What about when the engineering decisions you make today affect the politics of the future?
Perhaps this doesn't apply to your area of engineering, but I do feel that it does affect a substantial chunk of the HN audience.
How and what data you choose to collect about internet visitors is no longer a purely technical analysis, it now has broader implications that potentially involve political actors. You don't know who might have access to that data in the future or what they might do with it.
We as engineers are the final implementer of these decisions. Should we really abdicate the ethical responsibilities tied to these decisions so easily?
Perhaps this doesn't apply to your area of engineering, but I do feel that it does affect a substantial chunk of the HN audience.
How and what data you choose to collect about internet visitors is no longer a purely technical analysis, it now has broader implications that potentially involve political actors. You don't know who might have access to that data in the future or what they might do with it.
We as engineers are the final implementer of these decisions. Should we really abdicate the ethical responsibilities tied to these decisions so easily?