a feature. No need to try some roundabout way when all you need to do is feel out the political leanings of a couple guys in the office then recruit them for a secret project.

>>enitih+L1
There are enough qualified amoral mercenary devs out there who would be willing to do it - and keep quiet about it.

>>enitih+L1
I'm sure they can find at least one willing asshole.

>>lisper+T
Depends on how valuable you are. I know people at Google who transferred internally fairly painlessly (i.e. the abridged loop) when they told their skip-levels they were uncomfortable with their work.

>>Larisc+(OP)
About as spineless and unethical as every other human being.

You know how we have some people worth billions and simultaneously people literally digging through garbage for food?

That's not an accident, it's a constant built into this species, unless we start doing some eugenics, preventing idiots from breeding, which'll take far longer than your lifetime to come into effect.

You interested in attempting to improve this species your whole life, getting nothing but shit for it and dying without seeing any fruits of your labor? I'm not and neither is anyone else who's not a fundamentalist idiot.

So yes, spineless and unethical is everyday reality. If you don't want to deal with it, go into academia or get a high paying job. Once you spend some time around people who know how to behave themselves, you'll be the one asking for a police state to protect you from the masses upsetting your privileged existence. Funny how that works :)

What do you think America and Europe are, but military states preventing the rest of the world from invading their cushy way of life? How awful right? Let's open all borders and have freedom for everyone. Right, alright then.

>>lisper+T
Then the person in question is 'spineless and unethical' and shares a responsibility for the results of their labour. 'Just following orders' does not absolve them from their responsibilities to their community. That their sacrifice might be in vain is a separate issue that should be, in my opinion, addressed by making education in ethics a mandatory part of the curriculum of all engineering degrees.

>>alexas+r3
Are you actually arguing for eugenics?

>>alexas+r3
Projection

>>Larisc+(OP)
Almost anything can have legitamate reasons. You can kill someone with a hammer, doesn't make it unethical to make a hammer. I don't know why you woukd have a reason to turn off a camera. What I'm saying is, it doesn't necessarily mean the programmers are unethical or evil.

>>3wolf+K
TIL the expression "the Volkswagen strategy" and I love it.

Thanks, I'll be using that.

>>Larisc+(OP)
I imagine tools like this would most likely come out of military companies such as Lockheed and Raytheon. Surprised to hear it coming out of Apple