“Apple: Good Business, Poor Citizen”: A Practitioner’s Response

This paper was written in response to Etzioni’s “Apple: Good Business Poor Citizen” (J Bus Ethics, 2016, doi:10.1007/s10551-016-3233-4). It argues that Etzioni is correct in seeing the recent conflict between Apple and the FBI over cracking the San Bernardino shooter’s iPhone as requiring that consi...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Newkirk, David (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
Check availability: HBZ Gateway
Interlibrary Loan:Interlibrary Loan for the Fachinformationsdienste (Specialized Information Services in Germany)
Published: 2018
In: Journal of business ethics
Year: 2018, Volume: 151, Issue: 1, Pages: 13-16
Further subjects:B Privacy
B National Security
B Stakeholder Theory
B Corporate rights
B Amatai Etzioni
B Communitarian Ethics
Online Access: Volltext (lizenzpflichtig)
Description
Summary:This paper was written in response to Etzioni’s “Apple: Good Business Poor Citizen” (J Bus Ethics, 2016, doi:10.1007/s10551-016-3233-4). It argues that Etzioni is correct in seeing the recent conflict between Apple and the FBI over cracking the San Bernardino shooter’s iPhone as requiring that considerations of national security be balanced against the rights of those it might impact. There are nonetheless critical questions about one must still ask: whose rights are curbed, to what degree, and how does a society decide which side to favor? More attention needs to be paid to the privacy of other iPhone users and, importantly, the burden that hacking the phone might impose on Apple, either impairing its brand value or compromising its business potential. Finally, by asking ‘who judges the balance?’, it questions whether labeling Apple a poor citizen is premature, as they had only begun challenging the FBI’s judgment through the judicial process.
ISSN:1573-0697
Contains:Enthalten in: Journal of business ethics
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1007/s10551-016-3397-y