Don't Be Evil or don't lose value?

Funny thing, as Google comes under ever increasing scrutiny for the power it has over our lives, the web giant is tiptoeing back from its long-held corporate motto, Don't Be Evil.

Dominating internet advertising and search have allowed the company to embark on a seemingly endless expansion into all manner of internet products, including email, video sharing, online mapping, mobile phone software, social networking and office productivity.

But while Google's revenues in 2007 were 37 times greater than in 2002 and its headcount has ballooned to well over 16,000 employees, the quest to provide ever-increasing returns to shareholders - the primary objective of any public company - has at times conflicted with its perceived core values.

Some have interpreted the ceaseless criticisms of Google's privacy policies and its co-operation with totalitarian regimes as a sign the Don't Be Evil goal is unattainable for a profit-driven company. At the very least, the corporate motto has encouraged the public and the press to hold Google to a higher standard.

"It really wasn't like an elected, ordained motto," Google's vice-president and 20th employee, Marissa Mayer, said in an interview during her trip to Sydney last week.

"I think that 'Don't Be Evil' is a very easy thing to point at when you see Google doing something that you personally don't like; it's a very easy thing to point out so it does get targeted a lot."

Janis Wardrop, associate lecturer in organisation and management at the University of NSW, said that, regardless of Google's stated motto, companies are always set up to look after their shareholders and not other stakeholders.

"It [the motto] is good PR but really it's empty because it's questionable whether shareholders will care [whether Google is evil or not]," she said.

The most recent Google product to raise the ire of privacy activists is the Street View feature of Google Maps, already launched for over 40 US cities and expected to be unveiled for Australia this year..

Privacy groups are up in arms because Google has not made a firm commitment to obscure faces and number plates, and there have been no assurances that Google's drivers won't accidentally head down private roads.

http://www.smh.com.au/news/biztech/dont-be-evil/2008/04/15/1208025168177.html