Why Banks Are Suddenly Closing Down Customer Accounts

Re:Why Banks Are Suddenly Closing Down Customer Accounts by IG_Semmelweiss on Sunday November 05, 2023 @08:30PM (#38157751)

Every app should have a signature that includes the devs that worked on it, the business manager that requested it, and the IT leadership that oversaw its use.

This is already done for financial statements.

If you put out software that is actively causing harm, you should know your fingerprints are on it

Employees like devs would be protected by professional insurance. That would cause bad management to shape up, or otherwise lose inaurance coverage.

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Re:Why Banks Are Suddenly Closing Down Customer Accounts by onionisafruit on Sunday November 05, 2023 @08:38PM (#38157797)

I don’t think these decisions are happening in apps.

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Re:Why Banks Are Suddenly Closing Down Customer Accounts by djbusby on Sunday November 05, 2023 @08:45PM (#38157831)

Not the devs, they have no agency in the decision. Management, for sure, post their name and LinkedIn profile.

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Re:Why Banks Are Suddenly Closing Down Customer Accounts by ncallaway on Sunday November 05, 2023 @08:57PM (#38157901)

> they have no agency in the decision

Everyone has agency. “Just following orders” is not an excuse.

If someone asks you to implement something that crosses an ethical line for you, you ALWAYS have the agency to refuse. It’s hard, but it’s critical that we never give away our own agency and control of our own actions.

You may not be able to stop an implementation from going forward, but you ALWAYS have the ability to not contribute to such an implementation.

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Re:Why Banks Are Suddenly Closing Down Customer Accounts by djbusby on Sunday November 05, 2023 @09:49PM (#38158222)

I'm not going the "following orders" mindset. I'm going with many times a junior contributor can't even see the (bad) outcome.

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Re:Why Banks Are Suddenly Closing Down Customer Accounts by ncallaway on Monday November 06, 2023 @08:12AM (#38162145)

That’s totally fair. If someone doesn’t have the visibility into the decision, and isn’t aware of harm coming from their actions, then they don’t have a moral responsibility.

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Re:Why Banks Are Suddenly Closing Down Customer Accounts by mecha_ghidorah on Sunday November 05, 2023 @10:04PM (#38158319)

Eh. The problem is that people can change software too easily. Say I work on an app as a major contributor and then later on a colleague makes an update to it which makes it do something unethical. Now my name is attached to this unethical app

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Re:Why Banks Are Suddenly Closing Down Customer Accounts by johnnyanmac on Sunday November 05, 2023 @10:07PM (#38158334)

>Everyone has agency. “Just following orders” is not an excuse.

depends on your safety barrier. In some very high profile cases, depends on your life. I commend people like Snowden but I certainly wouldn't choose to spend my entire life running from the US government in an attempt to be ethical. I have too many selfish personal goals to try and attempt to sway the masses like that.

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Re:Why Banks Are Suddenly Closing Down Customer Accounts by _heimdall on Sunday November 05, 2023 @10:56PM (#38158666)

To be fair, in the context of software refusing to code a feature you morally or ethically disagree with is very different from attempting to blow the whistle against the US military and three letter agencies.

You wouldn't have to flee to Russia for refusing to ship spyware in a mobile app, for example.

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Re:Why Banks Are Suddenly Closing Down Customer Accounts by ipaddr on Sunday November 05, 2023 @10:57PM (#38158672)

It's against your benefit in many cases. It has no actual benefit towards your goal of stopping it. Why pay the personal cost for misguided guilt unless it's to add to a personal brand?

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Re:Why Banks Are Suddenly Closing Down Customer Accounts by BurningFrog on Sunday November 05, 2023 @11:08PM (#38158731)

This would make it easy to intimate or bribe the people who can commit fraud for you in that app.

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