Teletracking; COVID-19 Data tracking Contract Debate (2020)

 

Abstract

Teletracking is a data collection and processing company that has been around for nearly thirty years. In the beginning of October, the Trump administration renewed a contract that was signed in March of this year, with Teletracking to track and process COVID-19 data from hospitals across the United States. This case is going to analyze the effects that this contract is having on the general population of the United States, specifically the strain that it has put on health care workers who are faced with COVID-19 cases on a daily basis, and also businesses who rely on this data and information to determine if it is safe to re-open and to what capacity. The four ethical theories that will be used to analyze this case will be Individualism, Utilitarianism, Kantianism, and Virtue Theory ethics. Each Theory disagrees with the actions taken in this case; Individualism disagrees because profit is not being maximized and not for the overall population. Since most of the country is upset with this decision, Utilitarianism will also disagree with this case. This move was made without considering the effect it would have on health officials and was also made very secretly so Kantianism has a major problem with those actions. This case does not show great leadership, or good decision making which is the basis of virtue theory. To correct this action, the government needs to have the center for disease control oversee data collection, since they have a decade old system in place. There should also be rules set in place to give the public access to the detail of government contracts and how they are given out.

Company Logo

Stakeholders

With a contract this important, and with it being directly linked to the pandemic, there are many stakeholders in this controversy. You could say that everyone in America is a stakeholder because everyone wants to use this data to know
the current situation of the pandemic and how worse/better it is getting. The majority stakeholders are state officials, who rely on this information to know how to regulate their respective states during the pandem
ic. Health officials and hospital workers have been delegated to using two very similar systems that is causing huge discrepancies in data and making it challenging to process this data. This effects small business owners as well, as they need this data to know when to re-open and to what capacity they can run. The last majority stakeholder is schools and universities as they are responsible for hundreds to thousands of children and young adults and use this data to formulate either a re-opening plan, or plan to stay remote and teach from home. Overall, every citizen is a stakeholder because we all need this data to understand what direction the pandemic is heading. Without this data, many people will be left in the dark and left to wonder the status of COVID-19.

Case Summary

In the spring of 2020, a pandemic that was rapidly spreading across the globe, finally reached the shores of America. COVID-19 is a highly contagious virus that exudes flu like symptoms and other various symptoms, which has infected over ten million people in the United States and has resulted in over two hundred thousand deaths. While the country tries to get a hold on this virus and stop the spread, one key component of this has been to track the data from hospitals to see where the virus is most prominent and to determine what hospitals are lacking beds, masks, ventilators, hazmat suits, and other essentials to fighting this virus. In the spring, a company called Teletracking, a Pittsburgh based company, was awarded a $10.2 million dollar contract by the Trump administration (Temple-Raston & Mak, 2020). This contract was set to run for six months, with a renewal option after the six months were up. While the trump administration was confident in their choice of data collection, many were puzzled on why the data collection responsibility was not given to the Center for Disease Control, which has had a system in place to track things like this for over a decade. Among those surprised was Angie Franks, the CEO of Central Logic, which provides technology for hospital systems. She said in a statement, “I was surprised to see that TeleTracking was the company that was pulling that data together. There are other companies that pull data together and this is not what I know of what TeleTracking does. So, it was not really surprising to see that it was, maybe not working as effectively as anticipated”

CDC Report on COVID-19

(NPR, 2020). When the contract expired last month, Teletracking was awarded anther identical contract on October second which will expire next spring. This caused an uproar on capitol hill, especially from the democrats, who cited that the contract was only offered to a sole company, rather than be offered in a bidding style process. They also stated that there were several inconsistencies over the six-month period which included the state and federal reporting of hospital beds, being inaccurate by a large margin. Also, the timing in which the data was supposed to be reported was significantly delayed. Regarding the issue of there only being one bidder for the contract, the HHS said back in the spring that the contract was rewarded with a no bid process, but then flipped their answer and said that it was a competitive bid. The same answer is being said today, as the HHS said that there was a total of six companies in the bidding war for the contract. As of today, no other companies have been linked to the bidding process and the federal investigation agencies are currently undergoing an investigation as to determine the legitimacy of the awarded contract. Many top Democrats are willing to take matters into their own hands as Senator Bob Menendez of New Jersey told reports that if the administration did not reverse the move, and put the CDC back in charge, “we will look at withholding funding until the administration changes course” (Stolberg, 2020). A non-disclosure agreement was also built into the contract so that the details of how the contract was given, or how the data is being collected is hidden from the public and even state officials.

