Moral Dilemma #8 - Spam Filtering
 

8. Spam Filtering

You are the network administrator for a rather large company. You have a young family and need your job to support them. As part of your responsibility as a network administrator is to monitor the emails for the organization. Usually this just means occasionally allow through emails for staff members that have been accidentally blocked by the spam filters.

One day you get a helpdesk request from a staff member asking for an email to get released. Normally it’s standard procedure except this time the request has come from the wife of a very good friend of yours. You recognize the name on the helpdesk request so quickly attend to the problem. As part of the procedure you need to manually open up the email to ensure that it isn’t spam, so you do and you discover that it certainly isn’t spam. You find that it’s actually an email to your friends wife from her lover. You scan the rest of the contents of the email and there is no doubt that she has been having an affair for some time now.

You release the email, but you can’t decide what to do. You’re initial reaction is to call your friend up and tell him about the email, however you quickly realize that company policy is very strict about revealing the contents of confidential emails of staff members regardless of the contents and unless someone’s life is in immediate danger, under no circumstances are you permitted to reveal the information.

In any case you know that revealing this information presents great risk, because even if you don’t do it directly, there is a good chance that the dots will be joined somewhere along the line and you will be found out. However you feel that by not telling you friend that you are aiding his wife get away with adultery and this troubles you greatly.

What do you do?




Source: Top 10 Moral Dilemmas

I would not say anything about the email. Instead I would see if there were other signs of her cheating and subtly suggest to my friend to keep an eye on her.

I've never been able to tell my friends anything which would cause them pain...even if I should have...so I'd say nothing

This.

I definitely would not tell him about the email, if it would affect my job. I would however find some way of raising my friends suspicions. If it did come out that I knew about the email later, I would apologise, but say that I had no choice, and if he's a good enough friend hopefully he would understand.

ignore it compleatly

I would just try and forget about it

Yeah, this. Or try to find some other evidence of it and use that instead

I wouldn't get involved. There's a chance the friend already knows he's being cheated on, and it would just embarass him more to thin that everyone else knows too.

When it comes to sex you should keep yur nose out of it. That's always been my rule.

Its not your nose you use anyway. Look a bit further down..

I'd keep quiet too - it's your job to check emails, not share the contents of them. If things did come out and your friend held it against you for not telling him, you'd have to stress that it's in your contract that you can't talk about what you've seen, even if the friend doesn't forgive you, you did the right thing.

It's a consensual relationship, so i wouldn't say anything.


But if i saw something that was a crime, like abuse or murder or child molestation then i would report it. BUt if it between 2 consenting adults, it's none of my business.

I wouldn't risk my job by telling the friend since my family is dependant on the income but I would talk to the wife and try to make her either come clean or stop the affair.

This.

I'd do as Ben said, and not point out the email, but rather that my friend should keep a close watch on her for any signs that she is cheating.

so you'd just make him paranoid instead of telling him the truth? IF yur gonna do that to him, make him paranoid, then why not just tell him what you know?

Eigther you tell him the truth or not, the idea that you'd tease him with a bit of information is just crazy.

That seems cruel to me. Eigther tell him or don't, but to make him paranoid like that just seems cruel to me.

This has been the first of these so far that I can answer :laugh:

I would not say anything. For all I know my mate knows their partner is cheating but is just pretending everything is fine, and knowing someone else knows might put pressure on them to end it when they dont want to. Hey, they might even be HAPPY with the situation as it is...blissful ignorance. To me, what goes on behind closed doors is none of anyones business...and its never a good thing to get involved in other peoples relationships as usually you somehow end up being the bad guy

But anyway, no way would I risk losing my job for something as silly as this

THIS 100%

I don't meddle in other people's relationships. You never know what people want from a relationship, and just because you think it's wrong to cheat, and you wouldn't cheat on your partner, does not mean that others agree.

Just Bcc the husband in to the email, so it's not visible on the original email, then you've made it look like she did it accidentally. Your friend gets to find out, and he finds out because it looks like she's been stupid.

I also, couldn't in good conscience, keep this from my friend. I have a responsibility to them. I'd expect the same loyalty in return.

I wouldn't tell him about the email, I'd try to convince him by other means.

What Id do too.

I would keep my nose out of their business.

Keep quiet

None of my business, I'd say noting.