Google: The Quest to Balance Privacy with Profits Miami Dade College
Business Ethics
Abstract
Google is the most popular search engine that the world uses on an everyday basis. Sergey Brin and Larry Page created Google in 1998. What started out to be a small search engine and ranking system are now the worlds most profitable Internet companies of our time. Google has created many products today that have changed the world of technology, products such as Google+, YouTube, Android, Motorola Mobility, the Nexus 7 tablet computer, Google Wallet, and Google Glass (p.470). Google is qualified as one of the best companies to work for (p.464.) The issue we are facing today is the privacy policy
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According to the text, Google relies on tracking along with other activities to maintain profitability, it has large stake in the privacy issue (p.471). Google has been working on updating their privacy policy to better comply with what the users want when it comes to their private information. In 2012, Google revamped their privacy policy and combined all its information it gathered from its users from the different Google services. Google drafted a 13-page letter answering all government questions (p.469). Google states that all users have the option of turning off certain features that collect users information. The new policy also states that it would not impact the amount of data it gathers or deletes and that it remains highly committed to user privacy (p.469). If Google can continue to follow this new policy where it commit to its users privacy and not have it clash with its profitability then Google users will be happy. Majority of Google users just want to make sure that when they use the Google search engine, their private information is secured and not leaked to hackers. Google has the power to respect its privacy and maintain its profitability by keeping the two issues separate.
What are some of the effects government regulation of the Internet might have on Google’s operations? Since Google is a multination, it has numerous amounts of rule and regulations to abide by depending on the country’s laws and
For one thing, Google, like the railroad in its time, is an important part of how people interact with each other today. People use Google to digitally meet with others, communicate, and even sell things. Multiple people are affected by Google each day. 87% of people have claimed to use the internet in 2016 (Anderson). To add onto this the number of people who don’t use the internet has been decreasing since 2000.
In today’s world, Privacy and Security comes hand in hand with internet. Technology allows us free speech and freedom of information over the internet, by imposing strict laws and policies regulating the privacy and security of our information. According to Richard Clarke, free expression over the internet and its privacy are two sides of the same coin (Privacy and security(n.d.)). Writing blogs, uploading posts, comments or pictures on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, networking or sharing links on Linkedin are all considered as our free expression and its security is our right. Individual right to
Today, Google, Inc. is worth more than General Motors, McDonald's and Disney combined, and the company continues to model the way in the global technology industry in which it competes. In fact, the company's name has become a verb and it is common practice for consumers to "Google" what they want to find online. To determine how Google, Inc. reached this dazzling level of performance in a relatively short period of time, this paper provides an analysis of the three external environments in which Google competes, the general environment, the industry environment and the competitor environment. Next, a discussion of two specific strategic issues as well as opportunities and threats that are facing Google, Inc. is followed by a summary of the research and important findings in the conclusion.
When the book 1984, by George Orwell, was first published, people thought very little of the world that had been created within the book. In this world, society was run by the Inner Party, whose "leader" is Big Brother. Big Brother is the embodiment of the Party; he is the one who controls everything. He controls food ration, living arrangements, work positions, privacy, and even a person's mind. Privacy did not exist. In modern times, many aspects of the anti-utopian novel are beginning to appear in society. One of the major factors that are becoming more and more like Big Brother is the Internet. More specifically, Google, a very popular search engine, has been ridiculed and attacked for certain policies it has and does not have that resemble Big Brother's antics. Google is under suspicion as being the next Big Brother by many parties, including an organization under Privacy International called Google Watch, because of their disregard of privacy, specifically, accessing its users' hard disk information off their computer (Brandt).
