Business Ethics

In simple terms, business ethics are principles that guide decision-making (Boyles, 2023).

Business leaders face many challenges in the workplace because of different interpretations of what’s ethical. Situations often require navigating the “gray area,” where it’s unclear what’s right and wrong.

This is where business ethics comes on, and I think this visual from Santa Clara University (2019) seems to capture all the related concepts:

Following is a short assignment I had submitted related to this topic:

I came across a lot of interesting articles that seem to highlight business practices with some form of questionable ethics, violations, and/or corruption, and I picked these two articles to discuss here:

The first article highlights Apple’s recent agreement to pay $95 million to settle a class-action lawsuit (Jacob, 2025). The case alleged that Apple’s Siri voice assistant improperly recorded and shared users’ private communications without their consent, reportedly due to unintentional activations that captured confidential conversations. Apple, however, denies any wrongdoing and says that Siri data has never been used for advertising purposes.

For me, especially as a consumer, these type of allegations against a trusted company like Apple raise significant concerns about consumer privacy and ethical accountability. I usually expect the large corporations to have the right resources to ensure customer protection and compliance with governing laws. They do not want to erode customer trust and confidence, and reputable companies typically avoid engaging in questionable practices. Since this is a class-action lawsuit, it is difficult to believe that there were isolated incidents or only affected a small number of users. I’m guessing that Apple may have been aware of these privacy concerns and possibly discussed them internally as well, but chose not to take any action. If corporate ethics was a top priority, this most likely would not have happened, and the company could have avoided such a hefty fine.

The second is related to Meta Platforms, led by CEO Mark Zuckerberg, announcing plans to end fact-checking and remove speech restrictions on Facebook and Instagram, citing a commitment to restoring free expression on its platforms (Bobrowsky & Vipers, 2025).

While the company might be trying to align with some of the broader industry trends of reducing content moderation, I find the timing of this so close to the new administration taking office to be quite interesting. Restoring free expression on its platform did not appear to be a priority during the Biden administration despite similar shifts on other platforms, so it is unclear why this policy shift is now being prioritized, even though the company’s vision, mission and values have not changed. This could be a good example of Kantian theory where the actions are stated in terms of rationality and autonomy (Kline, 2021) where Mr. Zuckerberg has deliberately considered facts of the world, consequences, what the company is trying to achieve, and the nature of the beings he has to deal with, but I do not think the optics around making decisions to gain political capital with the new administration portrays a corporate culture with high corporate integrity and ethical responsibility.

References:

Bobrowsky, M., & Vipers, G. (2025, January 15). Meta ends fact-checking on Facebook, Instagram in free-speech pitch. The Wall Street Journal. https://www.wsj.com/tech/meta-ends-fact-checking-on-facebook-instagram-in-free-speech-pitch-8e46ad52

Boyles, M. (2023, July 27). What are business ethics & why are they important? Harvard Business School Online. https://online.hbs.edu/blog/post/business-ethics

Jacob, D. (2025, January 8). Apple agrees to pay $95 million to settle class-action lawsuit over recordings tied to Siri. The Wall Street Journal. https://www.wsj.com/tech/apple-agrees-to-pay-95-million-to-settle-class-action-lawsuit-over-recordings-tied-to-siri-1d9ae5c3

Kline, W. (2021). Lecture on applied ethics. Personal collection of W. Kline, University of Illinois Springfield, IL.

Santa Clara University. (2019, August 26). Ethics in life and business. Ethics in Life and Business. https://www.scu.edu/mobi/resources–tools/blog-posts/ethics-in-life-and-business/ethics-in-life-and-business.html