Fantastic precedent. When your boss tells you to do something unethical and possibly illegal, you now have a great reason to say no.
I and a co-interviewer recently voted "strong yes" for a candidate partly on the basis of hearing that he took a hard line against giving his CEO access to the text of conversations on a messaging platform.
The only time you're allowed to mention this is when it becomes easily verifiable in something like a newspaper. I actually have personal experience in one of my jobs where the owners very casually asked me to do some unethical things and then shrugged it off. At the time I highly suspected I was fired because of it, but had no evidence. So for years at interviews when asked why I was fired, my answer was "Nepotism," which is true because they replaced me with an incompetent relative. The FTC shut them down 5 years after I was fired. I only mention it if the employer tries to verify past employment and asks why the phone number doesn't work.
I read an article which claimed that if you want a job as a car salesperson, you should make it clear that the reason you want the job is that you want to make the most money you can, not that you have a passion for cars. Don't know how true this assertion is but the rest of the article seems to corroborate. There were anecdotes which mentioned the dealership getting a decent kickback from the manufacturer for selling say 80 cars (and the prospect of getting nothing for selling 79) which could mean the difference between the dealership being in the red versus being in the black. Given these constraints, you don't want to hire someone who does the right thing and turns away prospective customers based on what is in the customer's best interest. I can imagine similar pressure to bank tellers at places like Wells Fargo (whose ex CEO should be in prison btw)
> "Dear <Supervisor>,
> I hereby bring to your attention that _xyz_ will have the following consequences.
> My suggestion is that you do _zyw_.
> Please notify me how you want to procede."
If he decides to continue doing what he's asking you to do it anyway. He's now the one liable.
I'd advise you to print that email and the response and store it in a folder at home or at your lawyer, bank, whatever.
If they at some point decide to fire you or throw you to the wolves you can be certain that you won't have access to your emails anymore.
It might feel awkward the first couple of times, but afterwards you might end up with a cozy life.
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milgram_experiment#Results
Seriosly, there is more emphaty for people who can find another job real quick (or just need to be content to not climb career ladder) then for poor-about-to-be-homeless that does something unethical.
So every boss now knows that as long as they can find somebody in lower place to agree to do something unethical, they will face no repercussions themselves!
Here your job would be safe, though you could be put in some dead-end position where you eventually leave on your own. Or you are offered a good deal for leaving quietly.
That engineers will be thrown in jail while CEOs will walk away scot-free?
Yeah. Fantastic.
lighten up guys. it was kind of funny.