Professional ethics question

In My Humble Opinion
1

Let us say, hypothetically, that you’re a hypothetical librarian who often has to help patrons with computers, files, the internet, etc. And you know that it’s none of your business what your patrons are up to on the computers as long as it doesn’t break the code of conduct.

So let’s say there’s a patron who comes in often and asks you for help with his e-mail and documents and stuff. He only asks for technical help - formatting, how to print larger, etc. He doesn’t talk about what he’s doing, doesn’t ask any questions besides these technical computer things like “how do I attach this” and “why does this print so small”. In other words, he gives you no reason whatsoever to have read the first word of his documents.

Unfortunately, completely unintentionally, your hypothetical eyes have fallen on these hypothetical documents while you help him print and such, and you see that it’s obviously a Nigerian scam.

The patron is elderly, hard of hearing, not very computer literate. In other words, he’s probably not stringing a scammer along and getting carved heads in the mail or anything. He also always asks you for help, thinks of you as his own personal expert.

Do you tell him? I mean, you shouldn’t have been reading his stuff in the first place. (You totally didn’t mean to, though, recall.) In fact, you have an ethical obligation not to. On the other hand, what if he’s sending these people his life’s savings?

I’m kicking it up to my superior, but I want to know what you guys think. I mean, the man has a right to privacy, but there’s also a human obligation there, right?

2

You weren’t snooping, you just saw something which was in plain view before your eyes while you were handling it for a legitimate reason. No need to pretend that you didn’t. Just tell him that: “I’m sorry sir, I didn’t mean to read your private correspondence, but I couldn’t help seeing a few lines of this e-mail while I was printing it. Are you aware that this is a criminal scam?”

And even if you had snooped, that would be wrong and you should be ashamed of yourself, but now that this knowledge is in your head, the right thing to do would be to come clean, apologise, and then advise him that he’s being scammed. Like if a burglar comes across a dead body while burgling a house: he shouldn’t have been there in the first place, but now that he is, he should call the police (and take his lumps for the burglary, if necessary).

Now, how far you can go in trying to convince him, if he doesn’t immediately take your word for it that it’s a scam, is a trickier matter…

3

Well, one problem is that there is no way in hell he’s gonna believe me. Anybody getting caught by that in the first place will be so emotionally invested, you know? He’ll probably get mad.

4

Next time, accidentally include this page from the FBI in his print outs.

5

OK, but that’s just a practical matter, not a professional ethics question.

If you don’t want to do this the easy way, maybe you could make a little informational booklet about spam, phishing, Nigerian scams, viruses and other Dangers of the Information Superhighway, and give it to all library patrons who use the computers? Make sure to mention that he can come to you if he has any questions about the contents of said booklet.

6

I know, it’s just that I don’t want to have to tell him. He’s not going to understand, he’s kind of dim, he’s not going to even hear me, and if he does hear me and understand he’s not going to believe me and then he’s gonna get mad at me. I’ll screw my courage to the sticking point and do it, although I do want to talk to my boss today about it, because IMHO we need a policy.

7

I’d say tell him, even knowing that he won’t believe you.

I’m a circ desk assistant at my school’s library, and due to previous abuse of our free printing for students policy, the public printer is now behind the desk, so we need to retrieve print outs from people. This leads to lots of trying really hard not to see what someone printed but sometimes seeing it anyway. If I found myself in your situation, I would probably first talk to my supervisor about it and see if she has any suggestions for how to handle it. I would want to say something, though, if only to clear my conscience. You might not be able to help him avoid getting scammed, but you can at least try.

8

Tell him. He can believe you or not, but then you don’t have to wonder whether things might have gone differently for him if only you’d said something. FWIW, I don’t see it as an ethics question. You saw what he was working on, you didn’t spy on him, and you’re not telling him what to do.

9

Well, I think it is an ethics question. People who have no choice but to use library computers operate under a reasonable expectation of privacy, IMHO. In fact, when they’re paranoidly trying to keep me from seeing what they’re looking at or photocopying or whatever while still needing my help, I assure them that we don’t look and, in fact, don’t give a damn. And while there is no “librarian/patron privelege”, it would obviously be unethical for me to, say, elbow my boyfriend and say, “See that guy?! That’s that guy who’s always printing pictures of those underage Russian tennis stars!” (A real patron, who I will not point out to you in Wal-Mart.)

