It is very important that as engineers and computer scientists, we study ethics. Engineers have the power to create. We create everything from machines to medicines to software. Having a code of ethics helps to ensure that the things we build are for good and not harm. In this new technology era, everything is evolving at a rapid rate. We need a set of checks to ensure we aren’t inventing new technologies faster than we can decide their moral implications. This is why it is important that we study ethics within Computer Science.
Ensuring product quality and safety is one way ethics has positively affected engineering. Before this kind of thing was regulated, companies’ main concern in designing a new product was the cost. In today’s business world, companies try to value cost the same as safety and quality. This has come out of, not only people learning that building a higher quality product is at a lower cost to them, but through more safety and quality regulations. Even one of the ACM Codes of Professional Conduct is “Strive to achieve the highest quality, effectiveness, and dignity in both the process and products of professional work”.
In regards to Computer Scientists, studying ethics is especially important. A lot of currently deployed software is in need of more security. Stories like Equifax occur because it has been common practice to think of security as an after thought instead of thinking about it throughout the design of the software. But, this is just “how things have been done” up until now. So do we blame the engineers? Or do we blame the higher up people for not putting a greater emphasis on security? Whoever is to blame, I predict we will see more ethical codes of conduct that relate to problems like this, much like how quality and safety became the new norm in Codes of Conduct.