Allthe.news is a start-up news service entering an already crowded on-line news market. It is noteworthy that it is registered and web-hosted in a country that does not recognize international laws and conventions governing such matters as privacy protection, censorship, libel etc. John Ridgely is a recent graduate of Griffith University IT, now looking for a job. He sees an ad for a web-developer and applies. Allthe.news is looking for someone to work remotely, developing the service's website. John gets the job. The pay is above average for a 25 hour per week commitment working remotely in a post-pandemic world. Purveyors of Fake News. Before long, John realizes that Allthe.news' journalistic standards are low. Articles are published lacking proper fact-checking. Some articles are sensational "click bait", a vehicle for advertisements. They routinely publish fake news with headlines like "Joe Biden a Shape Shifting Alien Reptile" and "Ukrainian President's Love Child Bares All" Allthe.news also deals in misinformation, and disinformation. John is uncomfortable with putting inaccurate and deceptive information out, but he needs the job. He swallows his pride and carries on. Dark Pattern website. John also has concerns about being told to incorporate deceptive design features on the website, aimed at tricking people into subscribing with discounts and 30 days free. Once subscribed and credit card locked in, there is no obvious way to unsubscribe. Allthe.news is keen to gather as much data about what reader's political opinions, what they like, don't like etc. He is told it is to better target advertising. John is sceptical because the purpose seems to be tricking readers into providing more personal information than they intended. It is a practice known as "privacy zuckering". The Parent Company. Amid his mounting concerns, John decides to do some digging into Allthe.news' background. A talented amateur cyber-sleuth, before long he discovers that while Allthe.news is registered and hosted in a thirdworld country, its ultimate ownership is indeterminate. It can be assumed that in the parent company's jurisdiction, data privacy laws, or lack thereof, allow the government to acquire the data generated in the course of running their business, regardless of which country that data is collected from. With allthe.news clients ranging from certain governments, political parties around the world the context of the fake news stories comes into focus. At its core Allthe.news is a propaganda machine, paid to generate positive publicity for their client and negative publicity for the client's competitor. John notices that some of the news stories make favourable mention of the same companies who buy advertising with them. He learns that this practice is called "Native Advertising" An advertisement masquerades as a news story. Native advertising is largely a response to more and more people using adblockers on their web browsers. A year has passed, and John has found himself another job, this time with an Australian developer - Steele Software - specialising in custom ecommerce platforms for clients across a range of industrial and commercial sectors. Steele has its head office at Robina on the Gold Coast, not far from where John lives at Broadbeach. It is a full-time position mainly at Robina, but also at client sites around Australia. This remote work is about installation and training. Bruce Bennett Quits. Six months after John started, his supervisor Bruce leaves suddenly - no explanation. John seizes his chance to step up and do Bruce's team leader job until the directors decided on a permanent replacement. Several weeks later, John is confirmed in the team lead role. But all is not well. John notices that two of his three developers (Dev A and Dev B - both hired by Bruce) did not seem competent to perform the work. Dev A and Bruce had both previously worked for a different company - XYZ P/L - doing work for a client of John's current employer. Furthermore, Dev A is still nominally employed by XYZ. He is working at Steele Software as a highly paid contractor. Meanwhile Dev B is competent but is a new arrival from overseas and is having difficulties settling into her new environment. Dev A does not get his Contract Renewed. This unsatisfactory situation persists for a few more weeks until schedule slippage on this important job becomes an issue. John decides to replace Dev A with someone competent. Dev A becomes angry and confrontational. John initiates a formal review of Dev A's performance. Pressure to cancel the Review. Bruce Bennett (John's former boss who left suddenly) contacts John soon after the blow-up and in a closed meeting, asks John to retract his request for a performance review and declare Dev A to be competent. John refuses both requests. Not long after this the project that John oversees is placed on hold. The project scope had crept alarmingly to the point where it was thought that delivery by the required date would be impossible. John's future at Steele Software is suddenly at risk. Payback Time. When John's project was halted and ultimately cancelled John found himself again on the job market. Jobs he was qualified for went to other applicants, time and again. He could not understand why. After many months, John was shortlisted for a senior developer role. A job interview was arranged but the day before they phoned John to say that the interview was cancelled. John would not be considered due to a bad report. They didn't say who, but John later found out from a reliable source that it was Bruce. Time passes and John eventually finds another job, though the rumour about him started by Bruce took some time to live down. He goes to work for a competitor of the original ecommerce company (Steele Software). Lunch at the Club. A month into his new job, the CEO invites him to lunch. No ordinary lunch, he is taken to an exclusive men's club in Brisbane, the kind that is selective about membership, and which is known to be used by senior business and government figures to do the informal, behind closed doors networking where deals are done while reclining in leather armchairs with cigars and cognac. John is treated to an expensive meal with fine wine in a wood panelled dining room. "Man, this is the good life, I could get used to this!" Over desert, the CEO compliments John on his job performance and hints that he might have a promising career ahead. Perhaps even club membership. The boss then casually suggests that a detailed insider report on Steele's pricing strategy on IT projects might be of 'some use' when bidding in future tenders. 'You'll do that for us won't you John, there's a good chap. Oh, and by the way, we're thinking about hiring someone you know, Bruce Bennett. What do you think of him?'
 

Please read the provided case study to answer these questions:
1. Introduction
2. Legal factors (3-4):

3. Professional Factors (3-4):

4. Employment and Social factors (3-4):

5. Personal Factors (3-4):

6. Intrinsic factors (3-4):

7. Decision:

8. Discussion:

9. Conclusion:

Answer rating: 100% (QA)

Introduction The provided case study follows John Ridgely a recent IT graduate who joins a startup news service named Allthenews which operates unethically by publishing fake news and engaging in dece... View the full answer