ACCG8048 Business and Professional Ethics

Introduction

Ethics is considered to be highly vital in an organisation for the operations of the organisation in a smooth and in an ethical manner. According to scholars, ethical misconduct in an organisation can lead to them experiencing negative consequences as it leads to companies having a negative reputation on the businesses which can hamper the sales of the company in the near future (Lašáková, 2017). This paper will analyse a case study about one of the biggest technology company, Apple Inc. and the ethical practices carried about the organisation which was called out by a whistleblower recently and will provide whether the whistleblowing was acceptable in the case through the lens of ethical perspectives and theories.

Brief overview of the case study

A former contactor of Apple Inc. named Thomas le Bonniec has decided to go public and make allegations about the company in terms of the programme of the organisation to listen to the recordings of Siri of their customers or users which is breaching the privacy of their customers (the Guardian., 2020). Le Bonniec has decided to go public as the company has not taken any action according to him about this issue and has been continuing to record through Siri in order to save data of their users which he understood while working in the Cork Offices. He has stated the fact that they have communicated with the company before where Apple had promised to make significant changes in their grading program that primarily involved many contractors to listen to the recordings which were made deliberately as well as accidently while using Siri. They had come up with a software update however nothing had changed.

He has claimed that during the time he has worked for the company there were many recordings which he had heard that were just not related to the device of the company but also involved the recordings of the conversation of the relatives, children, the background noises, information of addresses, location and many more (the Guardian., 2020).

He feels that being a major technology company, the company has not yet been accountable for any of these issues and they have been constantly breaching the privacy laws which is unknown to their users or their customers. This is the major reason he had to whistleblow about the company as he felt that it was unethical and violated laws.

Issues identified in the case study

From the case study, it has been seen that the practices and the activities that have been conducted by Apple Inc. is highly unethical as it is seen to violate privacy laws of their customers and they do not inform their customers about the recordings from the devices of Siri and other products like Apple Watch. According to scholars, storing data of users without their knowledge and consent is highly unethical as the information privacy is basically the right of the people so that they can have proper control over the fact that how their information is used and collected (Borgesius & Poort, 2017). It has been seen that Apple has been invading data privacy and the basic rights of their customers which can have negative consequences on the company. Le Bonniec realized that many big companies have been indulging in these unethical activities for their own benefits that reflect on the selfishness of the companies and no accountability and responsibility of the major companies who have been growing due to their customers or users in the market.

Application of an ethical theory

From the case study, it has been seen that how a whistleblower named Thomas le Bonniec has spoken openly and put allegations against the company, Apple Inc. about their lack of action against the issues that exist in the company where they are using contractors to listen to the recordings which they gather from their users while they are using Siri in their devices. It has been seen that there are many ethical issues that come up with violating data privacy issues like lack of consent. According to scholars, consent is important if a company or someone has been using the personal data of a person for privacy reasons and for the rights of the person (del Río, 2021). In this case, it has been seen that the company has been using the data however, the people using the devices are not informed and have any knowledge about their data being stored and used which is highly unethical. It can be seen that Apple does not maintain privacy of their customers and is not being transparent about these aspects which is alarming for the users. According to scholars, Apple Inc. claims to secure the data of their customers and often market themselves to be one of the safest when it comes to data privacy (O'Flaherty, 2019). False claims made by organisations is highly unethical and unacceptable which can lead to an organisation facing immense issues.

Thomas le Bonniec has gone public and has put allegations against the company for their unethical activities is the right thing to do in this case and is considered to be highly ethical. According to the theory of Utilitarianism, it is important to make decisions and take actions which generally foster pleasure or happiness, and then opposes the actions which may cause distress, harm and unhappiness to people (Bader, 2020). Scholars state that, utilitarianism states the actions are considered to be right when the results or the consequences bring happiness to majority of the people in the group or the society (Piacquadio, 2017). Aligning with the case study, it can be seen that the decision of coming out public has brought happiness to majority of the people or the customers who have been using the devices by Apple as they are aware of the practices by the company which they should have known before. This will make the customers more cautious which will help them from maintaining their privacy and also encourage Apple to take necessary steps to make positive changes in the business so that they can ensure data privacy of their users which is their right as their personal information were being stored. This had led to the positive results for maximum number of people making the whistleblowing highly an ethical decision.

