Ask Slashdot: Developer Responsibility When Apps Might Risk Lives? 100
First time accepted submitter bashaw writes "What ethical responsibilities do software developers have in determining the role that mobile devices take in our lives? As performance increases, size decreases, and the only limitation is the software available, mobile devices have expanded into new areas of our lives for which they were not designed. This raises the ethical question of who decides what software is available, and therefore what role these devices should take. I am a software developer at the Canadian Avalanche Centre. We recently issued a warning about mobile avalanche search applications that are marketed as avalanche rescue systems. Three smartphone applications are presenting themselves as economical alternatives to avalanche transceivers, the electronic device used by backcountry users to find buried companions in case of an avalanche. The applications are not an adequate replacement for an avalanche transceiver for many reasons, and we are concerned about the use of this software in lieu of a specifically-designed avalanche transceiver. When it is a question of public safety, does the onus fall on the developers, a government agency or the users themselves?"
All (Score:5, Informative)
does the onus fall on the developers, a government agency or the users themselves?
Yes.
Re:Developer or publisher? (Score:5, Informative)
Well technically speaking, it would be likely the fault of the specific Government Consumer Protection Authority, whose jobs it is to monitor claims about products and if it finds them false, seek fiscal redress for the risk it puts the public too and ensure the public are warned. The end consumer should never really be put in this position because reality is the only find the failure when they try to apply the product and seeking legal redress can be all too late. I find it all too annoying to get product after product that fails to achieve the levels of performance claimed and really like the idea of an agency that puts the breaks on this, by bankrupting deceitful company after deceitful company as well as those companies executive teams.