[IP] nasty one Observer of London (John Naughton) on Google
Begin forwarded message:
From: bartleby@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Date: January 29, 2006 7:50:25 AM EST
To: dave@xxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Observer of London (John Naughton) on Google
Google's founding principles fall at great firewall of China
John Naughton
Sunday January 29, 2006
The Observer
The only thing that was surprising about Google's decision to
self-censor its China-based service was that people were surprised by
it. In the general media coverage, there were many gleeful references
to the company's motto - boasted of in the preface to its IPO
prospectus - of 'Don't Be Evil' (a phrase which, at the time, caused
Wall Street investment bankers to lie down in darkened rooms).
...The Chinese arms of Yahoo and Microsoft had already bent the knee
to the local political overlords - Yahoo by handing over personal
details of a user to the security authorities, Microsoft by
suppressing the blog of a dissenting intellectual.
..It was difficult to decide which was more nauseating - the decision
itself or the attempts by the Googlefolk to rationalise it. The
argument essayed by co-founder Sergey Brin - essentially that some
information is better than none - is simply pathetic. The truth is
that when faced with the first really hard moral choice of their
young lives, the Google boys copped out.
...Google's capitulation to the Chinese regime prompts some sobering
thoughts. One is that while one may occasionally be justified in
trusting an individual, one can never, ever place the same kind of
trust in a company. That's why all the current concern about
'corporate social responsibility' is ultimately just eyewash.
...Already, it holds the email archives of millions of subscribers to
Google Mail, plus records of every web search they ever made. And
although it is resisting the attempt of the US government to mount a
fishing expedition through those data, nobody doubts that, in the
end, Google will comply with the law.
...By joining the Gadarene rush into the Chinese market, Google may
have gained short-term advantage. But it has also forfeited its right
to our trust.
john.naughton@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
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