Its nearly impossible to answer your question, because the examples you give all have an element of &quot;its bigger than one person&quot;.<p>In all of those cases, it it is conceivable that programmers could easily justify the &quot;larger purpose&quot; in their own moral&#x2F;ethical framework.  This a problem inherent in all collective efforts.<p><i>&quot;There&#x27;s always the same amount of good luck and bad luck in the world. If one person doesn&#x27;t get the bad luck, somebody else will have to get it in their place. There&#x27;s always the same amount of good and evil, too. We can&#x27;t eradicate evil, we can only evict it, force it to move across town. And when evil moves, some good always goes with it. But we can never alter the ratio of good to evil. All we can do is keep things stirred up so neither good nor evil solidifies. That&#x27;s when things get scary. Life is like a stew, you have to stir it frequently, or all the scum rises to the top.&quot;</i>[1]<p>[1]: <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.goodreads.com&#x2F;quotes&#x2F;12020-there-s-always-the-same-amount-of-good-luck-and-bad" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.goodreads.com&#x2F;quotes&#x2F;12020-there-s-always-the-sam...</a>