COVID-19 Testing facility 

            Even though many are questioning the move, the Center for Disease control director said that he is fine with the change, even though many experts fear that the contract renewal will further sideline the agency. However, hospitals that already have been reporting to state health departments can keep doing this if they get a written release form from the state that says they can keep doing so. There are supporters to the renewed contract and there is the HHS has given their reasons on why they went with the change. Michael Caputo, the spokesperson for the HHS said that the CDC has been seeing a lag of a week or more in data coming from hospitals and that only 85 percent of hospitals have been participating (Stobbe, 2020). The change is meant to speed up the data collecting process and relay the information back to the HHS at a faster pace than the CDC has been going at. A CDC official who decided to remain anonymous, disputed Capito’s figures and said that only 60 percent of hospitals participate but that most data is collected and reported within two days (Stobbe, 2020). The CDC’s National Healthcare Safety Network system was launched 15 years ago and is best known for collecting and publicly reporting data on hospitals infections. It has been a key component in reducing the amount of certain hospital infections. Even though this system has been in place for many years, others have stated that it is outdated and that having to enter the information manually, has been a difficult task for hospitals during this pandemic. Dr. Hanfling, an expert in emergency preparedness and vice president at In-Q-Tel, a strategic investment firm said, “This is not just about HHS vs CDC. It is that we have outdated data collection systems that aren’t automated, are burdensome on health care providers, and don’t give you real-time situational awareness (Stolberg, 2020)”. Many believe that this move was made, to influence the results of the upcoming election. The administration’s decision to take control of the hospital data out of the hands of the CDC and give it to Teletracking, while centralizing the operations in Washington, drew public outcry who feared that data would be used in a political way. Many feared that data would be skewed or even withheld from the public to give a different perspective on how the pandemic is going. Many state officials and data modelers rely on the CDC data to determine when it is safe to re-open certain businesses and at what capacity based on the number of cases in that state. With the control being out of the CDC’s hands, it will be an even more uphill battle when it comes to collecting numbers for the coronavirus. Mr. Arrieta of the department of health and human services addressed the transparency issue by saying that it is considering giving members of congress access to the new database and was “exploring the best way” to make information from it available to the public, including to news organizations and academic researchers.  This new contract has raised eyebrows across Washington and now has the public’s attention. As of right now there is an ongoing investigation on how the contract was awarded and if it was in fact through a bidding system. As of right now, the contract runs through the new year and will be up for a renewal in March.

Individualism

Individualism, first developed by Adam Smith, is an ethical theory that Smith describes as being self-motivating to do the right thing. Smith says that self-interest will motivate people into exchanges, whether it be business or other sorts of exchanges, and a backdrop of morality will allow the invisible hand to work in the real world. Later, Milton Freidman developed his own way of thinking about individualism and how it works in the business world. Friedman’s individualism, says that the only goal of a business is to make profit, and to maximize the owners and stockholders’ profit within the confines of the law. Looking at the controversy surrounding the Teletracking contract, which was renewed this October, an Individualist would say that this is an unethical move and that taking away the Center for Disease Control’s job of data collecting is only going to make things more difficult during this pandemic. Many hospitals and health officials are already reporting discrepancies in certain states between the data they were using from the C.D.C and the data from Teletracking. Health officials are now saying that by allowing this other company access to the data, they have essentially created a duplicate data collection system that makes it very stressful and more complicated than it was before. Dr Grace Lee, a pediatric infectious disease physician and associate chief medical officer at the Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital at Stanford, said that the CDC system has been working well; “I'm very surprised that we are being mandated to report into a parallel system when hospitals have gotten used to reporting into NHSN. It's adding burden at a time when hospitals again are now responding to the surge of COVID-19," she adds, "The timing couldn't be worse, to be honest”

