Presently, Google Books, launched by Google Inc., is reported to instigate piracy of millions of online works, while Google Maps (Street View) is claimed to be an invasion of human privacy. Meanwhile, as the Google search engine records and regularly monitors searches and browsing histories of billions of users, the company has been previously accused multiple times by the public for privacy violation.
I understand that these actions persist for security reasons, however in the public eye, Google’s status as one of the most secure and trustworthy corporations is becoming questionable. With their ethics disproved, I believe Google’s next plan of action should include slowly regaining the trust of the public and building back their reputation.
Other companies need to learn from this example that even the slightest change in ethical values could be released by the media and spread like wildfire (especially on the internet), having the ability to change the public view for better or worse. Google Inc. is a prime example of how any information regarding the dishonesty or ethicality of a corporation will spread rapidly and have the ability to immediately soil even the highest of reputations.
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