Digital Product Safety: Rejecting Software as Magic
summary
Argues that software is not magic but a product class defined by being software-driven, internet connected, and human-interactive, and that digital product safety needs a holistic, empirical playbook. Uses the tobacco playbook (1953 deception, 2006 judgment) to show decades of industry obfuscation and cites a 50‑year average for safety regulation after mass production, noting we are 42 years into consumer digital products. Proposes ingredient labels listing SDKs and third parties and machine-generated records of processing activities plus ongoing measurement and engineer-led mitigation.
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chapters (10)
- 0:00Digital product safety intro
- 1:11Magic as metaphor and weapon
- 3:58Industry resistance playbook
- 6:04Defining product safety
- 9:10Digital product risks
- 10:56Safety vs security
- 12:21Improving product safety
- 13:45Digital harms taxonomy
- 14:27Technology as innovation
- 15:30Safety challenges overview
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