Week 5 Type B entry: Response to John Smith situation from Dr. Johnson's blog post

 I don't believe that John Smith should sell the names and phone numbers of people possibly interested in purchasing an automobile in the near future. I think that it is an invasion of privacy, unless there was a user agreement that was agreed upon, upon completion of the survey that indicated to the participant that the results and personal information of the participants will be shared with third parties. I don't think that John Smith can take the businesses present financial position into consideration when making this decision, as hard as it might be. The American Marketing Association's statement of Ethics doesn't exactly address a similar situation to that of John Smith's, but The Fairness section and respect sections of their statement of ethics kind of says that privacy and legality is striven for. The situation is indeed a difficult one for the John Smith company, but they still have to honor and respect their participants' rights and privacy.