(NPR, 2020). Not only has this move slowed down the process at which data is being collected and looked at, it has left a wave of uncertainty throughout many small business owners across the United States. This will hurt business chances to re-open at the correct time because there is going to be large differences in the data collected by the C.D.C and by Teletracking. Also, having the investigation on how the contract was awarded goes against what Individualist believe in. Even though there has not been any update on whether there was foul play or not, the many speculations and confusion among health officials, leads to believe that eventually there will be evidence of illegal activity while awarding the contract to Teletracking. Having the details of the contract be hidden with a non-disclosure agreement, goes against the norm when awarding government contracts. Although it is not necessarily against the law, many have called for the details to be made public. A better way to ensure long term profit for the future, would be to allow the C.D.C primary control of the data collection, since most, if not all hospitals are already used to it, to ensure that data on COVID-19 is handled in a professional way and distributed to the public, so that they can have a better understanding on the status of the Coronavirus.

Utilitarianism

            Utilitarianism is an ethical theory that was conceived by John Stuart Mill during the mid to late 1800s. The main idea of Utilitarianism is to maximize happiness for the overall population. Utilitarianism states that happiness or pleasure are the only things of intrinsic values. The controversy surrounding the Teletracking fails to maximize happiness for the overall population, and is causing stress and unhappiness among many people, specifically healthcare workers. With Teletracking taking over the data collection process, hospitals were given only a few days’ notice of the change their data tracking ways, causing mass confusion and stress in this transition process. Not only has this been a difficult transition, but discrepancies between the C.D.C’s numbers and Teletrackings’, has caused even more public outcry to switch it back to the original system, and leave the data collection up to the Center for Disease Control. With so many people upset about the change, it is very clear to see that many people are not happy with the change, therefore happiness is not being maximized throughout most of the population. Before the switch, hospitals were said to be being able to handle the data collection, and the C.D.C’s system was one that they were very familiar with and it was easy for them to use. This new system that has been implemented has only caused mass confusion and unhappiness among healthcare workers. There was a general feeling that they had a good grip on COVID-19 data and that this information was going to help slow the spread. With contract renewal for Teletracking, especially during the middle of the pandemic and at the start of “cold and flu” season, things have become very difficult for healthcare workers and people across the country, which is failing to maximize happiness for the overall population. Switching up the data collection systems has so far proved detrimental to the fight against COVID-19 and has forced officials to work more hours and crunch more numbers unnecessarily, which is causing a wave of unhappiness and stress across the country which goes against what Utilitarianism stands for.

Kantianism

            Kantianism is an ethical theory developed by Immanuel Kant during the late 1700s. Kantian ethics can be described as treating others with respect and never treating people as simply a mere means. The Formula of Humanity is a very important component to Kantianism, and the formula of humanity can be best described as treating others as an end, and not simply as a mere means to an end. It puts individuals first, rather than just focus on the overall population. It is trying to have everybody treated with respect and not just as a step towards an ends. The Teletracking controversy has put many people in a very difficult position especially during a pandemic. The sudden change in data collection process has left many health officials with an even steeper uphill battle, than the one they have been battling for the past six months. The change was made because the Trump administration preferred the Teletracking company over the Center for Disease control when it came to collecting and processing COVID-19 data. Back in September, it was reported by CNN that Trump had lost his patience with the C.D.C, and the progress that it was making regarding the pandemic. Even though the C.D.C data system is used by every state and has had their system in place for over fifteen years, the administration decided to go with Teletracking, a long-standing data collection company with no experience in tracking hospital data. The change was viewed by many as a political move to manipulate the numbers in his favor for the upcoming election. This contract renewal was motivated politically and did not take into consideration the effect it would have on the general population. Kantian ethics views this as using health officials as a mere means to strengthen his political campaign. There was no mass polling done among hospitals to see what system they preferred, instead they made the change very suddenly and gave the hospitals very little time and is causing workers to learn this new system on the fly. There was no consideration for many individuals and there was no regard for others rationality on who should oversee data collection. This move seemed very politically motivated and took very little to no consideration about how this would affect the workers. Kant thinkers will have a very serious problem with this because it was not a rational decision. It did not give other individuals the chance to make a rational decision, and the fact that much information is being hidden about how the contract was given, is a sign of dishonesty and deceit among millions of people.

