$>$PURPOSE

Consider the chapter introduction: General Mills changing its legal terms to try to reduce lawsuits. Imagine that you are the company's corporate ethics officer and are asked$-$before the decision was made$-$whether the changes are ethical.

l$)>$PROCESS

To help you decide whether the changes are ethical, you use the Framework for Ethical Decision Making. You choose the following questions because they are most relevant to the situation:

Is the action legal?

This is a tricky one. The company lawyers think so$,$ but other legal experts find potential problems: could merely$-$even accidentally$-$clicking on a website force someone to give up her right to sue? What if the company did something harmful and intentional?

Who will be affected by the decision and how?

Consumers and other Internet users may limit their access with the company, which could be an unintentional negative effect of these new terms. Also, can we reasonably expect consumers to read our long legal agreement before downloading a coupon? And how we will prove that someone visited the website? Confiscate his computer hard drive? That doesn't seem ethical or practical.

Is this action in line with the company's guidelines and values?

Our mission is $"$to make lives healthier, easier, and richer." This change doesn't support the mission, particularly making lives easier. One of our values is $"$Do the right thing, all the time." Restricting consumers' rights doesn't feel right.