Codes of Ethics for Computing Professionals: ACM, IEEE and Beyond

Power needs rules

Programmers build systems that run hospitals, banks, cars, elections and schools. A small decision in the code, such as how carefully input is checked or whether a hidden password is left in, can affect millions of people who will never see the code. Professions with this kind of power, such as medicine, law and engineering, write codes of ethics: public statements of the duties their members accept.

Expectation D2.2 asks you to describe the essential elements of a code of ethics for computer programmers, using the ACM and IEEE codes as examples, and to explain why such codes are needed.

Why codes are needed: what can go wrong

• Plagiarism: copying others' code or ideas without credit (see Intellectual Property).
• Backdoors: hidden ways into a system that bypass normal security, sometimes left "for testing" and later found by attackers.
• Viruses and other self-spreading malware.
• Spyware: software that secretly collects information about users.
• Logic bombs: code that does damage when a condition is met, such as a date or a programmer's account being deleted.
• Deceptive software: in 2015 Volkswagen admitted that software in millions of its diesel cars detected when the car was being tested for emissions and changed how the engine ran so it passed, while emitting far more pollution on the road. Engineers wrote that code.
• Unsafe software: in the 1980s, software errors in the Therac-25 radiation therapy machine contributed to patients receiving massive radiation overdoses. The case is still taught as a lesson about testing, honest reporting of problems and safety-critical design.

Laws forbid some of these, but not all, and laws can't anticipate every situation. A code of ethics guides professionals in grey areas and tells the public what to expect.

The ACM Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct

The Association for Computing Machinery (ACM), one of the largest computing societies in the world, updated its code in 2018. It has four sections and 25 principles (7 + 9 + 7 + 2), each with guidance:

1. General ethical principles, such as 1.1 contribute to society and to human well-being, 1.2 avoid harm, 1.3 be honest and trustworthy, 1.4 be fair and take action not to discriminate, 1.5 respect the work required to produce new ideas and creative works, 1.6 respect privacy, 1.7 honor confidentiality.
2. Professional responsibilities, such as high quality work, competence, knowing the rules that apply, professional review, thorough evaluation of risks, working only in areas of competence, accessing systems only when authorized, and 2.9: design and implement systems that are robustly and usably secure.
3. Professional leadership principles, starting with 3.1: ensure that the public good is the central concern during all professional computing work; it also covers caring for systems when they are changed or retired, and taking special care with systems that become part of society's infrastructure.
4. Compliance with the code: uphold and promote it, and treat violations as inconsistent with ACM membership.

The IEEE Code of Ethics and the Software Engineering Code

The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) code is shorter. It is organized in three sections. The section headings below are quoted from the code; the items after each heading are paraphrased summaries, not the code's exact wording:

• I. "To uphold the highest standards of integrity, responsible behavior, and ethical conduct in professional activities": put the safety, health and welfare of the public first, protect others' privacy, help society understand technologies (including intelligent systems), avoid conflicts of interest and bribery, accept and give honest criticism and correct errors, credit others' work, and work only within your competence.
• II. "To treat all persons fairly and with respect, to not engage in harassment or discrimination, and to avoid injuring others": this includes not harming others, their property, reputation or employment by false or malicious action.
• III. "To strive to ensure this code is upheld by colleagues and co-workers", including supporting those who report violations.

The Software Engineering Code of Ethics and Professional Practice (developed by the ACM and the IEEE Computer Society, 1999) has eight principles named for those a software engineer owes duties to or must care about: Public, Client and Employer, Product, Judgment, Management, Profession, Colleagues and Self. The first principle, Public, says software engineers shall act consistently with the public interest.

In Canada, the Canadian Information Processing Society (CIPS) has a code for IT professionals, and in Ontario the title "professional engineer" is protected and engineers licensed by Professional Engineers Ontario (PEO) must follow a code of ethics set in regulation.

The essential elements

Comparing codes, the same core elements appear again and again:

1. The public good comes first, ahead of employer, client or personal gain.
2. Avoid harm, including to the environment and to people outside the project.
3. Honesty and integrity: no deception, honest claims about what software can do, admit and fix errors.
4. Competence: only take on work you are qualified for; keep learning.
5. Privacy and confidentiality.
6. Fairness: no discrimination, in the workplace or in the software.
7. Respect for intellectual property and credit for others' work.
8. Quality and security: thorough testing, secure design, no backdoors.
9. Accountability: report problems, support colleagues who raise concerns, and accept review.

Detecting plagiarism with Python

Teachers and companies use software to flag possible code plagiarism. Renaming variables doesn't fool a good checker, because it compares the structure of code. The program replaces every name with ID, cuts the code into overlapping groups of three tokens (trigrams), and measures overlap with the Jaccard similarity: the size of the intersection divided by the size of the union.