At first, it seems that “ethics in technology” is something abstract.
As if it’s about philosophical concepts from university lectures, not about real life.
But in reality, technology always affects people, even when no one asks it to.
And that is exactly why it needs ethical boundaries — boundaries that don’t just describe “what is good / what is bad”, but shape what becomes possible and what becomes impossible.
It starts at the design stage
When we talk about building products, the first decisions are made by developers, architects, designers.
And these decisions are not neutral:
to add functionality or not to add it,
to give the user broad powers or limit them,
to allow the system to do anything automatically or restrict its possible behavior —
these are ethical decisions.
About what happens when such decisions are made correctly, I wrote in
Designing Tools with User Protection in Mind.
When user protection is at the center, everything is built differently.
When “can be done” does not mean “should be done”
We love technological capabilities.
APIs, plugins, extensions, automation, integrations, data…
But just because something is technically possible does not mean that it is ethical.
Technology can provide access to everything — to our personal information, to our actions, to our contacts and even habits.
If it can be implemented safely,
that still does not mean that it should be implemented at all.
This exact point is discussed in
What Secure-by-Design Software Actually Means:
security is designed, not added later.
Ethical boundaries appear where developers ask themselves not “how to do it”, but “do we need to do it at all?”.
Architecture shapes consequences
System architecture is not just a diagram, a class chart, or a set of modules.
It is how the product behaves in the world.
When architecture allows actions without constraints, it writes this possibility into the system permanently.
And later it becomes difficult to say:
“This is the user’s fault”.
That is exactly how architectural decisions affect people’s safety, as I described in
How Architecture Decisions Affect User Safety.
If a system gives too many rights, too many permissions, too much automation —
those rights, permissions, and automation become a field for abuse, leaks, and mistakes.
And a data leak, broken privacy, or vulnerability is not an abstract problem.
It is a problem of a real person whose email, photos, or contacts ended up at risk.
And these risks are not just “hackers’ dreams”.
They are a direct result of architectural capabilities that no one restricted.
Ethical boundaries are not brakes, they are filters
“Boundaries” sounds heavy.
But in practice it is just a set of principles and limitations that say:
“No. This is too risky.”
“We will not include this without strong justification.”
“The user should not carry full responsibility for the consequences.”
This is exactly what distinguishes technology built simply “because it can be done” from technology built “with care for the human”.
Ethics in technology is what makes “capabilities” safe, not just “allowed”.
This does not mean that everything should be forbidden to the user.
It means that the user should have fewer chances to end up in a situation that they do not understand, do not control, and did not consciously choose.
Ethical boundaries create space for trust
Technology is not only processes and algorithms.
It is a relationship between the system and the human.
If the system does something that feels strange, intrusive, or dangerous to the user, the user loses confidence.
And when a person loses confidence in technology, they either:
- stop using it,
- or start applying all kinds of workarounds, hacks, crutches,
- or simply lose part of their personal digital life.
All these scenarios are bad consequences of architectural decisions without ethical boundaries.
Ethical boundaries do not limit innovation
Sometimes people say:
“Ethics slows down innovation”.
No. Ethical boundaries do not slow things down. They form a frame, within which innovation:
- becomes safe,
- becomes predictable,
- becomes useful for people,
- does not turn into an unexpectedly dangerous tool.
Innovation without boundaries is like running with a knife on a playground.
You may be skilled and careful, but the danger already exists.
Ethical boundaries are not taboos.
They are the ability to separate what is useful from what is potentially destructive before it causes harm.
And this is about people, not technology
Everything I talked about in this series of articles:
- about secure design,
- about the influence of architecture,
- about user protection,
— is not about abstract principles.
It is about people who every morning open their phone and do not think that their life depends on architectural decisions made by distant developers.
And these people have the right to expect that technology will be:
- predictable,
- understandable,
- not putting them into stupid situations,
- not turning them into test subjects for experiments.
Ethical boundaries in technology are boundaries of responsibility.
Not “penalties and taboos”, but conscious decisions about what the system does and what it never does.
And that is exactly what makes technology humane.