Agreed. There is a place to be gentle towards others' code, but security is one of the areas where we shouldn't care a mote about developers' feelings, only about the quality of the code.
no I want people who call themselves "devs" to actually care about security or stay away from production code. These are violations of very basic security principles.
I mean users because I think it's important that people who receive my code can inspect it, especially if a third party has changed it between me and them. I also think they should be able to make their own changes.
You're right, very few care, but it's an important software freedom. Apathy doesn't mean freedom is bad.
Many of us are software engineers of some sort. Why do we (and our colleagues) participate in this kind of dark pattern BS? Just don’t write the code. Yes maybe they will fire you but you can threaten to go public with your side of the story. Sooner or later sleazebags who push this sort of stuff will get the message.
The fact that we're okay with running their code need not necessarily mean that we should be okay with sending them personal information. The two are mutually exclusive.
I think it depends on the kind of code. If it's some random experiement done in private away from work for personal exploration then I'd be sort okay to see such demeaning comments in the name of free speech. Professional Work is a no-no.
If corporations don't want to be subjected to the whims of software developers operating freely, they know what they can do.
Anyone at any business trying to shame this dev for making an artistic statement through code is telling on themselves in terms of how much they value (or don't value) the freedom of such developers.
I think the developer community should distance itself more from big companies that act badly.
One way to do this could be for open source authors to introduce a section in the README file expressing the wish that the software will not be used in ways the user is not aware of, such as user-tracking.
Citing a comment made by a lawyer several years ago. First ask oneself what situations you dont want to be in, and then prepare yourself for it.
Some people dont want to see their code being used in a context that might hurt a other human being, like spyware hidden inside a video player. Say someone modified VLC to produce a proprietary video player which included functions that spied on the users activities. As a developer, I would feel slightly at unease if I heard a Chinese citizen died because he watched a unpopular video, and the government found out because the program I wrote helped in spying and identifying that user.
Of course, that doesn't make producers of LGPL (or BSD/MIT) software evil or uncaring. Its up to each and every developer on how they view their work and its impact on society, and how far one want to go on that. Same goes for work, eating and spending habbits, money investments and so on.
It's part of my job to "railroad" potential majorities that would prefer to do things that my judgment suggests will make things worse.
They're free to do it in their personal trees all they want. But if they commit changes that make the code less readable because some tool is being opinionated and can't be configured properly, their change won't pass code review.
I honestly am not amazingly fussed about what we do with them overall as long as I don’t personally have to deal with them when trying to publish some code!
Thing is, when the company that pays you actively wants to track everyone, there's little you can do as the person that creates tech form them.
If the piece of software you created is unbiased and unopinionated, it can be used for evil purposes.
If you make the software deliberatedly against that, you have to (a) take measures without the company knowing (b) have the manpower to do it alone while still reaching development goals (c) those measures can be undone by another developer that cares less that you.
After all, software big enough is collective by nature. It's also unfair to us to think that we're responsible for any misuse as if we were mechanical engineers creating weapons for war
I'm not planning with being combative about it. If it ever happens to me I'll just throw up my hands and walk away. I really love creating software and it is big part of my life. But I will never personally engage in this type of discussion after witnessing this happening in other places in other forms. Those who pick these fights will not see my point of view ever and it will be big waste of energy, which I'll rather spend on creating software.
The reason I engage in this now is that I'm at the periphery only observing. It doesn't take that much of my time and energy to write a small commentary on it.
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