20.10 You work for a software company that has developed a system that provides information about consumers and that is used within a SoS by a number of other retail businesses. They pay you for services used. Discuss the ethics of changing the system interfaces without notice to coerce users into paying higher charges. Consider this question from the point of view of the company’s employees, customers, and shareholders.
Employee’s view: From this viewpoint the company’s decisions to pull one over on the customers is highly unethical. As an employed Software Engineer for the company it would raise concerns greatly as the ACM Code of Ethics states that computer engineers should always act in the public’s best interest.
Customer’s view: This is highly unethical from the customer’s standing point. The fact that the price increase is hidden until the customer’s are billed is heavily underhanded. This is egregious and if all the updated interface does was better hide the price gouging then it would seem that is grounds for a lawsuit.
Shareholder’s view: For the shareholder’s this would probably been seen as a positive. They are less likely to care about how this affects the customer as long as they know that most people will stick to what they know and pay the increased price anyways.
CSCI 362-02, Software Engineering 