Virtue Ethics

            Virtue theory is an ethical theory based on four virtues. Those four virtues are courage, honesty, temperance, and justice. Businesses should act in this way if they want to be known as an ethically sounds and responsible company. The way the Teletracking contract was given has left many very confused. The non-disclosure agreement between the Human Health Services department and Teletracking has lost the trust the American population had in their government and the on-going investigation is causing more and more people to feel this way. This new contract is supposedly going to help the country get a better hold on the pandemic, but as discrepancies between data keep rising, many are questioning the decision that the White House made. The fact that most, if not all, of the bidding information has yet to be released, is showing the dishonesty of the government, which would, according to virtue theory, make them act in an unethical way. To be an ethical entity, honesty is a major component, and the government is clearly being very secretive in this controversy. The contract renewal has made it very difficult on health workers. Having to switch data systems within the span of two days has made the already difficult pandemic even more so. The government failed to take into consideration the effect this new contract would have on health employees, and decided to go through with the deal, even though many were outspoken. This shows a failure in leadership and has given the impression that those on capital hill have only their personal interests in mind. Being a leader means being able to guide people through the most difficult of situations. People look up to a leader and want to follow them through anything. Much of the American population feels like the government is leaving them to fend for themselves and work out this confusing change on their own. The contract renewal now is seeming like a very poor move by the government. Although it is early in the new deal, it is starting to look like a bad choice, and being able to make the correct choice in hard times is a virtue that ethical companies/entities must have. As more and more speak out about the new deal, it is being discussed if this going to be a detrimental choice by the government.

Justified Ethics Evaluation

            The contract awarded to Teletracking has so far proven to be a very controversial decision. The HHS continues to back its decision, claiming that it will help speed up the process of colleting COVID-19 data but with so many hospital and health workers already speaking out against the move, one must wonder if this was the correct decision. Since it looks like as of now, it was awarded without any other companies having a chance to put their bid in, it seems like this move was politically motivated. The Trump administration has had a rocky relationship with the Center for Disease Control, and since the contract renewal seemingly came overnight, it looks like the administration just wanted the C.D.C out of their way. As politically motivated as this move may or may not have been, it is safe to say that it has worsen the pandemic in the United States. There was a very familiar system already in place that health experts had been familiar with for over a decade. To now must juggle between two different data systems, is only going to slow down the process of getting crucial information out to the public. This was a very unethical move, as it has not necessarily helped anyone a great deal and has only seemed to hinder the efforts of health experts across the nation.

 

 

Solution

For this situation to be resolved and for the government to remain ethical, the first course of action should be to release how the bidding process went. If there was a legit bidding process, and that six other companies were involved and were outbid, then the current situation will not be as volatile. If it is reveled that the contract was offered to the sole bidder of Teletracking, then that is a serious flaw in the U.S government and the case should be investigated and if needed, be brought to court to determine the legitimacy of the contract. This is very important because it is the overall population that is being directly affected by the lack of information being disclosed. This step will shine a light on this very confusing case, but the problem of the actual data collection remains. For health workers and hospitals to be able to process data effectively and efficiently, an option should be given to use either Teletrackings data system, or the Center for Disease Controls data system. There could certainly be hospitals and health centers that work better with Teletrackings system, but the overall census claims that the C.D.C’s system was easier and more effective for them because they were familiar with it. This option would attempt to maximize data collecting efficiency across all hospitals in the U.S, and not force them into using both. The final step in correcting this situation is making the bidding process for something that will affect all Americans, open to the public. Non-disclosure agreements should be barred from being built into contracts such as this one. There should also be a vote taken from various hospitals across the country, to see which company or companies they would prefer, instead of a handful of people making the choice for them. As something as serious as a pandemic, frontline healthcare workers should be able to choose how they process the data. They are the ones who must deal with this virus head on and are put at risk every day from catching COVID-19. To leave the choice up to them would ensure faster data mining, and more accurate statistics for a virus that we know very little about.

