Rules/laws/policies are to prevent abuse/evil things and to serve people! RULES ARE ALWAYS MUTABLE and should punish abusers of law/rules/policies, NOT the people it is built to serve. Rules must/will change and they should always benefit people who are doing the right thing.
I will give a simple example on why we should go above the law and think a lot of things using basic common sense;
Recently our country introduced camera's on highways to avoid speeding. The govt is so rigid on the rule now that they have already fined people who were speeding in an event of emergency and even ambulances. And I read complains of these people on Facebook. Instead of the laws working to protect and serve, we see it happening the other way.
What we as a society lack is process/structure to handle the outstanding/exceptional scenarios. We need to build a system which tolerates outstanding/exceptional situations so that the system doesn't break down. But unfortunately, we don't tolerate any outstanding situations and it breaks down.
This organisation is doing bad things, and this is not the first or second time this has happened. So the whole world and especially the employees should definitely know what they are doing. They are engineers aren't they? So they are bound to be smarter than the average folks. There is no need for benefit of the doubt with them.
And let's starts acknowledging that many countries are still only in the drafting phase when it comes to dealing with most of the digital abuses, bad things. Most democratic systems are super slow when it comes to digital crimes and laws. So current laws are not sufficient and hence should not be used gauge the severity of the incidents the law cannot handle.
Also remember, Facebook started struggling a lot after the cambridge analytica scandal to hire, because people didn't want to affiliate with them. So this works. We should call them and the employees out for a better world. :)
You didnt have a choice to be born German, you do have a choice to work for NSO.
So the question is more, does the accountant who was keeping books of the belongings taken from the Jews have moral (and legal?) responsibility? And yes I believe he does (and the courts in Germany agreed look up Oskar Gröning).
My point of view is, yes! Unless he opposed in a meaningful way. But most did their duty and did so proudly. And after the war everyone just did their duty because hey had to and no one was a nazi.
But the question also applies to today. The US for example use turtore and murder. So for some family members of people being murdered, because they attended a wedding in afghanistan, the whole US is guilty and therefore a legimitate target. I do not think so, but I think people in the US should take this more into consideration when thinking about terrorist. Most terrorist legitimate their actions (and get support) by saying they fight back the evil empire.that brings them only bombs.
If we talk about its legal, whose laws should we even apply?
And it makes sense. The concept is valid, if you knowingly support criminal activity, which you do by associating with them, you are guilty (by varying degree). Mere familiy members of the mafia in italy for example will usually not being prosecuted, even though they are part of it.
What you mean with guilt by association, is when the nazis for example enprisoned whole families, because one member was part of the resistance. And from the point of view of the Nazis this also makes sense. Because family members do support each other and are close(in ideology), so one enemy in a group means, there are probably more and if not, then it is an example for others not to help anyone resisting even if it is your brother and rather stop or support them.
So the problem with guilt by association to me is not the concept, but how it is applied.
The cruel, despotic government is the problem in the first place, not the tactics they use.
And this concrete case here is about supporting authorian, cruel governments, by (indirectly) working for them.
And I am free to despise and avoid people by my own standards, no matter that they are within the borders of the law.
But in this case it is not a criminal organisation, by law, it is a company selling "software weapons" to a government the western governments view as legitimate and therefore ok to sell weapons to, even though it is not at all democratic.
So the company is acting within the law (probably), but we probably agree, that it is not moral to do so. If we agree on that, than it is also not ok, to support a company who is doing wrong. So I agree, to avoid people, who do no ethical work. But I don't know enough of the companies in question to make that final judgement and judge case by case, like always.