excessive lobbying. More and more tasks of social services, which until the end of the

twentieth century were reserved for local authorities or states, such as telecommunica­

tion, information research, news dissemination, food supply, navigation and logistics,

and even payment systems and currencies, are being monopolized by some corporations

to such an extent that political observers now recognize new feudalism in it [47].

Former employees who have left these companies for ethical reasons point out that

sensationalist headlines keep users glued to their devices for as long as possible to play

them as much advertising as possible. Reports are presented in an exaggeratedly lurid

and emotionally arousing manner, and in many cases, false reports and nonsensical

conspiracy theories are put into the world [48]. For example, the rumor has become

widespread, which is important in the context discussed here, that microchips are in­

jected with the COVID-19 vaccine to monitor vaccinated persons (which, due to the small

inner diameter of vaccination needles in the range of 0.1 mm, would have to be re­

cognized as nonsense from a technical point of view). The sheer flood of this dubious

news is eroding the democratic opinion-forming process in many countries so that the

influence of populists is increasing and Internet corporations are making profits at the

expense of the cohesion of society [49].

In addition, extensive data collections are created of practically all Internet users, ranging

from their behavioral patterns to personality profiles. The companies make use of the large

volume of communication data (BigData), which provides them with information about

the devices used, user name, age, gender, telephone calls, e-mails, geolocation, place of

residence, workplace, profession, position, purchases, income, credit card sales, social si­

tuation, political preferences, memberships, and other sensitive personality data, as well as

their circle of friends and relatives and comparable information from the latter. The data

is aggregated through excessive tracking across pages and devices for every user action on

the Internet [50], with which the personality profiles become more and more accurate. For

the vote on the United Kingdom’s exit from the EU (Brexit) and the 2016 presidential

election in the United States, there is extensive evidence of how such personality profiles

were used to influence the outcome of the election [49,51]. In addition, health or fitness apps

also involve medical data, the sensitivity of which is considered particularly high in the

European General Data Protection Regulation (Art. 9 (1)). It may be expected that this data

will be used to further detail personality profiles, making users/patients predictable and

manipulable in their behavior.

For a large area of digital technologies, therefore, an unenthusiastic picture emerges as

to whether a patient-friendly use of human implants is possible if implants are designed

as microelectronic IoT systems and privacy on the Internet cannot be guaranteed. Given

the problems mentioned, the question arises as to whether scientists can still participate in

such developments with a clear conscience. To do so, it would have to be ensured that the

data of the implant in whose development one is involved remain under the control of

the user in any case. As a scientist and developer, one can refer to the UN Sustainable

Development Goals, point 16.6, which calls for the development of effective, verifiable,

and transparent institutions at all levels.

The ensuing discussion is reminiscent of the one about nuclear armament and the in­

volvement of scientists in the 1980s. At that time, the question of a Hippocratic oath for

scientists was discussed, like the one taken by physicians and in which they commit

themselves to ethical action [52]. There are corresponding passages in many statutes of

scientists’ organizations, such as in the case of the German Physical Society, which

commits itself “… to be aware of the fact that those working in science are responsible for

the shaping of the whole of human life to a particularly high degree.”

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