10

In the situation your described, you didn’t go looking for information, but get it “inadvertently.” You didn’t commit an ethical violation. Your question seems to me to be about whether you can use that knowledge to benefit your patron. In the example you just gave above, you’re sharing the information with another person, and not even a staff member. That does seem like an ethical issue, but that wasn’t what you asked about. In reference to your original question, I don’t see it as an ethics issue to raise what you inadvertently saw with the patron himself.

11

Quit being a wimp and tell him.

12

I think I’d try starting to tell all patrons in general that you’ve been getting lots of questions about email scams and that you are available to give them information. Then print out fluorescent flyers that say “ARE YOU BEING SCAMMED?” in giant type at the top that list the don’ts of email correspondence and put them in plain sight at each computer terminal and printer, etc.

You might even help someone you aren’t aware is in trouble.

13

Absolutley! He asks you for help, so give it to him.

You aren’t violating any “trust” or anything. You are stopping fraud and protecting a potential victim. The “trust” never existed. It is a scam!

Fuck him, for his own good, if he gets mad at you! Sometimes thats the best kind! :stuck_out_tongue:

14

I like jsgoddess’s idea because it helps make computer use safer for all library patrons.

15

So, the ethical question here is whether it’s alright to let a patron get scammed because you don’t want to get yelled at? I think the obligation just to be a decent human being definitely overrides everything else.

Get him a pamphlet or a printout about Nigerian scams from some reputable sounding government agency – then you’re not trying to explain, and you have the officialdom of the government agency to back you up.

If he ignores you, gets mad at you or refuses to listen to you, at least you’ve discharged your obligation as a good person, and if he gets scammed, you won’t feel like you did nothing. I know that’s a bit of guilt that I wouldn’t want to have to live with.

16

We had a similar question at a workplace corruption/ethical practice seminar. The scenario presented was:

During the course of your work you happen to discover that ABC Pty Ltd is having problems paying its bills and is obviously in financial troubles. That night your brother and his wife tell you that they are going to invest their life savings in ABC Pty Ltd. Can you tell them not too?

Strictly speaking, since our policy forbids the use of any information gained at work to be used for personal gain, the answer is no you can’t tell them.

Many people were happy with that answer but I argued that I couldn’t just sit by and allow it to happen, that I could have gathered the same information in other ways, that I didn’t actively seek out the information, that stopping them losing money didn’t advantage me.

The guy running the course (an investigator from the Independent Commission Against Corruption) said I did gain from the revelation - I relieved myself of the difficult emotional problems associated with following the policy. He happily conceded that if my brother didn’t invest in ABC and simply didn’t lose any money that I would be unlikely to be prosecuted even if he heard about it however…what would I expect to happen if my brother decided that my advice not to invest in ABC meant that he should short sell ABC or invest in a competitor and make a killing? And at the time I told him could I guarantee what he would do?

It certainly isn’t an analogous situation but it shows you the difficulties with enforcing black and white policies.

Me, I’d tell the guy or use one of the other devices suggested.

17

Tell him. I think the phrase the OP is seeking is, “I could not help but notice…”

18

I would tell him regardless of the consequences. I would probably pull him aside into one of the private study rooms and tell him like a daughter would a father.
Sometimes, your personal ethics have got to drive you even if it might mean your job.

19

The ethical answer is you tell him it’s a scam. He’s asked you for your help, and while his expectation is that the help is going to be limited to technological issues (printing, etc.), that doesn’t need to be the limit of it. You came into the information in an upfront sort of way, and if you approach him the same way, professionally, he shouldn’t get annoyed at you telling him what’s up.

don’t ask, the situation you posit is inapposite for a couple of reasons. First, there are insider trading laws that make tipping illegal (which is sort of a quasi-ethical restriction, in that one can consider the laws to be a sort of ethical guideline as well as a legal guideline). Second, the information isn’t being used to benefit or protect (a) the ABC company, whose information is at issue, or (b) the company you work for, where presumably you got the information. As a result, there are duties of loyalty/fidelity that could come into play. And while you could argue that your duty of loyalty to your brother trumps any duty of loyalty to your employer or to ABC, I’d argue that while that generally may be true, it isn’t true when you only came into the information because of your confidential relationship to the company.

But the bottom line here is the same: Zsofia, you should let the guy know that this is a scam. You may not be able to convince him of that, but if you tell him, you’ve done your best.

20

Zsofia, did you do it?