App development is a thriving market that shows no signs of slowing down, with gross annual revenue expected to exceed $189 billion by 2020.

There is widespread appeal to joining this lucrative field of work, and many opportunities to learn the skills needed to find success. Traditional universities such as Stanford are ramping up software and app development programs, and numerous online and in-person bootcamps offer specific courses to turn just about anyone into a workforce-ready app developer.

Every course I’ve seen, both in universities and online, is focused on the technical and economic aspects of app development. They do a great job giving you tangible skills and land jobs, but no programs dedicate focus to the social implications of the tech you’ll build someday.

In an app-dominated world, though, it’s important to stop and think about the impacts your app will have on people’s lives.

For the purpose of this article, I’ll define apps simply as pieces of software designed to perform a specific function or set of functions.

The Challenge of Ethics

One problem with creating an ethical framework for app development is the vast difference in the scope of different apps. The Facebook app is different from the app I use to track moon cycles. One has to accommodate my entire social life, the other tells me what the moon is going to look like tonight.

Most of the ethical questions we’ve been asking of Facebook lately, whether or not Mark Zuckerberg can be considered responsible for spreading fake news for example, are completely irrelevant to the moon app’s developers

Some bloggers and developers have put together basic guides for ethical app development. They give a vague idea of the principles developers should keep in mind, but none come close to building a code of ethics for tech.

I want to focus on one broad ethical question: Should app developers focus on profit or improving the world as their main priority?

The obvious answer to the ethics question would be duh