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Google Ethical Issues Essay

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Google, like any other successful companies, deals with ethical issues on a day-to-day basis. Google’s corporate mantra simply put - “Don’t be evil” (Google), is what drives their corporate ethics in doing business. Being the data juggernaut that they are, questionable business ethics arise often in relation to privacy. In 2007, Google’s controversy regarding Street View raised privacy and security concerns. Street View allows for high-resolution photos enabling you to explore 360-degree panoramic, street-level imagery of places once you type in the correct address. This could range from vehicle license plates, properties, people doing mundane activities, as well as people in compromising or out-of-context situations. And since Google’s …show more content…

Google’s defense also claimed that there is nothing wrong with collecting data from unsecured wireless networks because those networks by nature broadcast their activity for the world to see. Apparently, these are what we all are agreeing on when we are being asked to agree to terms upon joining a wireless network. They claimed that the data gathering was for better marketing and that it had no unlawful intent whatsoever. But after numerous protests around the world and countless lawsuits the company giant faced after the controversy, Google ended its illegal collection of WiFi data transmissions. The issues encompassing Google’s privacy policy and their business ethical practice is a vast issue to tackle. On Google’s data gathering backlash: It’s easy to put your trust when a big company like Google asks you to enter your information on their web browsers, in an encrypted connection or not. Scooping data at the back of your truck from concealed WiFi receivers is a different story though. Weather it was an engineer’s fault for the said code to have saved the unencrypted information causing the entire fiasco, it’s still questionable how this kind of an overlooked management decision, could’ve slipped a big company like Google. Being a company built on data business platform that claims to value privacy and respect users, the project management should’ve been approached

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