A peaceful progressive society is built upon human rights being respected. With large chunks of everyday life being driven from our phones, it is time we set up a code of conduct for engineers who work on building those devices and associated technologies based on connected devices. The code of conduct should be used by conscientious engineers to take concrete decisions everyday, such as: project choice, hiring decisions, career progression, research subject choice, etc.
The technologies of concern that can lead to human rights violations when abused are: biometric tracing (facial recognition, emotion estimation, etc.), drone warfare (autonomously or remotely powered drones), communications (instant messaging, audio and video calls, emails), content filtering (authenticity, hate content, manipulative content, recommendation algorithms) and medical devices (remote health monitoring, nerve interfaces).
Code of Conduct
- I will not enable technologies that strip away individual privacy.
- I will build technologies that take human differences into account, with regards to physical differences, speech and cognitive ability.
- When I test my technology, I will ensure that it doesn't work unless the logging, audit and reporting mechanisms function as designed.
- I will enable data erasure on a personal device. I will not enable data erasure on a government device.
- The default mode of operation for my technologies will be set to private and encrypted.
- I will not build mass surveillance technology.
- I will not enable machines that kill.
- I will not build technologies that prey on or attempt to indoctrinate vulnerable people.
- I will restrict the license to use my technology so that it can only be used in a way that human rights are not violated.
- I acknowledge fundamental limits to understanding humans and will not work on technologies that identify emotions, ascertain guilt, etc.
- I will educate myself on whistleblowing laws and use them appropriately when asked to do something that conflicts with my conscience.
While there are legitimate reasons for law enforcement to be using the technologies available to keep the society safe, it is up to engineers to build safeguards from misuse. As someone who intends to follow the points listed above, I would not hire an engineer who works for the NSO Group company that enabled governments around the world to tap into journalists' private communications.
If you're a student, I'd encourage you to take a look at UConn's excellent Engineering for Human Rights Initiative to plan your courses and join some organizations. While I don't have personal experience with them, it seems to provide good guidance on how next generation engineers could develop a social sense. After graduation, you may also consider joining the On-Call Scientists. For further reading: despite suffering from rigor mortis on the executive side, the UN does produce good quality documentation: the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
Regards,
Kuntal.
