[Lamplighter]

What do Google and Allied Waste have in common ?
We give them our raw materials for free, they claim absolute ownership, sort it, and sell it for profit.

Bloomberg
Christopher Flavelle
Jun 8, 2013

Does Google Have an Ethical Obligation Not to Spy?

Many Americans are outraged at the government for mining
user data from Apple, Google, Facebook and other Silicon Valley giants.
What about the actions of the companies themselves
-- have they met their ethical obligations to their customers and society as a whole?
Do they even have any?

The Washington Post reported that the National Security Agency collects data
"directly from the servers" of Microsoft, Yahoo, Google, Facebook, PalTalk, AOL, Skype, YouTube and Apple.
While some companies issued carefully worded denials of involvement,
it's hard to imagine they were unaware of the arrangement, however they choose to describe it.<snip>

The surveillance debate raises the question of whether our expectations
of these companies and their leaders should also extend to the defense of our civil rights.
Imagine, for an instant, that Steve Jobs, Sergey Brin, Larry Page and Mark Zuckerberg had
held a press conference in 2007, when the government first
began seeking this access, and said to the public,
"The government has asked for your information,
and we don't think that's right." <snip>

This week's revelations demonstrate the centrality of
Silicon Valley to American life, in ways we never imagined.

In the face of that expanded role, maybe it's time to revisit what it means
for a company to be a good corporate citizen, and whether that includes
acting as a check on the government when no one else can.