Software development has never been about ethics. The software did not always immediately impact everyday life, and development was slow. Nevertheless, software is ubiquitous in modern society. Big data and data analytics can have significant ramifications on individuals’ lives.
App development UK is often hidden behind closed doors in companies, but their decisions during a project can significantly impact the world. Software development is a socially and ethically responsible industry. These are five examples of ethical problems and how developers can address them.
Addictive design;
Addictive design:
Developers want to create apps that people love using — that’s good UX design. Some teams create apps that people don’t love. The ethical concerns about digital platforms such as social media are real.
Finding the right balance between products people love and those that grab their attention is challenging. These are the questions to ask when creating and updating products:
You explore addictive design by comparing popular apps such as TikTok and Duolingo. At the same time, both apps can generate revenue and growth for their creators. However, the nature of their benefits to users is quite different. Duolingo clients learn language skills and are challenged by activities that increase neuronal growth. TikTok users get cultural knowledge and immediate gratification via video content that floods the brain with neurotransmitters. Bain stated that many adults would agree that Duolingo has a more significant user benefit than TikTok, adding that his 15-year-old daughter would disagree.
Both apps have different views on usage limits to protect against addictive attachment. Duolingo promotes consistency and argues that it has optimized learning curves. Duolingo grabs users by their lapels to help them meet their daily quotas and keep up with their performance streaks. Duolingo lets the user go after the daily activities have completed. TikTok, on the other hand, entices users with a seemingly endless array of consumable media.
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Apps can often manipulate users, monetize them, collect user data for corporate use, and implement machine learning algorithms to improve the app. Transparency refers to what users know and understand about these practices. This is how the ethical aspect of these apps works:
Bain stated that Duolingo’s users were willing to follow a strict daily schedule, but they were unaware that advertising and usage data are connected to a larger advertising ecosystem. “TikTok users, particularly the younger ones, are blissfully unaware of the methods and consequences of their addictions,” Bain said.
Questionable personal data ownership:
With the professional issues in software development, AI-based processing has grown exponentially to include biometric and contextual data. The software can predict behavior and profile users at frightening levels of detail.
“Usually, the ethical question [is]] [one of] how to deal with that data.” This ethical dilemma is relevant to developers of all types, not just those in the news via social media.
An algorithm guides information collection and builds a profile. However, the actions that follow are planned, and the developer is usually aware of the power and context of these data.
Lopes stated that one of the leading causes of ethical concerns is how a business generates revenue. This incentivizes business managers and developers. Many companies view user data as valuable currency and seek to monetize it. Lopes stated that these factors could lead to organizations sharing their user data unethically.
Software developers face difficult decisions regarding personal data and software design—they risk being penalized for going against project goals. Developers should feel free to voice concerns about personal data ownership in modern technology companies without fear of retaliation.
Video had a lot of discussions about these concerns and decided not to offer a free service. Lopez stated that they have considered the implications and decided to sell our service rather than our user data and not make these difficult decisions for our developers. Transparency is also a key factor for the company. Developers need to be aware of all aspects of the project, not just the module they have to finish.
Developers should be able to voice their concerns easily to companies. Developers should be able to voice their concerns anonymously through the HR department. The HR department should follow up on the case and determine if it violates privacy, legal, or ethical policies.
Algorithmic bias:
Technology can amplify existing biases. “Bias is one of the most pressing ethical issues facing developers today,” stated Spencer Lentz, principal of AI & digital process automation, digital customer service at Capgemini.
Bias is often undiscovered in the computer system. Lentz likens it to a virus. Computers do not have an inherent moral framework. The software learns only from the training it receives. Data scientists and developers must remove bias from the data they use to build algorithms. Lentz stated that bias is often centered on eliminating options for the wrong reasons.
Recent research and reports have shown that software systems can be biased against specific populations. This results in lost opportunities, worsening medical care, and increased incarceration rates. Ruha Benjamin, author of Race After Technology, raised concerns about how developers did not include Black voices in training AI speech recognition algorithms to reduce the number of Black users.
Anaconda, a platform for data science, conducted the “State of Data Science Survey,” which found that 27% of data professionals believed the most significant problem in AI or ML was the social consequences of bias in data and models.
Peter Wang, Anaconda’s CEO and co-founder stated that practitioners must be deliberate about their work to reduce bias in data or models. He asked questions such as “How are this data obtained?” and “What assumptions were made with it.” Your models can inadvertently perpetuate biases if you don’t know how and under what conditions the data is used to train them. Data scientists, executives, and developers must create an organizational culture that encourages employees at all levels to voice concerns and establish ethical guidelines.
Wang suggested it was time for a governing body similar to the American Medical Association. This body could set industry-wide guidelines and best practices. He stated that these technologies are still relatively new to the business environment and that we all would benefit from ethical guidelines and best practices derived from our collective intelligence. Rather than each individual or company making their own decisions, it would be better for everyone to have a say.
Weak security and PII protection:
As software plays an increasingly significant part in online and offline environments, application security is becoming more critical.
App development UK often addresses security after the code has been released and not during development. The result is that the software industry lacks security standards. Randolph Morris, CEO of Bit Developers, a software-development consultancy, said, “the emphasis is almost entirely upon getting a product to market.” Once a product is made public, the focus shifts toward new features and performance optimization. Security remains a minor concern.
Hackers and other malicious actors can cause serious damage to people. The current digital ecosystem addresses application security by fixing vulnerabilities as they become apparent. Reactionary approaches are neither practical nor pragmatic.
To address this ethical responsibility for customer safety, developers need education, but typically only cybersecurity-specific classes address these topics. Your team should be educated about cybersecurity failures, such as the Anthem 2015 medical data breach. In this case, PII was stored in plain text in a database. Morris stated that if the information had been encrypted, it wouldn’t have been as easy or valuable to distribute.
The industry also needs to adopt new security standards. Standardizations that protect PII can adopted by organizations more efficiently.
Prioritizing features over the impact:
The core of many ethical decisions in software development releases has more importance than their effects. However, just because you can’t doesn’t mean that you should.
“If the development team measures the rate of feature development, there’s a high chance that ethics might not be considered at either the design or implementation phases,” stated Tim Mackey, principal security strategist at Synopsys Cyber Security Research Center. Synopsys, an electronic design automation company, is a member of the Synopsys Cyber Security Research Center.
It is up to the business to set the tone for software that reflects ethical standards. From design to operation, reflect ethics priorities. Training staff about ethical choices, such as open-source software licensing and its use. Teach software developers, testers, and other team members about data management practices that comply with regulations and customer expectations. Mackey stated that developers don’t keep up with the latest legislative developments in the countries where their software is used. However, the business should ensure that they are informed.
Conclusion:
Ethical shortcomings can be avoided by collaborating between legal and engineering teams. The business should be focused on customer data access and retention. Software implementation allows data access controls and logging mechanisms to be enabled. Data access restrictions will be viewed by developers responsible for creating functional and user-friendly products. Instead, ensuring data protection is an integral part of the software design. This will protect against unauthorized access. So O2SOFT will provide better assistance in this regard. Visit their website for more.
