Agents of responsibility—freelance web developers in web applications development
Malik Aleem Ahmed
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Jeroen van den Hoven
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Abbreviations ACM DoS E-Commerce E-Work HTML IEEE-CS
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J. van den Hoven Department of Philosophy, Faculty of Technology Policy and Management, Delft University of Technology
, Delft,
the Netherlands
1
An earlier version of this paper was presented and published under the title of 'Freelance web developers as agents of responsibility in web application development' in the proceedings of ETHICOMP 2008 Living,
Working and Learning Beyond Technology. The Tenth ETHICOMP International Conference on the Social and Ethical Impacts of Information and Communication Technology held at University of Pavia
, Mantua,
Italy
, 2008
2
) Department of Philosophy and Department of ICT, Faculty of Technology
, Policy and Management,
Delft University of Technology
, Delft,
the Netherlands
Much of the literature on responsibility in the IT field addresses the responsibilities of members of the IT profession. In this paper, we investigate to what extent the responsibilities associated with computing practitioners apply to freelance web developers. The relevant moral question is not can freelancers be considered as professionals?, but are they agents of responsibility and can they cause harm? It is obvious that they can. To justify this claim we will take the case of using free malicious code by freelance web developers and show how their actions or omissions may cause harm to the users, clients and others. We will then identify different types of responsibilities and relationships, which can be associated with freelance web
1 Introduction
developers. In the end, we will stress that, freelance web
developers have higher form of responsibility and should
actively seek to bring about environments in which they
can function as responsible agents aiming at developing
safe, secure, and workable web applications and systems.
Poorly developed and managed web applications and
systems may cause harm to the users, clients and others in
the society. Causes of poorly developed web applications
include, but are not limited to, (1) ad hoc approaches and
tinkering, (2) the lack of proper standards, and (3) usage of
code without proper understanding. Taylor et al. (2002)
carried out a survey of 25 UK based organizations
regarding website development methodologies. They found
that ad hoc approaches to website development were
widespread. Development activity was neither formalized
nor structured; there was an apparent lack of coding
standards, resulting in impediments to adequate future
website maintenance activities. Gotterbarn (2001) noted
that the crossword puzzle solving approach, for the
development of applications, by developers poses ethical
problems. In the crossword puzzle solving approach the
primary goal is to solve the problem exactly as it is
presented to the developer. Freelance web developers have
the tendency to take this approach. A survey of informal
and professional web developers showed that only one
respondent mentioned testing of security requirements
(Rosson et al. 2005).
Polls posted on different freelancing web designing and
development communities showed that more than 80% of
the respondents (freelance web developers) have used free
code on one or more occasions. Problems start when a
freelance web developer re-uses freely available malicious
or bugged code in web applications and systems without
proper understanding, modifying, testing, and debugging.
Chances are that the code might have been developed for
malicious purposes and once it is used in live web
applications then systems users, clients and others in the
society may become vulnerable as a result. Users of the
system may be harmed, clients interest may be
compromised, and others in the society may face considerable
inconvenience. Even if the code was not developed for
harmful purposes, it may contain bugs and security
vulnerabilities whichif not debugged and rectified,
could be exploited at a later stage by others.
Section 2 of the paper provides an overview of freelance
web development and developers. In section 3, we discuss
several threats and vulnerabilities associated with using free
malicious and bugged code in website development
including hacking, identity theft, unauthorized access and
use of private information, spamming, spread of harmful
programs, and server side problems.
After identifying the threats and vulnerabilities associated
with the malpractice of using free code for website
development, in section 4, we explore if freelancers are
responsible for their actions and omissions. We then discuss
different types of responsibilities that can be associated
with freelance web developers and claim that freelance web
developers are not only morally responsible for their work,
but also have the specific responsibilities which are usually
only associated with members of well entrenched and
institutionalized professions.
In section 5, we give some recommendations.
Suggestions for improving the si (...truncated)