This is exactly the problem: Software developers are not a professional class, we are hired goons with no professional organization nor a code of professional ethics.

This is one of my personal bugbears. I keep making this point on HN but devs want to LARP as professionals so they usually don't want to hear that they have more in common with retail workers than they do with carpenters, engineers, or accountants.

Previously:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47625159

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48932441

Maybe AI will provide an impetus for change. One can only hope.

I’d be willing to pay a few hundred dollars a year to be a part of a professional organization that maintains ethics requirements at this point.

Yeah, and read the responses to your comments: "but, but, 'professional' is a state of mind, not just a piece of paper" and some crap, completely missing the point. Professionals push back with "I'll lose my license/certification/disbarred". Software developers push back with "yes, sir, how high, sir?" or "I quit".