completely unethical!

[Rine]

I'm mad but I don't know if I'm overreacting!

My company has been pushing to get people to hand over their e-mail addresses so they can receive promotional e-mail.

Today I discovered that someone who obviously goes to the same university as I do went online to the directory and printed out students' and faculty/staff e-mail addresses and have been entering them in!

I was like, "WTF? I don't want to be signed up for this!"

I talked to one manager and they said they'd "talk" to another manager.

Screw them, I went ahead and told my school this. Where SHOULD my loyalties lie in a situation like this? How can I be sure that even if the manager tells me they stopped that they even will? The only way I know they'll stop is if I go to the school about this.

I e-mailed the school and I haven't disclosed the company's name yet, as I asked them what to do and I asked them to protect my identity should they need the company's name.

Am I overreacting?

Those people did not give permission for their e-mail addresses to be entered.

[HorrorFrogPrincess]

They are completely out of line, and probably illegal. Give your school the company name, but try and keep it anonomous.

[tropicsgoddess]

That is highly illegal and unethical what they're doing and I also agree with HFP to make your complaint anonymous.

[Rine]

I did. Actually, in the first e-mail, I did not identify the company. A senior tech analyst with the school told me to not identify the retailer until they talk to someone above them.

I had to use school e-mail to contact the IT department about this but I am very assured that they will protect my identify and if they do not agree to it, then I will not reveal my company.

I'm still unsure...it's a huge conflict of interest for me, I suppose. I suppose I could have worked my way up the vine here at work, but I'm just not satisfied that the practice would stop. This is my school and my fellow students and my teachers that are affected. Also, the fact that they could have signed ME up for this promotional (they already have ONE of my e-mail addresses and I wanted to keep my .edu one confidential.)

I guess my loyalty lies more with the school than my work. ::

[Arm]

It may be a conflict of interest, but you're also covering your own ass- with some crimes, knowing that the crime is happening and not reporting it can be construed as being an accomplice after the fact... I have no idea if this would count, 'cause I be not a lawyer. But reporting it is definitely the best thing to do- it's the right thing to do, and it covers your ass for later.

[Rine]

Well, my school e-mailed me today and wanted the name of my company.

They promised to protect my identity and even said that there has been a similiar complaint, so maybe I'm not the only one from the company to complain.

I gave them the company name and the name of the manager that is telling the associates to enter the e-mail addresses.

They said they are going to contact the company and politely ask them to ceast and desist, etc, etc. It looks like they aren't going to go after anyone and as long as they stop, nothing further will happen.

I hope this doesn't come back to bite me in the ass or anything. I feel, though, that I made the right decision.

[Broomjockey]

"Honour amongst thieves" only counts if you're a thief too. They're doing something wrong, so you don't owe any loyalty to the action. It's tough to do, but divorce your company loyalty from the people who are pulling these hijinks.

[Mr_Bandwagon]

You are being loyal to your companey by not allowing it's mid/low level managers to conduct biz in an unethical manner.

[Rine]

So.

If I get let go because of this, what are my legal options?

The school has stated that they are going to be contacting my company's corporate office about it, as they have begun to see spam from the company hitting student/staff accounts.

I'm sort of worried about things.

I think that people will know it was me, though I haven't said a word about the issue since the first day I noticed it and asked one of the other managers about it. I suppose they could think it was someone else...but...

[Akasa]

They are seeing the spam from company hit student's email so it could reasonably be argued that school, is saying "WTF is this?"

[Millahtyme1983]

You did the right thing, you are not being disloyal to your company since it's not your company doing this per se, it's an individual, or possibley group of individuals whom have not ethics and just happen to work for the company, and I'm sure the corporate office would not approve, just think how they would feel if someone who worked for them was signing up every email address in their system for spam.

[Andara Bledin]

I believe, if you get let go over this issue, that you would be covered by whistleblower laws.

That is, assuming you're in the US.

^-.-^

[PepperElf]

you most likely think they know it was you... because it's on your mind.

however i agree, you're being loyal to both the school and the company.

loyal to the school in that you're telling them who to contact to get the spam stopped

loyal to the company by getting this nipped in the bud before they get into legal trouble.

because they can get into serious trouble if they don't stop... most colleges have a TOS on what you're allowed to do with the data, and I'm sure that giving out the email addresses to a company for the purpose of spam is a violation of that TOS.

Of course, now that they know what company it is, it's very likely they'll be monitoring the account activity of your coworkers. I suspect if they find out who violated the TOS & gave the information out will be administratively punished by the college.

Colleges do not like that kind of stuff... They can get in trouble with the law, so if someone's using their database for something illegal, they usually nip it in the bud with the quickness.

I learned that when someone sent me a pishing email seeking my ebay information. When I hovered the mouse on the link it pointed to a college... so I emailed their Help Desk. They wrote back to let me know that the student had been dealt with.

[Rine]

I have been informed today that my company has begun an internal investigation into this issue.

I am soooo damn nervous...I almost don't want to go to work tomorrow.



I think they would know it was me because I was ticked off when I first saw these e-mails and asked one manager about it and the manager that is entering the e-mails told me, "he was going to skip me when my name came up."

But I played it off and told them that I hadn't given a thought to it since that day. He believed me.

Oooooh, geez. I feel so nervous! I feel like I've done something wrong, even though I know I've done something right.

I just don't want him to lose his job. Really, I don't! I want him to be told to stop and maybe get written up. That's that.

[HorrorFrogPrincess]

Clear out your Sent box. And you can get protected if they try to fire you.