Works Cited

·       Temple-Raston, D., & Mak, T. (2020, October 02). HHS Renews $10.2 Million Contract For Controversial COVID-19 Data Tracking Company. Retrieved November 20, 2020, from https://www.npr.org/2020/10/02/919064606/hhs-renews-10-2-million-contract-for-controversial-covid-19-data-tracking-company

·       Stolberg, S. (2020, July 15). 'Sole Source' Contract for Covid-19 Database Draws Scrutiny From Democrats. Retrieved November 20, 2020, from https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/15/us/politics/coronavirus-database.html

·       Stobbe, M. (2020, July 15). Coronavirus data is funneled away from CDC, sparking worries. Retrieved November 20, 2020, from https://apnews.com/article/57de8f0d25d9066731e6bd8cad0373c4

·       NPR, P. (2020, July 15). White House Strips CDC Of Data Collection Role For COVID-19 Hospitalizations. Retrieved November 20, 2020, from https://www.kpbs.org/news/2020/jul/15/white-house-strips-cdc-of-data-collection-role/

·       Diamond, J., Valencia, N., & Murray, S. (2020, September 25). Trump has lost patience with CDC head after series of mixed messages. Retrieved November 20, 2020, from https://www.cnn.com/2020/09/25/politics/redfield-trump-cdc-morale/index.html

 

St. Louis Cardinals: Hacking of the Houston Astros Database (2013)

The Case

     The St. Louis Cardinals are a Major League Baseball team that play in the National League.  The team has a long and successful history stretching back to the 19th century with a total of 13 division titles, 19 National League pennants, and 11 World Series titles.  The Houston Astros are also a Major League Baseball team that plays in the American League.  A relatively new team to the MLB, they have six division titles and one National League pennant.  For most of their tenure in the MLB, they played in the National League along with the Cardinals but have just recently moved to the American League in 2013.  Right around this time, in June of 2014, the Houston Astros reported a data breach of servers which resulted in a leak of months of internal trade talks.  The leak was first reported by the Astros' General Manager Jeff Luhnow, a former Cardinal's employee.  Luhnow started in St. Louis as the vice president of baseball development and had worked his way up to the head of scouting and player development for the Cardinals organization.  Luhnow was critical in getting players that helped win the Cardinals a World Series in 2011 and after that season the Astros wanted him for their GM position taking several Cardinals employees with him.  An official F.B.I investigation was started in wake of the 2014 breach.  By 2015 it was announced that the Cardinals were being looked into.  The F.B.I was investigating the St. Louis Cardinals organization to see if current employees were involved the hack.  What they found was that Cardinals officials hacked the database housing all the player information for the Houston Astros.  Cardinals chairman Bill

