Communications of the ACM

As an ACM member and an organizational leader, I will....

3. 1 Articulate social responsibilities
of members of an organizational unit
and encourage full acceptance and
satisfaction of those responsibilities.

Because organizations have impacts on the public, they must accept responsibilities to society. Organizational procedures and attitudes oriented toward quality, transparency, and toward the welfare of society will reduce harm to members of the public. This serves the public interest and fulfills social responsibility. Therefore, organizational leaders must encourage full participation in meeting social responsibilities and quality performance.

3. 2 Manage personnel and resources to
design and build systems that enhance
the quality of working life.

Organizational leaders are responsible for ensuring that (computer) systems enhance, not degrade, the quality of working life. When implementing a system, organizations must consider the personal and professional development, physical safety, psychological well-being, and human dignity of all workers. Appropriate human-computer ergonomic standards should be considered in system design and in the workplace.

3. 3 Establish appropriate rules for au-
thorized uses of an organization’s com-
puting and communication resources
and of the information they contain.

Organizational leadership has the responsibility to clearly define appropriate and inappropriate uses of organizational computing resources. These rules must be clearly and effectively communicated to those using their computing resources. In addition, the organization must enforce those rules, and take appropriate action when they are violated.

3. 4 Ensure that the public good is a
central concern during all professional
computing work.

The needs of people—including users, other people affected directly and indirectly, customers, and colleagues —should always be a central concern in professional computing. Tasks associated with requirements, design,

development, testing, validation, deployment, maintenance, and disposal should have the public good as an explicit criterion for quality. Computing professionals should keep this focus no matter which methodologies or techniques they use in their practice.

3. 5 Articulate, apply, and support poli-
cies that protect the dignity of users and
others affected by computing systems
and related technologies.

Dignity is the principle that all humans are due respect. This includes the general public’s right to autonomy in day-to-day decisions.

Designing or implementing systems that deliberately or inadvertently violate, or tend to enable the violation of, the dignity or autonomy of individuals or groups is ethically unacceptable. Computing professionals who are in decision making positions should verify that systems are designed and implemented to protect personal dignity.

3. 6 Create opportunities for members of the organization to learn, respect, and be accountable for the principles, limitations, and impacts of computer systems.

Imperative 3. 6 complements the imperative on public understanding ( imperative 2. 7). Educational opportunities are essential to facilitate optimal participation of all organizational members. Opportunities must be available to all computing professionals to help them improve their knowledge and skills in professionalism, the practice of ethics, and computing, including experiences that familiarize them with the consequences and limitations of particular types of systems. Professionals must know the dangers of building systems around oversimplified models, the improbability of anticipating and designing for every possible operating condition, the inevitability of software errors, the ways in which systems impact and are impacted by the contexts in which they are deployed, and other issues related to the complexity of their profession.

3. 7 Recognize when computer systems are becoming integrated into the infrastructure of society, and adopt an appropriate standard of care for those systems.

Computing professionals who develop computer systems that have or may become an important part of the infrastructure of society have a responsibility to be good stewards of that commons. Part of that stewardship requires that computing professionals monitor the level of integration into the infrastructure of society. As the level of adoption changes, there are likely to be changes in the ethical responsibilities of the organization. Continual monitoring of how society is using its computer system will allow the organization to remain consistent with their ethical obligation. Where such standards of care do not exist, there may be a duty to develop one.

4. COMPLIANCE WITH THE CODE.
As an ACM member I will....

4. 1 Uphold, promote, and respect the
principles of this Code.

The future of computing depends on both technical and ethical excellence. ACM members should adhere to the principles expressed in this Code. Each member should encourage and support adherence by all computing practitioners.

4. 2 Treat violations of this code as in-
consistent with membership in the
ACM.

If an ACM member does not follow this code membership in ACM may be terminated.

5. COPE INVITES COMMENTS

The Committee on Professional Ethics is asking you to participate in this project. We invite you to share your views with the Code 2018 Task Force. We are soliciting suggestions about areas of computing that have changed and need to be addressed in an updated Code. For more details, and to provide input, visit http://ethics.acm.org/code-2018.

Bo Brinkman ( bo.brinkman@miamioh.edu) is an associate professor of computer science and software engineering at Miami University, Oxford, OH.

Don Gotterbarn ( gotterbarn@acm.org) is chair of the ACM Committee on Professional Ethics and Professor Emeritus in the Department of Computing at East Tennessee State University, Johnson City.

Keith Miller ( millerkei@umsl.edu) is the Orthwein Endowed Professor for Lifelong Learning in the Sciences College of Education, University of Missouri, St. Louis.