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Comment by nhinck2 | Hacker News Reader

Since you like analogies...

There is a supermarket that at the checkout has a bowl of candy that operates on the honour system.

If you push a button next to the bowl of candy an ad will play and you can take a piece of candy. The candy itself costs a fraction of a cent to the business and the business doesn't care to put anyone in place to monitor compliance with button pushing.

This system is known by everyone and operating in this way for decades so there is no deception towards the person at the supermarket.

Is it ethical to take a piece of candy without pushing the button?

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In the supermarket analogy, it's more like saying you forgot your shoppers card and having the checkout person scan one for you, or using 867-5309 as your phone number. And no, it's still not unethical. The unethical actor here is Kroger buying every major grocery chain, and adding 20% to your bill if you don't agree to be tracked. Normal humans in the loop, employees included, will happily support you undermining their system.

That's not what I asked, is it unethical to take the candy?

No, it isn't. In practice no human will care whether you push the button. The social understanding is that it's fine to just take the free candy. In fact, the employees probably don't want to hear the ad again, so it is an ethical imperative to not push the button and subject them to that.

There is probably some human who sold the ad space to somebody, and who is monitoring how many button presses there are. And they will probably put pressure on the supermarket to make sure customers are reminded that they have to push the button if they want candy. Sure, the employees are probably sick of the ad, but the people who don't have to hear the ad don't care about them :)

I'd take the candy without watching the ad, for the same reason I refuse to use loyalty cards. Both the ads and loyalty cards are worth more to the supermarket than they are to me. They're basically ripping me off while pretending to give me something gratis.

(Actually, in reality I'd ignore the candy since I don't need more sugar.)

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