Chris Correa:  Former Scouting Director for the Cardinals

DeWitt issued a statement saying the Cardinals had nothing to do with the breach and it was carried out by a group of rogue individuals.  In the end, only one employee was found at fault, Chris Correa, the the scouting director for the Cardinals.
     Correa was able to get into the database by guessing a similar password that was used by a former Cardinals employee that now works for the Astros.  It is still unclear at this time who's password Correa used but he may have had access to the database after the 2011 season, when Luhnow left for the Astros job.  Correa had access to their passwords because when these employees left they had to turn in their team-issued laptops.  These laptops were returned at the time to Correa who was in charge of wiping them for re-purposing.  The former employees had to leave their passwords so Correa could get in.  Correa was promptly fired and soon after placed in custody.  Authorities say Correa, "hacked the email system and was able to view 118 pages of confidential information, including notes of trade discussions, player evaluations and a 2014 team draft board that had not yet been completed." (ESPN, 2016)  Correa accessed the Astros database five times from 2013 to 2014 and improperly downloaded several files but may have accessed the database more than five times.  In January of 2016 Correa plead guilty to five counts of unauthorized access of a protected computer.  In July of 2016 he was sentenced to 46 months in prison and fined $280,000.  He had originally faced five years for each individual charge and began serving his time 6 weeks from sentencing.  Once the trial had concluded, Rob Manfred, commissioner of Major League Baseball, handed down a punishment.  The Cardinals would be fined 2 million dollars, the maximum penalty, and would lose their top two draft picks in the next draft.  Luck for the Cardinals their first round pick had been forfeited when they signed free agent Dexter Fowler so the Astros are left with two picks from the Cardinals outside of the first round of the MLB draft.
Stakeholders
     Stakeholders are individuals that have an interest or concern in this case.  These individuals may be stakeholders as they are a part of a group that has in interest in the case.  The stakeholders in this case are the front offices of both baseball organizations, baseball fans, sports reporters covering the scandal, Chris Correa, Jeff Luhnow and other former Cardinals now Astros staff, Bill DeWitt, and Jim Crane, owner of the Astros.  Both front offices are going to be affected by this scandal as it was committed by someone in the front office of the Cardinals.  Policy may change in order to prevent this sort of thing from happening again.  The Astros front office may increase security while the Cardinals may monitor their employees better.  Fans of baseball in general and fans of both teams are going to be effected because the integrity of player acquisition has now been questioned.  Who's to say this hasn't happened before?  It is important for the baseball fan to pay attention to this kind of scandal as it creates healthy skepticism in the practices their own team implements in keeping player data secure and how their own team finds out information on potential players.  Reporters have a stake in this case because it is a part of their job to break sports news to the public.  A scandal like this deserves to be shown to the public in fair, unbiased news articles so fans can formulate opinions on what happened.  It is important these reporters take an interest in this case so they can do their jobs properly and inform sports fans of what is going on.  Chris Correa has a stake in the case because he is the one who committed the crime of hacking.  He is the reason this paper can be written because he brought the Cardinals ethics into question.  Jeff Luhnow would have a stake because he is at the

