Notes on the ACM Code of Ethics
[How the Code Was Written] - Integrity - Leadership

How the Code Was Written

The Association for Computing Machinery ranks as the largest educational and scientific computing society in the world. Its Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct begins by describing the purpose of the Code:

Preamble

"Computing professionals' actions change the world. To act responsibly, they should reflect upon the wider impacts of their work, consistently supporting the public good. The ACM Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct ("the Code") expresses the conscience of the profession."

An update, written in the open. The ACM Council adopted the current Code on June 22, 2018. No earlier revision had taken place since 1992. ACM's Committee on Professional Ethics coordinated a task force that brought together experts from the field together with specialists in ethics, governance and law. The task force produced three major drafts. At each stage it published an article in Communications of the ACM that explained the changes made and the reasons for them, and it opened the drafts to comment from ACM members.

Why "should" and not "must." The task force set out one of its least conspicuous design choices in the third of those articles:

"In Draft 3, the word 'must' appears three times, and the word 'should' appears 76. The impetus to use 'should' stems from the aspirational nature of the Code. ... during ethical deliberations, the principles in the Code can come into conflict. When this occurs, thoughtful ethical analysis may require one of the principles to yield to others. ... By using 'should' professionals are given the opportunity to articulate their analysis and be transparent about their ethical reasoning."

To inspire and educate. The same article describes the change the update made to the consequences of failing to follow the Code:

"The 1992 Code had a single consequence for missing any of these behavioral targets: expulsion from the ACM. The compliance section of the updated ACM Code is designed to be more flexible, to inspire and educate, as well as punish when appropriate. The new version recognizes degrees of violation, and includes opportunities of remediation less severe than expulsion."

Sources: ACM Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct (2018); Code 2018 Update Project; D. Gotterbarn, A. Bruckman, C. Flick, K. Miller, M. J. Wolf, "ACM Code of Ethics: A Guide for Positive Action," Communications of the ACM 61(1), January 2018, 121-128.

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Last update: November 5, 2026