Business ethics
Sometimes you have to disguise it a bit. A friend and I (both "corporate grunts") managed to deflect a pretty clearly unethical proposal by convincing Mahogany Row that the risk of coming to the attention of the regulatory authorities was too high for the most likely level of profit enhancement. Of course, about five years later one of our competitors did the deed and got away with it. Also of course, they were operating in a more relaxed legal regime.
You pays your money and you takes your chances. But appealing to an executive's better nature is a non-starter, I agree.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
