A friend of mine works for a smallish company, and they recently sent out a benefits spreadsheet to their employees. It's basically a calculator that estimates how much their payroll deduction will be, based on which benefits they elect.
As my friend was looking at this, he realized there were hidden sheets in the workbook. Being curious (or nosy), he went about cracking the workbook's security, and was able to make the hidden sheets visible. It turns out the hidden sheets were filled with personal information about the company's employees: DOB, salary, addresses, benefits elections, etc... basically everything but the employee's names (which I'm guessing could be ascertained pretty easily given the DOBs).
He asked me what I thought he should do. Go to management and tell them about this or keep silent? I could see how the company would want to know, and may reward him for pointing this out. Alternately, I could see the negatives to doing that - maybe that it makes him look shady for "hacking" the workbook, and now they know he knows a bunch of personal info.
I'm stumped personally so I thought the AO would be a good spot to ask for opinions. Feel free to move this thread if it is better suited for another forum.
As my friend was looking at this, he realized there were hidden sheets in the workbook. Being curious (or nosy), he went about cracking the workbook's security, and was able to make the hidden sheets visible. It turns out the hidden sheets were filled with personal information about the company's employees: DOB, salary, addresses, benefits elections, etc... basically everything but the employee's names (which I'm guessing could be ascertained pretty easily given the DOBs).
He asked me what I thought he should do. Go to management and tell them about this or keep silent? I could see how the company would want to know, and may reward him for pointing this out. Alternately, I could see the negatives to doing that - maybe that it makes him look shady for "hacking" the workbook, and now they know he knows a bunch of personal info.
I'm stumped personally so I thought the AO would be a good spot to ask for opinions. Feel free to move this thread if it is better suited for another forum.
Ethical Question?