The principles of ethics are not a new topic in the area of Software Engineering; this term emerged in the 90s after the rise of computers due to incorrect practices in software development. This research aims to classify the ethical problems arising in the software development life cycle, for which a preliminary secondary study (PSS) was conducted. As a result of the PSS, 27 primary studies were obtained. These studies propose methodologies and solutions for some ethical issues in a specific phase. Therefore, we classified the ethical issues, but not all adversities can be included due to the variety of problems. We conclude that no research papers classify ethical issues arising in the phases of software development. © 2022 IEEE.