Importance of whistleblowing in the case study

From the analysis of this case, it can be seen that whistleblowing was acceptable and was required so that Apple would be held accountable for their actions. According to scholars, whistleblowing often helps in bringing positive changes in an organisation and in the system which aims on making the operations ethical and work for the interest of the people (Pillay et al, 2018).   It has been seen that the contractor of the company who was their former employee while working in the organisation had seen that the company was using the private data of their customers without the knowledge through Siri. It had not only stored general recordings of their customers which was when they were using Siri but also conversations and various other information even when they were not using Siri which is highly unethical and is a violation of data privacy along with the human rights of the people.

The whistleblower, Thomas le Bonniec thought of exposing the company so that they can take measurable and fruitful steps so that they can make significant changes in their operations so that they can mitigate these issues in the business. A big company like Apple, may not have taken steps if the company would not be called out publicly and would continue to conduct unethical activities and misuse their power. It is important for the people to know what was happening with them while they were using the different devices offered by Apple and understand the gravitas of the issue which is important as it was their private data being stored.

However, one thing that Bonniec could have done is report to the authorities and the management of Apple first while working in the company and then take this big step pf exposing them publicly due to their lack of action if any changes were not made and if the company did not take any responsibility. Exposing the company did bring major changes and made the company apologize for their activities which led to them coming up with a software update which would allow the company to use the data only if the users approved it.

Conclusion

The case study reflects on the unethical practices that has been conducted by Apple for which he had been called out by a whistleblower who was working for the company before he quite in the year, 2019. Whistleblowers are seen to put their life at risk and do what is ethical and necessary for the goodwill of the people which the former employee of the company, Thomas le Bonniec did. The decision of him publicly calling out a giant company like Apple was necessary as this had reflected on the data privacy issues which the company indulging in violating the basic human rights of people. It is because of this news that the company focused on making significant changes in the business which helped in enhancing their services which was important to ensure customer satisfaction and protect people from data privacy.

References

Bader, R. (2020). Person-affecting utilitarianism. Oxford Handbook of Population Ethics. OUP. https://homeweb.unifr.ch/BaderR/Pub/Person-affecting%20%28R.%20Bader%29.pdf

Borgesius, F. Z., & Poort, J. (2017). Online price discrimination and EU data privacy law. Journal of consumer policy, 40(3), 347-366. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10603-017-9354-z

del Río, G. N. B. (2021). The importance of always bearing in mind students’ privacy, consent, vulnerability, and agency issues. Educational Technology Research and Development, 69(1), 323-325.  https://doi.org/10.1007/s11423-021-09954-x

Lašáková, A. (2017). On organisational factors that elicit managerial unethical decision-making. http://zbw.eu/econis-archiv/bitstream/11159/3882/1/1688535861.pdf

O'Flaherty, K. (2019). Here's The Real Reason Apple Claims To Care About Your Privacy. Forbes. Retrieved 23 April 2021, from https://www.forbes.com/sites/kateoflahertyuk/2019/03/26/heres-the-real-reason-apple-claims-to-care-about-your-privacy/?sh=27715bc930f8.

Piacquadio, P. G. (2017). A fairness justification of utilitarianism. Econometrica, 85(4), 1261-1276. https://www.econstor.eu/bitstream/10419/130422/1/cesifo1_wp5785.pdf

Pillay, S., Ramphul, N., Dorasamy, N., & Meyer, D. (2018). Predictors of whistle-blowing intentions: An analysis of multi-level variables. Administration & society, 50(2), 186-216. doi:10.1177/0095399715581621

the Guardian. (2020). Apple whistleblower goes public over 'lack of action'. the Guardian. Retrieved 19 April 2021, from 

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