Google Business Ethics

Introduction

Google's mission is to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful.

As a first step to fulfilling that mission, Google's founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin developed a new approach to online search that took root in a Stanford University dorm room and quickly spread to information seekers around the globe. The company was first incorporated as a privately held company on September 7, 1998. Google's initial public offering took place on August 19, 2004, raising $1.67 billion, making it worth $23 billion. Google is now widely recognized as the world's largest search engine -- an easy-to-use free service that usually returns relevant results in a fraction of a second.

The world's biggest, best-loved search engine owes its success to supreme technology and a simple rule: Don't be evil! The ethical policies and behaviour of Google can be understood better by analysing the four spheres of responsibilities. The analysis will aim at understanding the various dimensions of the ethical dilemmas faced by Google Inc, its founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page and other top executives.

Personal Ethical Values

A BBC New Article [1] describes Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin as “the type of young men most parents would dream of their daughters bringing home”. Despite the fact that both of them turned billionaires after Google’s IPO, they have been reported to have a modest, unassuming lifestyle. They don’t own sports cars, and instead are said to each drive a Toyota Prius, a plain-looking but rather environmentally friendly saloon that is half electric-powered, and growing in popularity among green-minded Americans.

Concern for Rights and Duties

Both Google founders respect the common man’s right to information which he is legally authorized to access. One malevolent practice, in Google’s view, is tampering with or otherwise censoring the list of results produced by a Google search. An early test of the Google founders’ commitment to providing unfiltered information struck very close to home [2]. The anti-Semitic web site “Jew Watch” appeared prominently in Google results for searches on the term “Jew,” prompting some Jewish