Jeff Luhnow: General Manager of the Astros

center of this case.  Although according to the findings, Luhnow had nothing to do with the hacking, the databases were his creation.  He should be interested in their security and their accessibility.  He should also look into possibly changing his passwords.  Bill DeWitt has a stake as he owns the Cardinals and is responsible for how his employees conduct themselves at work.  The reputation of the Cardinals organization was tarnished by Correa so DeWitt has a stake in this case because it effects how his organization is seen.  Jim Crane is a stakeholder because his team had valuable player data stolen that resulted in missed opportunities to acquire players because the Cardinals beat them to it,  This cost his team money and success so following this case would be important for finding out how much this actually cost his team.
Individualism
     Friedman's individualism, which focuses more on business, describes individualism as profit being the only goal of a business.  This means that employees of a business are obligated to do whatever they can to help the business maximize profit within the parameters of the law.  From the individualist point of view, Correa was doing whatever he could to make the Cardinals better.  The Cardinals baseball team is technically a business that profits from the game of baseball.  Correa stole player information from the Astros in order to gain a competitive edge.  During the court hearing, federal prosecutors said, "the hacking cost the Astros about $1.7 million, taking into account how Correa used the Astros' data to draft players." (ESPN, 2016)  The Astros lost out on making 1.7 million from players the Cardinals took which means Chris Correa helped the Cardinals make 1.7 million dollars.  He helped the Cardinals profit in a big way and the players he drafted will continue to have an impact in the organization long after Correa gets out of prison.  Some individualist may say that what he did was ethical based on individualism.  The only problem is though, he acquired the data illegally.  He may have done whatever he could to help the company profit but he did so by stealing information.  What he did was most certainly helpful to the Cardinals but it was clearly illegal as he was fined 280,000 dollars and sentenced to 46 months in prison.  On top of this punishment, Major League Baseball fined the Cardinals 2 million dollars which essentially nullifies any monetary gains Correa helped them get as a result of his hacking.  From an individualist perspective, what Correa did is unethical because he may have helped the Cardinals maximize profit, he did so by illegal means.
Utilitarianism
From a utilitarian perspective, happiness and or pleasure are the only things that an individual values intrinsically.  Individuals should also spread happiness or pleasure wherever they can and do so impartially.  If happiness is to be valued, then there should be no difference between the happiness of one person and the happiness of another person from a moral perspective.  In terms of the case, Correa only tried to maximize his own happiness.  He did end up spreading happiness to the Cardinals organization because he “found” good players but that happiness was quickly negated after it came to light how he found those players.  He also impartially spread this happiness as he knew that when he did this, the Astros would be an afterthought to Correa.  He made himself happy because he was making the Cardinals happy but never took into account the happiness of the Astros.  Even the happiness he provided the Cardinals was short lived because after he got caught, the commissioner of the MLB fined the Cardinals 2 million dollars.  Correa spread happiness in a partial manner which violates a principle of utilitarianism.  He essentially weighted his happiness and the happiness of the Cardinals over everyone else’s because he worked for them and wanted to see them do well while also making himself seem like he was excelling at his job.  Based on the values of utilitarianism, what Correa did would be considered unethical.  He failed to maximize the happiness of more than just himself and when he did increase the happiness of the others, the Cardinals, he did so partially as he stole data and stealing is not known to make people or companies happy.

Kantianism

There are four basic principles of Kantianism.  The first, an individual must act rationally.  They
need to act consistently and not consider themselves exempt from the rules.  The second is an individual should be helping people make rational decisions.  The third is to respect people and their autonomy along with their needs and differences.  The fourth is that the individual should be motivated by Good Will.  They should want to do what is right just because it is the right thing to do.  A Kantian also believes that being rational is doing the right thing so there for being right is also rational.  In the case of Correa, he did not meet these requirements.  Correa considered himself exempt from the rules when he hacked the Astros database.  Perhaps he felt he would not be caught and it is clear he did not feel bound by laws against hacking as he accessed the database at least five times over a span of years.  He did not help anyone make a rational decision during this time.  The data he stole was used by the Cardinals to acquire players in order to better their team and although

the Cardinals did not know about it, Correa was still not in the right to share this information.  Therefore, he did not help the Cardinals make a rational decision as he did not specify where he got this information from.  The former Cardinals employees turned Astros employees trusted Correa with their work laptops and passwords when they left the Cardinals organization.  A password keeps your personal information safe from people you do not wish to view it.  Correa did not respect these employees or their privacy when he memorized one of the passwords and guessed the correct new one in order to gain access to the database that the Astros have.  Lastly, Correa was not motivated by Good Will when he made the decision to hack into that database.  He was motivated by the thought of a possible pay raise and prestige bump when he showed his bosses all this player information he “worked so hard to get.”  Correa did not want to do what was right and actually obtain player data the legal way by collecting it himself, he instead decided to steal it.  What he did was not right and is therefore irrational.  Based on Kantian ideals, this would make what Correa did unethical.

