Modulator

Be Careful What You Give Them

I suspect that not many have ever doubted that Microsoft would do whatever it took, give up whatever was necessary or cooperate with any government to make a buck yuan.

Google, though, has tried to make us believe that they are different. Take a look at the Google Corporate Philosophy. Here are a few items:

• You can make money without doing evil.
• The need for information crosses all borders.

Unless you want to make money in China and then the definition of evil may be a bit fluid:

In an interview with Playboy, Brin was asked what Google would do if faced with a choice between compromising search results and being unavailable to Chinese users. He responded: "There are difficult questions, difficult challenges. Sometimes the 'Don't be evil' policy leads to many discussions about what exactly is evil."

What you think is safe today may be well be in a government file tomorrow. What you believe is accurate today may well be revised tomorrow at the direction of your friendly government revisionist. Be careful out there!

Via Heretical Ideas.

Update: For a different take see Scobeleizer.

Update: Corrected currency spelling error.

Posted by Steve on June 14, 2005