Google's ethical culture and data privacy practices

Multinational Corporations

In many powerful nations with whom U.S. corporations would like to do business (such as Mexico, India, and China) the price of bribery is factored into the everyday costs of doing business. There are profound cultural differences regarding perceptions of the ethics of bribery and in some government officials' views, receiving a bribe is an expected part of their informal salary. However, legally, the hands of U.S. companies are tied, no matter how widely embraced bribery may be abroad. "The United States' 1977 Foreign Corrupt Practices Act prohibits payments made to foreign government officials with the aim of gaining or maintaining business" although gifts "to officers working for foreign corporations are legal" which allows some organizations to disregard the spirit of the law; regardless, to do so is unwise and illegal (Allen 2000).

Topic 1: Ethics culture

Q1.How would you describe the ethics culture of the organization?

Google explicitly defines its ethical values as not being evil on its website. It stresses that the purpose of the organization is to advance social welfare through information-sharing. As part of its beneficence, it also treats its workers extremely well in terms of extending generous benefits and perks to them and creating a warm team culture.

Q2.What factors influence the ethics culture of organizations?

Google has a strong self-interest in creating a positive feeling about its organization. As a service-based organization that thrives on generating new technological products, it must attract the top-performing employees in its industry sector. It also must generate consumer goodwill. Although Google is synonymous with Internet searching at this point, consumers are free to use other search engines, since there is relatively little to hold them to one vs. The other.

Q3. What can be done to improve the ethics culture of the organization you researched?

However, there have been ethical questions raised regarding how Google stores and uses information. "Consider Gmail, Google's web-mail service. This provides two gigabytes of storage to each subscriber - enough to ensure that you never again have to delete a message. The flipside is that your messages reside forever on a Google server. What's more, Gmail is free because it is funded by advertising: Google's software scans every email, identifies key phrases, and puts what it regards as relevant ads on the right-hand side of the screen" ("Big Brother is watching you," 2005). More explicit privacy policies written in layperson's terms to inform users of how their data is used is essential if Google is to fulfill its mission statement not to be evil.

Topic 2: Everyday Ethical Issues: Identify an ethical dilemma you have experienced. Answer the following questions:

Q1.What was the ethical problem?

One ethical struggle I experienced recently was if I should purchase a dog from a breeder or go to the humane society to adopt a dog. On one hand, the breeder was my friend and I knew that the puppies had been well-cared for from an early age. The dog's breed and temperament was also a good size for my lifestyle. On the other hand, I know that there are many unwanted dogs in the world who need a new home and there are some people who are opposed to dog breeding of any kind for that reason. There are many good does in shelters although I also believe that this does not mean that dogs from breeders are bad and many of these dogs are bred for specific purposes (temperament, size, hypoallergenic coats) that cannot be found in a shelter easily.

Q2.How was it handled?

Ultimately, I decided not to get a dog at this time of my life given the time constraints I was facing. In other words, another ethical decision arose -- I was forced to make an ethical decision between wanting to give a dog a good home and knowing that there were certain factors in my life (time) that prevented me from doing this.

Topic 1: Current Issues

Using the research you completed earlier in this unit, select one current event that you feel demonstrates poor ethics in business or law. Answer the following questions:

Q1.What is the ethical nature of this example?

One of the most problematic ethical issues in marketing is the question of marketing to young children. Children do not have the cognitive ability to