[maxbond]

I don't really disagree with anything you said, but I do think ethical principles have priority and that higher priority principles can override lower priority principles. Some people are simply not in a position to uphold their principles, and I don't think there's shame in that; if anyone is at fault, it's the people who put them in a position to make that choice.

Our first duty is always to the survival of ourselves and those around us. Of course, if you're working on a system that can put lives in jeopardy - which may not be an artificial heart or something obviously critical to life like that, it may just mean a social networking app used in countries suffering from authoritarianism - then it's possible to come into a very sticky conflict.