Virtue Theory

A virtue is a characteristic that allows for things to work properly.  In business, there are four major virtues.  These virtues are courage, honesty, temperance, and justice.  Courage is the risks an individual takes and their willingness to stand up for what is right.  Correa took a huge risk by hacking into the Astro’s database and stealing their information.  Although this does not mean he had courage.  Based on the doctrine of mean, Correa’s decision to do this was very far away from the mean of courage and was somewhere closer to one of the extremes.  It could be argued that Correa’s was rash as he really didn’t look at the big picture of what he was doing.  IT could also be considered cowardice because instead of doing what was right and difficult, he chose to steal player information and not work for it.  This ties into his lack of willingness to stand up for what is right.  What Correa did was not right and it can be clearly shown it wasn’t right as he is spending 46 months in prison.  Correa was clearly not willing to do what was right and chose rather to take an easier route in order to get player data.  This inevitably cost him his freedom.  Honesty is how truthful you are when talking to coworkers, customers, and other companies.  Correa was not honest with anyone.  Nobody really knew in the Cardinals organization where Correa was getting his player information from, they just knew he had it.  It took a federal investigation of his company in order for Correa to come clean and admit what he did.  He may have even continued on with the lie had he not done such a bad job trying to cover his tracks.  Temperance is having reasonable expectations and desires.  Correa never expected to be caught for what he was doing which can be clearly seen because of how frequently he viewed the Astro’s database.  It is unreasonable to expect that he would not get caught especially after it was announced that the database was breached and he still kept accessing it.  His desire to help the Cardinals succeed was also unreasonable because he was willing to do illegal things in order to help them.  This desire is too extreme if he is willing to break the law in order to help his company win more baseball games.  Lastly, justice is the hard work, good ideas, and fair practices of an employee.  Correa did not exhibit any kind of justice.  He cut corners by stealing player data from the Astros because he just so happened to guess a correct password.  This means he did not need to put in any hard work in order to get this information.  He did not abide by the law or the rules of baseball when he hacked into this database which means he did not show fair practices in his business.  By illegally requiring player information, he unfairly helped the Cardinals have a competitive advantage over other teams.  Based on virtue theory what Chris Correa did was unethical.

Justified Ethics Evaluation
     From my own ethical perspective, what Chris Correa did was unethical.  You don't even need the ethical theories to see that because what he did put himself in prison.  I find that Correa's lack of foresight to be especially unethical.  At some point when he was trying to guess the password for the Astro's database he had to have known what he was doing was wrong.  But he kept going until he eventually got in and continued to access the database.  He ended up tarnishing the reputation of the Cardinals by cheating and stealing which caused the Cardinals to receive penalties because of his wrongdoings.  Although the Cardinals are not totally spotless in this case.  They never thought to look into how Correa received his player data and how it specifically related to the Astros apparently never raised any red flags to them.  Seems kind of suspicious to me.  I believe that what Correa did was grossly unethical and I also believe that the lack of questioning by the Cardinals makes their handling of this situation unethical as well.

Sources 

Daniels, Tim. "St. Louis Cardinals Under FBI Investigation For Alleged Hack Of Astros System". Bleacher Report. N.p., 2015. Web. 31 Jan. 2017.

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/2497669-st-louis-cardinals-under-fbi-investigation-for-alleged-hack-of-astros-system 

Kepner, Tyler. "Cardinals To Suffer, But Former Executive Bears Brunt In Hacking Case". Nytimes.com. N.p., 2017. Web. 31 Jan. 2017.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/30/sports/mlb-st-louis-cardinals-hack-houston-astros.html 

Press, Associated. "Ex-Cards Exec Gets Prison Time For Astros Hack". ESPN.com. N.p., 2016. Web. 31 Jan. 2017.

http://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/17101079/chris-correa-former-st-louis-cardinals-scouting-director-sentenced-jail-hacking-houston-astros 

Reiter, Ben. "Worse Than Deflategate: Why Cardinals' Hacking Is So Problematic". SI.com. N.p., 2015. Web. 31 Jan. 2017.

http://www.si.com/mlb/2015/06/16/astros-cardinals-fbi-hacking-ground-control 

Saxon, Mark. "Cardinals Get Off Light With Hacking Scandal Penalties". ESPN.com. N.p., 2017. Web. 31 Jan. 2017.

http://www.espn.com/blog/st-louis-cardinals/post/_/id/2828/cardinals-get-off-light-with-hacking-scandal-penalties