Quora Question: As a software developer, how often do you leave a backdoor in your code?

I was asked, repeatedly, to develop a kill-switch, just in case a client didn’t pay their bill in a timely manner.

Crestron home automation processors allow you to load and extract compiled code, but source code is typically not released until a project is completed. However, one company I was doing contract work for thought that a client would drag out the final payment. They wanted a 60-day countdown timer installed that would shutdown the system if it was not reset, suggesting it should also be included in all future projects.

I told the company that if a client didn’t pay they wouldn’t get the source code, refusing to install the kill-switch. It didn’t seem ethical, and Ilya Haykinson’s answer clearly illustrates what I told the company might happen as a result. Regardless, it seems that if a client is upset enough to not pay the final 10%, shutting down their system probably won’t help the situation…

In the end the client paid their bill, and the company didn’t ask again.