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This repository has been archived by the owner on Jan 2, 2023. It is now read-only.

Ethical Issues

Quinn H. Nisbet edited this page Nov 1, 2021 · 20 revisions

Are users' privacy expectations met by your software?

Fridger users can expect that information that is uploaded in recipes, profile content, and comments will be publicly available. However, information such as goals and height/weight will be kept private. Users will be notified of how their data will be used/collected/stored through a privacy policy generator we will be using. If users do not agree with these privacy expectations they can choose not to give unnecessary data (ie. comments, bios, etc.) or they can delete their account at any time. We will be using https://www.privacypolicies.com/privacy-policy-generator/ to generate a privacy policy for our app. It seems very user-friendly! Having a privacy policy will help us meet the expectations of our users.


Could the use of your software result in racial, gender, religious, or any other type of discrimination? How does your software try to mitigate this problem?

Our software collects dates of birth and country of residence for legal compliance purposes. We do not explicitly collect information about a user's race, gender, religion, or other legally protected classes. Recipes can be tagged with countries of origin, and preferences (such as favorited items) can be used for recommendations. However, these country/ethnic-based tags are not verified by the user's information.

As with any social platform, users themselves can also pose a threat in terms of their freedom to write whatever comments they will. To mitigate any user-based discrimination, we will keep a list of suspicious words and phrases and automatically flag any recipes, reviews, or comments that use them to make sure they comply with community guidelines, which will be laid out clearly for users to access and see what constitutes appropriate behavior and what does not.


Can your software be abused by some users to cause harm to other users or to the public at large? How do you mitigate it?

All social media platforms where users can interact and upload content are in some capacity vulnerable to abuses. However, the recipe app does not have any explicit harm to society. Abuse can be mitigated by having a Terms of Service which outlines violations of our policies. Users, recipes, ingredients, and comments can be reported, reviewed, and removed if deemed to be in violation. Protections against organized spam will be limited by CAPTCHA controls, word filters, and limiting potentially suspicious network origins.


Our web application should work for everyone and work everywhere

For everyone with an internet connection and who has some sort of device to surf the internet, they should be able to access our app. Accessibility is a top priority so including inclusive forms and testing to collect real feedback on what can be done better is critical. We also highly value the performance of our application and are responsive to reports of errors and outages to make sure it works everywhere.