Ethical and moral practices are becoming a major consideration for tech talents all over the world. We spoke with four of our software engineers who told us why doing good is important to them and how they’re able to do so at Wix

We all have our list of companies we don’t relate with. For each person, it can be something else. One person can object to companies that sell their users’ data or violate their privacy; others are repelled by services or products that exploit human weaknesses and addictions to their favor; some have an eye for companies who treat their employees poorly.

In recent years there’s a shift in the way large chunks of the tech workforce view these types of companies as well. Surveys show that ethical and moral considerations are becoming a major factor in candidates’ decisions whether to take a job or not. Employees and recruiters admit that companies with a questionable reputation find it harder to recruit, and that some employees simply don’t want certain companies’ names on their CVs.

In other words: more and more people in the tech sector want to feel that the job they’re doing creates value and does good to others. They want to feel proud when they’re asked where they work.

"We do not, and will not, sell our users’ data"

Wix’s President, Nir Zohar, says that Wix has always been committed to making the Web what it was meant to be. “The Internet was meant to be decentralized, democratic and affordable, and it was meant to create global equality. However, when the Web became a market, big players took control over ‘natural resources’, such as access, data and users, and rewrote the rules.

“At Wix, we believe that users, small merchants and SMEs are the drivers of the Internet and we want to provide them with a toolbox to compete - having a professional website and the marketing and management tools big players have.

“We also want them to have control over their data and users. This is why we give them full control over their website’s performance and data (after all it’s their users, not ours) while we do not, and will not, sell our users’ data. We’re committed to keeping their private information safe”.

Ittai Zeidman, Wix’s Backend Engineering CTO, says that working at an ethical company is important to him for two main reasons. “At the end of the day, work has many hardships”, he begins. “Sometimes you have conflicts and sometimes you experience downfalls, and I feel that people need something extra - some sort of motivation - to continue doing the job that you do. Compensation is important of course, and so are the technological challenges you’re overcoming and the great people you work with, but if you know that the things that you’re working on actually create a dent in the universe in the positive sense, and change people’s lives for the better, you feel that you’re doing something that has meaning and purpose. You know, I still remember reading emails I got 8 years ago about a single mom who was on the brink of being homeless and how the cookie store she opened on our platform completely changed her life and literally saved her. These types of stories are the fuel in my internal engine”.

Ittai’s second reason for working in an ethical and value creating company is much more personal. “Basically it’s my daughters”, he smiles. “When I come back home after work I want to be able to tell them what I do at my job and feel proud about it. What I do enables business owners - real people with real needs and families - to build their own brand and to do it locally. What we do creates value and helps people. It may sound cheesy but I really want to do work that does good in the world. I don’t want to be a part of a business that doesn't do that. In that sense I feel that Wix is way ahead of the curve. I listen to a lot of Customer Care calls with our users and many times I hear how happy and excited they are after one of our Experts helps them. We have a positive impact on these people’s lives and it fills me with pride. I’d never get that feeling in a company that operates in an unethical or immoral way”.

"I don’t want to be a part of a business that doesn't do good in the world"

Ittai says that while ethical and moral considerations are becoming more important for job seekers these days, people who have worked in “problematic” companies understand the issue much better. “Many people feel that when they understood the implications of such conduct from up close, they got dirty and didn’t want to do it anymore. For them, working in a company that does good and helps people really lifts a big weight off of their shoulders”.

Chen Elisha is a Backend Developer at our Editor group. She joined Wix 7 years ago and says that it was important for her to work in a company that creates products that improve its users’ lives instead of exploiting them, “And that’s really common in the gaming industry. I know people who left those types of companies because at the end of the day they were left with a feeling that they didn’t create any value for anyone. All they did was think about more and more ways to get money out of people”, she says.

“At Wix, however, I know for a fact that what I do helps our users create their businesses and make a living. That’s something valuable and we all saw it very well since the pandemic started: people who needed a new source of income opened stores on our platform and it changed their lives. When you learn about these types of stories you feel really proud of the fact that you’re a part of such a positive force”.

"In the long run, doing good is what gives you a sense of purpose. When there’s no purpose, people burn out"

Nir Naor, a Frontend Developer at our Photography group, says that working in a company that has a business model that doesn’t exploit anyone’s data, makes him happy and proud. “We do good by building a product that creates value for our users without passing on their data - or their users data - and compromising people’s privacy. For me it’s really important to work in a place that’s focused on making good products while keeping everyone’s data safe”, he says.

Yehonatan Daniv, a Visual Innovation Tech Lead at Wix, focuses on the privacy issue when it comes to ethics and morals in the tech sector. “Privacy on the Internet has always been important to me and to the people around me. You see real life examples of how data moves from one place to another and creeps into our lives: you leave your personal details for one service and then you get offers from another one, for example. Other implications can be information about you that was collected in a demonstration and somehow passed to someone. It’s endless and I don’t want to be a part of it.”

What is it like at Wix?

“Wix wouldn't sell its users’ information or pass it to anyone, but at the core of our approach is the company’s business itself. If that economic driving force is something that’s taken to court every other day or perceived as evil by a large part of the population, working in such a place isn’t fun. I don’t want to have anything to do with such products. Take the ad-tech sector as another example: a large part of what they do is collecting and analyzing data. That, of course, is very important and we all collect and analyze data in order to do different things. However, people should ask themselves what that data is collected and used for. Some people who work in those companies don’t want to know and others tell themselves that not all of it is used for evil purposes, but I think that if you’re working in a good company that creates real value and truly helps people, you don’t need to be in those types of situations. In the long run this is what gives you a sense of purpose. When there’s no purpose, people burn out.

“Personally, I always cared about access to information on the Internet and the importance of the Web’s openness and democratization. In the last decade or so I saw how data was increasingly used to do bad things. I want to be a part of a company that understands these things and cares about them and I feel that it’s very important to many developers around me”.