The comments are full of personal anecdotes along the lines of "I've been to those meetups.", and "I worked at a place that bought that kind of data.", and the

The comments are full of personal anecdotes along the lines of "I've been to those meetups.", and "I worked at a place that bought that kind of data.", and the article: "everyone else does it". What's troubling me is the question, "what incentives do average employees in the tech industry have to operate in a morally admirable manner?". It seem very few, if any. Sure we lack explicit moral guidelines, but what if instead of, or in addition to, focusing on punishment of companies that get ugly, what if we incentivized employees to be respectful citizens? This isn't absolving capitalism of its flaws by any means, more it's acknowledging them. But punishing evil corp is so reactive. Why is the average employee so willing to sell out their fellow citizens, and ultimately themselves, for a paycheck? The obvious answer is, "it's a paycheck". But have we really lost all ability to hold a moral compass? I'd rather not believe that, so how do we calibrate at least a basic set of guidelines that actually effect change in a global industry? Other industries solve this problem with ethics boards and operating licenses. But other industries are arguably more localized. I also suspect many here would find such things anti-egalitarian and generally be against the idea. What other options exist? Note: I normally prefer reactive punishment because it doesn't impose worldviews and agendas on people--jury of peers makes punishment human, etc. I'm also somewhat morally relative, but it doesn't take a genius to understand that economically viable and moral are not equivalent. The issues of digital data privacy and data ownership are issues of fundamental human rights, and many of us operate under governments founded on principles defending such (point being I concede not everything is relative, and I think socially our efforts are best served defending things we have very little argument about).