China Central Television held the 2013 Chinese 315 gala to expose the business ethic issues and prevent the exploitation of consumers’ right. We all know that it is the firms’ responsibilities to keep their customs’ privacy. However NETEASE which owns a large amount of users in China was found to spy on mailbox users’ privacy to send advertisements. NETEASE classifies their users through analyzing the personal emails; therefore they can accurately sending ads to the users. For example a person may have some mails about stock market transaction, and then NETEASE will classify him as financial people and send him commercial and financial ads.
The reason why NETEASE violated business ethics is because the firm prioritized its personal interest. The firm did not respect the right of consumers and ignored the social benefits. There is no doubt that the reputation of the firm had been significantly damaged and thousands of users were decided to quit using NETEASE mailbox and the other functions.
In my point of view, the lack of government regulation also led to this issue. Google was punished by FTC for more than 2 million US dollar for tracking users’ surfing habits last year. Chinese government should also not only expose the violation of business but also putting actual punishment to discipline the firms.