Archive For The “Ethics” Category
Any consumer tech that further erodes individual privacy should be kept on a short leash. By pushing back against Google and against individual Glass users, ordinary people can set a red line of privacy, beyond which no tech company shall be allowed to pass.
An ethicist should discern your ethical profile and then offer guidance to help you make a choice that’s consistent with your values. He should not just tell you what the “right” answer is.
Ethics presupposes that other people are valuable as ends in themselves, and not merely as a means to an end. When we lose sight of the essential protections for others that a robust ethical regime affords, ethics becomes an exercise in empty selfishness.
A good corporate ethics program will first do a descriptive review — that is, identifying the ethical backgrounds of employees — before tying compliance directives to moral principles.
Truth is, the whole AdTech market is screwed up; too many liberties have been taken for too long with consumer data that any backlash or correction really will have a non-trivial impact on the market. But the backlash is necessary: There’s simply no good justification for a commercial firm to track and aggregate a person’s private or behavioral data against his will, then package and sell it for a profit.
Dutiful employees provide a strong backbone for any business. Their special needs for clear rules and firm expectations should inform business communications. Treated well, this population advances the bottom line. Treated poorly, you’ll end up with a workforce that outwardly conforms but develops cynicism about the enterprise.
In an ordinary business setting, you see frequent but subtle signs of divine-command theory at work. Maybe it’s the staff member who stresses the Golden Rule or cites a duty to help the poor or less fortunate. Most public manifestations of this ethical paradigm don’t come labeled with a specific theological agenda; rather, the religious influence governs social convention, which in turn shapes public behaviors. It’s rare to see overtly sectarian justifications of ethical belief — the influence of religion is more cultural.
Care ethics emphasizes the preservation of relationships — often between caregiver and care receiver, but more generally among the participants to a dispute — as a presumptive good, outranking duty or consequence as a value proposition.
Let your striving shine forth from the quality of your performance, not from the number of half-incinerated bridges to nowhere you have left on the back trail of your life-long professional journey.
You never know when billing errors will bite you in the backside. Always take the high road and accept no more and no less than the amount you’re owed. You’ll save yourself the risk of losing the business and maybe even protect yourself from a visit from a court officer.
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