The Growing Misuse of Technology and the Need for Ethical Accountabity

Over the past several years, people have increasingly begun making unnecessary comparisons between their professions, competing with one another to determine whose work is more important, who deserves higher financial compensation, who should be allowed to work from home, and who should receive priority in various services. It is unclear who initiated this debate or why it became so widespread. In my view, every profession has its own significance, and no line of work should be considered less valuable than another.

However, as this debate unfolded, I started to question who might be fueling it and which profession might be acting with the most harmful intentions. Based on my personal experiences over the years, I have observed that the digital and IT sector is often perceived as one of the most corrupt, greedy, classless, and mean-spirited fields today. Some individuals in this sector appear to contribute to chaos by hacking into people’s electronic devices, recording private conversations, and taking personal discussions out of context. These actions may then be used to spark pointless comparisons and online arguments, often with the goal of increasing their own salaries, influence, or profits.

Many so-called data scientists, engineers, programmers, and algorithm specialists misuse personal data and behave like control-obsessed individuals. Some design biased algorithms that cost people their jobs, promote meaningless or unsolicited relationship advice, spread misleading content on social media, facilitate exploitation through sudden price hikes, fuel the spread of fake pandemic-related news, or contribute to rising housing costs. They may harass or attempt to control innocent people’s behaviour, yet still feel entitled to lecture others about time management, discipline, consistency, or lifestyle, using algorithms against them solely to create confusion and profit from the resulting chaos. These individuals treat people as numerical data points rather than as human beings.

Such professionals sometimes glorify themselves for automating away other people’s jobs, enabling a small group of opportunists to profit. It feels disturbingly similar to how, in the past, society praised those who went to war and caused harm to innocent people. Sadly, it seems that many in this field still display a similarly primitive mindset, even in a modern era where technology should be used to improve lives, not disrupt them.

Technology ought to serve humanity, not make life harder due to the greed, ruthlessness, and outdated attitudes of a few.

These individuals generate fake statisticslikes, impressions, comments, and reviews, using bots solely to increase their earnings. They create apps that track and intrude on people’s private lives, record conversations, or hack into devices. They create panic by insisting that people must constantly use their phones to stay connected or risk being isolated, simply to increase app usage and profit. They aggressively push IT literacy and force people to rely on apps for essential services, knowing that increased usage benefits them financially. Some even steal code or appropriate ideas from others purely for profit, yet still view themselves as exceptionally talented. Despite breaking data-privacy laws and disrupting people’s lives through unethical behaviour, some believe they are the smartest, most skilled individuals in the world, despite displaying poor mindsets and limited understanding of real-world consequences.

This mentality also drives efforts to control people’s personal lives by promoting tracking mechanisms such as facial recognition, voice recognition, and digital IDs, again, all for increased profit at the expense of privacy.

Such practices are mean-spirited, unethical, and demonstrate a profound lack of professionalism and respect for the public. They invade private lives, promote scammers, and design biased algorithms that circulate unwanted or low-quality content. They build digital systems and then break or repeatedly change them, forcing organisations and individuals to adapt to poorly designed products so they can extract even more money. This is how certain low-integrity professionals accumulate millions or even billions, through what many would consider a form of modern-day exploitation, even bordering on blackmail. No other profession engages in such behaviour solely for profit and control, especially in a time when society should be more civilised and considerate.

These practices are unacceptable and reflect a complete disregard for professional ethics. Companies should investigate and discipline anyone who knowingly designs harmful systems, violates privacy, promotes unwanted or low-quality content, supports scammers, or creates public chaos through misinformation. We must demand transparency, accountability, and stronger safeguards so that technology serves society fairly and responsibly.

Many digital and IT workers who engage in data theft, intrusive tracking, or unethical programming appear to lack professional maturity and may come from environments that encourage poor behavioural standards. As a result, they promote low-quality content, hack devices, and build tracking apps to monitor innocent people. With such poor judgement, these individuals still attempt to judge or control others’ personalities or online behaviour, something that is fundamentally wrong. Therefore, digital and IT workers, data engineers, scientists, algorithm designers, coders, and programmers who have contributed to chaos through spreading fake news, sharing meaningless content, creating invasive apps, offering unsolicited advice, or promoting low-quality content should be removed from their roles to make society safer and healthier.

Personally, I believe that to raise awareness about this behaviour, the job titles of such individuals should be labelled as “Digital Thieves,” since they operate by misusing stolen personal data to promote fake news, low-quality content, and intrusive tracking, all driven by extreme greed. Those involved in these practices should face significant financial penalties. And if you know any IT professional involved in such disturbing activities, it is best to stay away from these corrupt individuals whose unhealthy mindset is built on causing pain to others and making their lives miserable.

My writing is based solely on my personal experiences before and after the pandemic. It is not intended to accuse everyone in the profession, but to highlight those involved in the illegal, manipulative, and control-oriented behaviours described above.