ABSTRACT
Historically, professional associations have viewed codes of ethics as mechanisms to establish their status as a profession or as a means to regulate their membership and thereby convince the public that they deserve to be self-regulating. Self-regulation depends on ways to deter unethical behavior of the members, and a code, combined with an ethics review board, was seen as the solution. Commitment to ethical professional conduct is expected of every voting, associate, and student member of ACM. This Code, consisting of 24 imperatives formulated as statements of personal responsibility, identifies the elements of such a commitment. Honoring one's commitments is a matter of integrity and honesty. For the computer professional this includes ensuring that system elements perform as intended. The Association of Computing Machinery (ACM) Code organizes ethical principles into the four categories: general moral imperatives; more specific professional responsibilities, organizational leadership imperatives, and compliance. Some may find it helpful to sort out the ethical issues involved in other ways.
