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Why The Selling Of Customer Information At Outside Parties Creates An Ethical Dilemma

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This report is to evaluate and to make a determination on whether the selling of customer information to outside parties creates an ethical dilemma to an organization. It will investigate whether the implementation of this new method of revenue generation will create an ethical conflict with the website disclosure that “We will not sell our customer’s personal information to anyone, for any purpose. Period.” Introduction Companies have globalized, all over the world and social media has become a popular platform for engaging with a company’s customer base. Today, businesses face countless challenges created by social media platforms that require businesses to make decisions that might give the appearance of being dubious. Thus, it is …show more content…

This approach seeks to achieve the best consequences for the majority whilst harming others in the process. Notwithstanding that, the selling of customer data has become a common practice in business this is not what is in question. This principle is only concerned with the action taken by this particular company. Does the selling of this company’s customer data benefit many people? It will benefit other companies who purchase the data once mined to achieve an understanding of possible spending behaviors or brand preferences and the like. Nevertheless, the action does not benefit society as a whole. It solely benefits a segment of society. However, using this ethical model, we must review additional principles to understand whether the decision is ethical. The Generalization Principle The generalization principle focuses mostly on duty, obligation and moral rights. This framework believes that all things happen for a reason (Santa Clara University, (2008)). As in the utilitarian principle, it is clear that information is missing that can assist in solving this dilemma. For instance, will the data also contain information from its stakeholders? If not, then the Golden Rule of “do onto others” is not met (Hooker, John, (2012)). This rule discourages us from acting in self-interest, given that if the action or behavior would cause ourselves harm it is sufficient then to deem the action as unethical and by doing so will create ill will nto others. Conversely, the same

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