Compromising my integrity ?

Question

I have recently written a small simple application that takes snapshots of your monitor(s) every X seconds / minutes. The idea is to keep a record of your activity.

More details here: http://www.artenscience.co.uk/artenscience/ScreenAudit.html

I've since had several emails from people asking for me to introduce a 'Stealth Mode', basically make the application invisible whilst running. Also to introduce an FTP or email mechanism for the captured screenshots.

Technically this is straightforward, however I can guess how this will be used ... almost certainly used as a way of capturing information covertly for dishonest purposes.

However it could also be used in a good way. But I know thats not the intention.

Do I develop this functionality knowing that it could and most probably will be used in ways that I am not comfortable with ?

At the moment I am tending to NOT do the development. What's the views of the community ?

I realise this is not a straightforward programming question, but I can't think of a better place to ask this.

Answer 1

Maybe you should talk to the TimeSnapper people about it. They do this already.

Edit: Oh. I was wrong about timesnapper. No stealth mode. But i sure would be uncomfortable being forced to deliver daily productivity reports from timesnapper

Answer 2

Yes, I know about TimeSnapper. Like me they make it easy to tell that the application is running. The difference is I am being asked to develop 'stealth mode' so that people cannot tell that the program is running.

Answer 3

I would do the same thing TimeSnapper and LogMeIn do. Don't implement a 'stealth mode'.

LogMeIn always shows a message that the pc is currently remote controlled.

Maybe you should talk to the TimeSnapper people about it. They do this already.

Timesnapper always leaves the tray icon visible.

Answer 4

Given that there is a huge probability that such a stealth mode will be used for, as you call it, dishonest purposes, I wouldn't do it. I guess there must also be laws against spying on people like this, so you may actually be making it easier for people to break the law.

It also depends on your own purpose with the application. Why did you write it? Not only to make money --- otherwise, you wouldn't have posted this question here. If you suspect you may regret such a feature later on, just don't build it.

Finally, if some users really intend to spy on other people's screens, they will find some way to do it, anyway. That doesn't mean, though, that you should make it easier for them!

Answer 5

Don't ask me why, but I've had in a former life some very good experience with the software made by the folks at Refog. If you dislike the idea of implementing such "features" you can probably point your people to this company.

Answer 6

It looks like you are developing software, and then making it available for purchase, rather than having a boss demanding these features, so I'd say don't do anything you would feel uncomfortable with.

Note: I'm not saying that if there was a boss demanding something you would not want to provide that you should do it without a fight, but the difference between 'might not get some sales' and 'might get fired' is a significant one.

Answer 7

I wrote it to 'scratch an itch' basically and for my own purposes. Making money was secondary and onnodb sums it up I think. I would regret doing it. So I won't do it. It's just been listed on Apple Downloads site as well - so thats good news :-)

Answer 8

We (at TimeSnapper) get requests for that feature all the time (we had one just today in fact).

We don't give in to it. It's a matter of principle. I fully agree with your opinion on this and I'm really pleased to see the responses people have given here, which basically support that stance.

Best of luck with your competing work ;-)

Answer 9

You know, such systems can be gamed.

For example, remember that run of Dilbert in which the employees have cameras strapped to their heads? Mincom actually does this. Well, not strapped to your head, but they do use cameras and keystroke loggers to check whether you're doing work or personal admin. A chum of mine used a second monitor placed out of camera for things he didn't want seen, and wrote (at home, obviously) an interesting piece of software to feed the logger a steady flow of characters from files in the source tree. We decided it was best not to go off the charts, so he only turned out 800 LoC/day.

In point of fact my chum was doing the right thing; he just declined to submit to their invasive and insulting treatment, and objected to the use of an inappropriate "productivity" metric. If you think LoC is a good measure of productivity then you never met a cretin who churned out endless lines of rubbish code. I have. The company would have been better off if he'd spent his days googling porn, but on LoC the guy was a dynamo.

Because it never crossed their petty, beauracratic minds that someone might do a "mission impossible" and play them prerecorded acceptable activity, my friend had surprising latitude. Once or twice he got one of those horrible little generic award pens you get from companies too lousy to spring for a perspex plaque. They thought he was a highly productive saint.

Some (lawyers and middle management types) would be angrily horrified by this. As far as I can see, the company made its expectations very clear, and he met them.

Answer 10

By my reading, this goes against several imperatives of the ACM Code of Ethics. Not that you're a member (or want to be), but I'd consider what it means to do something that violates the Code of Ethics of your field's primary association. Has anyone given a good reason for needing this feature?

What it's not about: your software being used in intended ways. Any software can be used in ways you don't intend. That's almost the whole point of the entire free and open source movements, for example. Torvalds probably doesn't lose any sleep wondering whether people are building nuclear weapons with Linux.