Google Company is one of the global leaders in technology and in enabling people access information from the internet through their efficient search engines. Google immediately gained the attention of the internet sector for being a better search engine than its competitors (Wheelen, Hunger, Hoffman, & Bamford, 2015). This was after a tremendous effort in marketing their services and capturing a large market worldwide. However, there being so many risks and challenges in this line of business Google has had the urge to come up with new strategies so that they are able to overcome any challenge before them. The major problem that Google has
Google is in a good position among population demographics because most of their users are of a younger generation. Baby boomers cater themselves to other companies. Internet usage will not hurt them because searches do not have to be limited to females or males. New technological products that come out will cater towards Generation Y and Generation Z more. However, they will still benefit Baby Boomers and Generation
Google is a multinational corporation that serves thousands of consumers worldwide. Through Internet related products such as Internet searches, maps, emails, mobile apps, and other online contents for users Google became the company it is today. Every employee of Google is different in his or her own way; making it a well-diversified organization similar to the global audience they serve. Google’s mission statement is to organize information from all around the world and make it universally accessible at a quick and orderly fashion. This means creating a search engine smart
Though Google seemed to promote free-thinking and free speech on one hand, they were censoring and filtering with the other. Google lost credibility with the public, thus tarnishing its public image and “loosing 1% of the U.S. market in one month,” as reported in The Business. (2006, Aug) “Image credibility is based on the constituency’s perception of the organization” (Argenti, 2009, p.39). When the public image of a company has been compromised it “can make a huge difference in determining the success or failure of the organization” (Argenti, 2009, p. 40). When the public looses confidence in a company and what they stand for, they no longer wish to use its product. In response, executives at Google attempted to convince the public that they could handle the balancing act between censorship and providing information, and gain back public trust and confidence.
services. Official Google Privacy policy states: “When you use Google services, you trust us with your information.”. (Google) Google privacy policy is built on the opt-out requirement and they influence their customer to implicitly trust it with their personal data. Google claims in their mission statement that “Google’s mission is to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful” (Google Inc.) to create a perception of a trustworthy and ethical company who should be trusted to do the right thing for their customer.
The thesis statement is that search engines are invading the privacy of online consumers and search engines should not invade consumer privacy because these Search engine companies have no business in finding what the user is doing on the internet .Social media and Search engines are invading the privacy of internet users all around the world and keep track of all user info on the computers and this should not be allowed in any way..According to Caitlin Dewey , reporter in Washington D.C from the washington post it states”Google has,since 2009,published a transparency tool called Dashboard which lets users see exactly what kind of data the internet giant has on them and from which services.” This quote shows that since 2009 Google decided to create the tool Dashboard which makes it easier for google to see what other computer consumers are using.Another quote relating to this issue also from(Dewey,2014) it states “The issue of data collection has provoked renewed anxiety of late,perhaps spurred by recent investigations into personal
Google is a company that was conceptualized in a dorm room by two Stanford University college students in 1996 (Arnold, 2005, p. 1) and has morphed into one of the greatest technological powerhouses in operation today. What began as merely a means to analyze and categorize Web sites according to their relevance has developed into a vast library of widely utilized resources, including email servicing, calendaring, instant messaging and photo editing, just to reference a few. Recent statistics collected by SearchEngineWatch.com reflects that of the 10 billion searches performed within the United States during the month of February, 2008, an impressive 5.9 billion of them were executed by Google (Burns, 2008). Rated as Fortune Magazine’s
This precipitous claim made by Google is seen as a desperate and panicked attempt made to alleviate the situation. This ludicrous blunder will prove fatal for them.
Google has a lot of talent and does a lot of things really well, and they collect data really well too. Google has this lust for information which is great, and they have their own methods for collecting and storing private information, which can also be great. However, Google was ranked to have the worst privacy policy out of all other major service providers by Privacy International. Google even opposed a subpoena because, “[The] request for information threatened its trade secrets and image as a protector of user privacy” (Tene).
In 1998, Stanford University graduates Larry Page and Sergey Brin combined their ingenuity and built a search engine called “BackRub” that evolved into what is now known as Google. Google, with over 150 domains, now functions as a search engine that offers many different products and services including web applications, advertising, sports scores, stock quotes, headlines, addresses, videos, etc. Google’s focus is “to provide useful and relevant information to the millions of people around the world as they rely on us (Google) to provide the answers they are seeking.”
Interests: Google got famous for its seemingly rigid adherence to utopian ideals. If it turns out to be false, harsh criticism will be unavoidable, which may lead to reduced revenue.