If it’s ethical to take out life insurance policies on employees without their knowledge or consent, is it also ethical to take out life insurance policies on customers without their knowledge or consent? Walmart has a bigger financial interest in any given customer than they do in an employee. How much revenue do they lose when a customer dies?
Notice I’m not asking what the law allows. The debate all along has been the ethical implications. Let’s stick to that.
How many people wouldn’t be bothered by somebody taking out life insurance policies on their kids? No big deal, right? (Until it starts hitting close to home.)
The Privacy Act of 1974 says that I have to be notified in writing of the use of my social security number. Wal-Mart had better have letters via registered mail on file. They already settled one lawsuit for $5 million and another for $10 million, so I’m finding it hard to believe that nothing wrong is being done here.
I think you’ve got a point there. Hm.
Like someone else mentioned too, I don’t trust a news organization to soundbyte this even remotely correctly, either.
Then the ethical thing is to question any and all companies that participate in this practice and not just single out WalMart. Of course doing that would take some ethics on the part of the writer and the lawyer and would take all the fun out of WalMart bashing..........