Once it's their call, you're absolved of any responsibility. Both morally and in every meaningful sense.
Once it's their call, you're absolved of any responsibility. Both morally and in every meaningful sense.
Uhm, no? You have another choice: not working for companies that work as privatised spying agencies.
WTF? There are still people who haven't grasped that that is basically the recipe for all man-made humanitarian catastophes in human history?
As an extreme example, if a company I worked at decided that they were going to murder someone, I would certainly voice my dissent. If they decided to continue to go through with it, I'd quit.
Sure, that's a bit hyperbolic, but consider companies like Palantir that work on things that actively erode citizen privacy. I'd never work at a company like that, and if my employer suddenly shifted gears to work on things like that, I'd quit.
"Following orders" is for the military... and even then I would hope someone in the armed forces would refuse to comply with an unlawful or otherwise morally horrible order.
If they listen to you, maybe they'll quit. If you lose their friendship, you can make new ones who don't work for evil companies.
And if they keep doing evil things for a living but still want to be your friend, maybe you should be the one to end the friendship. I've done that a few times. It gets easier with practice.
This is what I meant by "Don't try to control your friends."
If you don't let your friends have radically different beliefs from your own, you're just making an echo chamber for yourself.
This accomplishes nothing.
And nobody alone is responsible for the process. There is not necessary a feeling of responsibility on top- just because powers are granted by the process.