Engineer David Barksdale was fired this week for breaking Google Inc.’s strict internal privacy policies. Mr. Barksdale was an engineer in Google’s Seattle office who allegedly accessed information of several users who were minors. This breach occured while Google was already responding to probes in the U.S. and overseas for privacy matters, including inadvertently collecting personal data on unsecured WiFi Internet networks as well as a privacy flap in February over the release of a social networking site called Buzz. Earlier this month, Google had resolved a class-action lawsuit regarding how contact lists were displayed on Buzz.
There is very little done on the Internet today that does not involve divulging some personal information. This is especially true when one considers Google, holding giants such as Gmail and Google Earth. There is a great trust on behalf of consumers when they give away this information to online companies. In order for e-commerce and social networking to continue to be such successful online ventures, companies need to have privacy concerns as a top priority at all times. Not only is this the ethical thing to do, but there is no way any company could profit otherwise.
Google’s reaction proves to their consumer base, and to potential consumers, that they take the security of this private information extremely seriously. Although there have been concerns raised recently about whether Google’s amassing of personal data is ethical or not, the quick dismissal of this employee will undoubtedly help Google’s reputation regarding ethics and privacy considerations. However, Google is planning on launching a new social networking site, GoogleMe, and this venture will certainly test their ethics regarding security and privacy as they attempt to connect GoogleMe to Gmail, YouTube, and other information-sharing sites.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704285104575492440245394392.html?mod=WSJ_newsreel_technology
You raise several well thought out points in your analysis of the article, but what I found most intriguing was the fact that simply by expanding, Google nonetheless ran into these issues. From a business perspective, especially from Google's point of view, they are always looking for the next best thing. You briefly mentioned in your article about the collection of personal data in reference to residential wifi networks. Being an avid follower of the computer industry myself, I can tell you that Google's vision was to compile a complete list of wifi networks and be able to place them on Google maps. As you noted, the project had unintended side effects however and what was once thought of as "genius" was not looking so hot anymore. Google, it seems has always been at the center of attention when it comes to ethics. In China for example, they put their foot down on efforts by the Chinese to censor information generated by their search engine. They even spur debate on things not directly in their control. A township outside of New York City hurting for tax revenue used Google's StreetView to fine residents who had unregistered swimming pools. Although these type of issues are certainly up for debate, it will be interesting to note in the future if advances in technology correlate to questions regarding ethics in the industry.
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