The Quest to Balance Privacy With Profits, Essay Example

According to law, publicly traded companies are required to report their activities both to the federal government and to shareholders to uphold business standards. In technology companies such as Google, this is challenging, as the company must balance their new developments with the need to uphold legal standards. Therefore, Google typically reports the minimal specific requirements for legal compliance related to competition and consumers, while it reports safety in a reasonable manner, provided that it does not reveal company secrets and developments. Google combines these legal requirements with company policies to ensure that it will be able to succeed despite the occasional inability to retain complete secrecy in the eye of the public.

Google’s quest to balance privacy with compliance related to competition, consumers, and safety is an interesting concept due to the variety of the products that the company is responsible for developing. To ensure that it is able to do so efficiently, Google primarily concerns itself with tracking user data in order to determine which aspects of its services are useful, and which should be modified (Efrati, 2011). In this manner, Google is able to gain a greater understanding of the needs of the consumer. Although many other technology companies have adopted a similar approach to consumerism, Google has hired leading technology and scientific professionals that have allowed the company to conduct many meaningful marketing studies. This has allowed the company to revolutionize the way people search in addition to utilizing a variety of stationary and mobile features.

A major argument against the company’s tendency to use private user information for research is extremely controversial. However, Google is not currently breaking any laws, proving that the company will go to the edge of legality to ensure that it is able to achieve greatness while remaining within the confines of what is acceptable. To combat privacy issues, Google has taken on the opinion that the information it collects is necessary to adequately use the services they offer. This data customizes consumer experiences, which is intended to improve internet experiences. To ensure that no legal boundaries are breached, Google offers a user agreement that it requires its users to follow. Individuals who read and agree to the terms of use acknowledge that they are aware how their personal information will be used and have agreed to this use of information to be able to use the website and all related applications. As long as Google continues to adhere to current legal standards, it will not be considered at fault for the use of this information. However, it should be considered that in the future, the United States will alter these legal requirements, which would possibly require Google to alter its practices.

Google has a responsibility to its stakeholders in addition to its users in order to ensure that investors will continue to be interested in the company. One of the company’s priorities is to find ways to become well financed, so it must look profitable. While many companies only report their yearly total profit in order to comply with the federal Treasury standards, others disclose a greater degree of information. Although Google wishes to retain a level of privacy in order to ensure that its competition will be unable to gain the upper hand, it values its stakeholder’s awareness in the strides they are making to continue to grow. Therefore, readily available on the Google website, the company links stakeholders to earnings conference calls and lists a breakdown of these earnings. Furthermore, news is provided that may be relevant to them.

It is important to consider that the news that Google posts on their website is intended specifically to retain shareholder faith in their company in addition to encouraging new shareholders. However, the company does so in a legal way that reports a greater than required amount of financial information to the public. Interestingly, the company chooses to report its net profit, which many competing companies choose to avoid. Doing so allows competitors to understand the expenses that Google incurred, allowing them to gain a greater conceptualization of the types of projects that the company is possible undertaking. In order to ensure that important profit information is available to shareholders, but the information will not affect the profitability of other aspects of the company, Google is certain that precise details regarding its budget are not released. However, it will announce the launch of potentially profitable projects in a timely manner that coincides with the inability of a competitor company to achieve a product release prior to them.

To ensure that the safety of its users is met, Google attempts to protect user privacy by not sharing the data they collect with competitors. On the other hand, many Google users are concerned that the information they provide to Google will be permanently available on the internet (Forden, 2011). Therefore, there is an interesting balance between consumer safety and profitability; Google will always take the action that is legal and more profitable as a part of its business ethical standards. It is clear however, that ethicality is equated with legality rather than morality. Although many users complain that they do not want the information they report to Google to be publicly available or utilized by the company, Google claims that by agreeing to their user policies, these rights are forfeited.

Since Google is technologically advanced compared to its competitors, it is able to enact many policies that users would typically view as unethical. However, since there is currently no alternative service that can be used that protects user information to a greater extent, users who wish to access the latest technology continue to compromise their internet safety. Google argues that users who do not agree with these policies do not have to agree, although this will prevent them from accessing Google services. Therefore, this creates a difficult decision for many individuals. In order to maintain modern levels of computing standards, utilizing Google services are unavoidable. On the other hand, doing so severely compromises internet security, and many users are worried that these companies will continue to use the rights to the personal information for activities that they would not agree with. In addition, since this information has already been obtained, future policies that the company wishes to enact will allow them to utilize this customer information for new purposes, even if the user had agreed to an old privacy policy to which these new standards weren’t listed. Ultimately, Google emphasizes its profits over privacy and will continue to enact policies in this manner, provided their actions are considered legal in the eyes of its regulatory agencies.

References

Efrati A. (2011). Google Calls Location Data ‘Valuable”. The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved from  http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052748703703304576297450030517830

Forden S. (2011). Online Privacy: Can the U.S. Get Its Act Together? Bloomberg Businessweek. Retrieved from    http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/11_21/b4229027916671.htm

Letzing J. (2012). Google Acknowledges Still Having Contested User Data. The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved from  http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10000872396390443343704577553842003742560