Cis350 ethicspresentation
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Mark Zuckerberg created a program called FaceMash while at Harvard that allowed users to vote on which of two female student photos was "hotter" without consent. This violated the ethics principle of disclosing potential dangers to users or the public from software, as the program posed harm to the girls by judging them based on looks without permission. Zuckerberg obtained the photos by hacking into college dorm directories and did not inform the girls, putting them in danger without disclosure. He created the misogynistic program after a breakup, rationalizing the violation as a right to potentially destroy other women's lives. The program went viral and crashed the Harvard network, resulting in Zuckerberg's probation.
Cis350 ethicspresentation
- 1. Software Engineering Code of Ethics and Professional Practice The Social Network (Mark Zuckerberg’s creation of FaceMash) By Vishwa Patel and Fiona Strain
- 2. FaceMash • In the film ‘The Social Network’, the protagonist Mark Zuckerberg writes a program called FaceMash that lets users vote who’s the hotter looking one in a pair of female students at Harvard. This program, apart from being incredibly sexist and misogynistic, also clearly violated the principle below (1.04): • • 1.04. Disclose to appropriate persons or authorities any actual or potential danger to the user, the public, or the environment, that they reasonably believe to be associated with software or related documents.
- 4. • This is a clear violation of that principle because the program posed severe harms to the girls who, without having given consent, were being judged on the basis of their looks and the reason why that violates this specific principle is because Zuckerberg did not inform these girls let alone get their consent before he put up their photos (which he obtained by hacking into the directories of college dorms). This act put these girls in ‘actual … danger’ without Zuckerberg’s disclosure. • • Zuckerberg’s rationale for the violation of this principle was that since his girlfriend ditched him (no surprises here) he had a right to potentially destroy the lives of other women. The outcome of him making this program was that it went viral quickly and crashed the Harvard network which led to him being put on probation from Harvard.