Collaborative Discussion 1: Q Industries

While their product and services might look good – provide security to society and align with some of the BSC code of conduct such as acting in the public interest, it turns out it violates several Principles of the Code. Face recognition is used to provide security, but it violates people’s privacy. If being used by the wrong people as well, this might lead to a case of violating basic human rights, since it can be a tool to suppress freedom of speech (ACM, n.d.).

Ethics is derived from the Greek word, meaning “way of living.” It is not only about things that are accepted by society or regulations (Velasquez, et al., 2010). Velasquez, et al. (2010) give the example of how Nazis, despite the government regulations at that time in Germany that is accepted by the society, it is still a corrupted society. Thus, in Q Industries’ case, although requests are coming from governments from various countries, they still can not be ethically justified in their decision.

References

ACM, n.d. Case: Automated Active Response Weaponry. [Online] Available at: https://ethics.acm.org/code-of-ethics/using-the-code/case-automated-active-response-weaponry/ [Accessed 2022].

Velasquez, M., Andre, C., Shanks, T. & Meyer, M. J., 2010. What is Ethics?. [Online] Available at: https://www.scu.edu/ethics/ethics-resources/ethical-decision-making/what-is-ethics/. [Accessed 2022].