Google and criminal intent

Filed in archive Ethics on June 11, 2010

Google is on the defensive again after releasing an audit of the code used to collect Wi-Fi data as part of the company's global Street View operation. The report confirms that Google collected and stored payload data only from unencrypted Wi-Fi networks.

Google is already being probed by police in Australia and New Zealand but Privacy International says Google's own audit reveals criminal intent by virtue of the fact that the company was deliberately identifying and storing all unencrypted data. It says that intentionally separating out unencrypted content is the equivalent of "placing a hard tap and a digital recorder onto a phone wire without consent or authorization".

According to Privacy International, this is a criminal act and the company should be prosecuted. "It is a criminal act commissioned with intent to breach the privacy of communications. The communications law of nearly all countries permits the interception and recording of content of communications only if a police or judicial warrant is issued. All other interception is deemed unlawful."

It is interesting to see all this in the context of Google "don't be evil" mantra.

It's specifically spelled out in clause 6 of their philosophy: "You can make money without doing evil.". The first line in that clause is "Google is a business". That raises the question of whether there is a conflict here.

Which leaves us asking whether Google is good or evil? Or is it both?