Communications of the ACM

FOR THE FIRST time since 1992, the ACM Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct (the Code) is being updated. The Code Update Task Force in conjunction with the Committee on Professional Ethics is seeking advice from ACM members on the update. We indicated many of the motivations for changing the Code when we shared Draft 1 of Code 2018 with the ACM membership in the December 2016 issue of CACMb and with others through email and the COPE website ( ethics.acm.org). Since December, we have been collecting feedback and are vetting proposed changes.

We have seen a broad range of concerns about responsible computing including bullying in social media, cyber security, and autonomous machines making ethically significant decisions. The Task Force appreciates the many serious and thoughtful comments it has received. In response, the Task Force has proposed changes that are reflected in Draft 2 of the Code. There are a number of substantial changes that require some explanation. In this article, we discuss these, and we explain why we did not include other requested changes in Draft 2. We look forward to receiving your comments on these suggested changes and your requests for additional changes as we work on Draft 3 of the Code. We have provided opportunities for your comments and an open discussion of Draft 2 at the ACM Code 2018 Discussion website [ http://code2018.acm.org/ discuss]. Comments can also be contributed at the COPE website https:// ethics.acm.org, and by direct emails to chair@ethics.acm.org.

a Corresponding author and chair of Code 2018

project chair@ethics.acm.org b http://cacm.acm.org/magazines/2016/12/

210366-the-acm-code-of-ethics/fulltext

The Nature of an Ethics Code

ACM members are part of the computing profession and the ACM’s Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct should reflect the conscience of the computing profession. When the Code adequately reflects the ethics of the profession, it also clarifies what that profession should strive to be. A code provides positive direction for its members.

The current update of the ACM Code begins positively; “Contribute to society and to human well-being, acknowledging that all people are stakeholders in computing.” As computing professionals, we are asked to promote good while working within ethical constraints including: be honest, don’t cause harm, and avoid conflicts of interest. As the areas in which computing can make a positive impact have increased so has the range of our moral responsibility.

In Draft 1, the Task Force’s suggested modifications reflected the need for members to better understand how computing technologies and artifacts impact the social infrastructure and how they ought to promote the common good. Professionalism in computing requires us to improve our abilities to anticipate broader impacts, both positive and negative, and to accept responsibility for those impacts.

This understanding of a code helps address concerns expressed by many commenters who noted a lack of clarity about to whom the ACM’s Code applies. There were places where the Code seemed to apply to computing professionals more generally and other places where it seemed to apply only to ACM members. There were even a few places where the Code seemed to apply only to ACM members who were also computing professionals.

These concerns are addressed in
Draft 2 in three ways. First, the Pre-
amble now identifies what is meant by
“computing professional.” We intend
for this term to be interpreted broadly,
including students, software engineers,
software architects, managers, leaders,
and computer science teachers and
scholars. Given the ubiquity of comput-
ing and the aspirational nature of the
Code, we therefore aim to include those
who may consider themselves profes-
sionals in the area of computing from
non-standard backgrounds as well as
those more traditionally considered
computing professionals.

A second change intended to reflect that the Code provides aspirational guidance to a broad community involved replacing the categorical language of “moral imperatives” with the less prescriptive “ethical principles.” Each of the principles in the Code is to be used to help us understand our ethical responsibility and to guide our decision making in varying and complex situations, rather than provide a rigid set of rules to follow unthinkingly. These principles are to be considered in our deliberations as we set professional goals for ourselves and carry out our daily activities. Section 1, especially, sets forth principles that need to be given special weight in those deliberations.

A third change was to clarify that every principle applies to computing professionals, regardless of their affiliation with the ACM, with the exception of the guidance given in Section 4. In principle 4. 1, ACM members take on the additional responsibility of encouraging and supporting adherence to the ACM Code by all computing professionals. In the guidance for principle 4. 2, we have retained the language whereby ACM members who violate the Code may have their membership terminated.