Business Ethics and Sustainability: Google Case Study Analysis

This case study examines the ethical issues surrounding Google's handling of Russian advertisements during the 2016 election. The report details Google's initial silence on the issue, the subsequent revelation of Russian-bought ads on YouTube, Gmail, and other platforms, and the company's response. It analyzes the ethical dilemmas faced by Google, considering its role as a technology giant, its responsibility in corporate culture, and its commitment to transparency and corporate governance. The study explores the impact of programmatic advertising, Google's responsibility in maintaining corporate ethics, and the challenges of identifying and removing misinformation. It also addresses the stakeholders involved, including users, employees, and advertisers, and evaluates Google's adherence to its 'don't be evil' code of conduct and its commitment to providing unbiased information. The analysis covers descriptive and normative ethics, Google's ethical training programs, its privacy policies, and the need for cybersecurity measures to prevent misuse of its platforms. The case study highlights the significant breach of regulations posed by Google's incident of Russian ads.

Running head: BUSINESS ETHICS AND SUSTAINABILITY
21513 BUSINESS ETHICS AND SUSTAINABILITY
ASSESSMENT 2: CASE STUDY (INDIVIDUAL)
Student Name:
Student Id:
Tutorial Time and Date:
Tutor’s Name:

1BUSINESS ETHICS AND SUSTAINABILITY
Table of Contents
1. Introduction..................................................................................................................................3
2. Case description...........................................................................................................................4
3. Analysis of ethical issues.............................................................................................................7
4. Recommendations........................................................................................................................9
5. Conclusion.................................................................................................................................11
Sources Data References...............................................................................................................13
Academic References....................................................................................................................15

2BUSINESS ETHICS AND SUSTAINABILITY
1. Introduction
In the beginning of October, Google Inc. released its sustainability report of 2016 and it
described the year as a landmark year. Google has always been trying to progress on objectives
to meet the environmental issues. Google does an excellent job in providing high-speed data
solutions to the users and Google uses many cloud platforms that users can utilise technologies.
In this regard, each of the organisations has its own responsibility in corporate culture and work.
Google as technology giant in technology cannot overlook its approach in mitigating risks in
technology. In this report, the case of Google's issues of Russian advertisements on Google will
be described. At first, Google was not frank in speaking about Russian ads on Google in a
sustainability report. Google was silent on the issue of Russian ads and the process of addressing
the solution.
This case is related to the business ethics of Google as Google is treated as one of the
transparent organisations in the world. Google's sustainable report must have focused about
Russian ads issue that was predominant in most of 2016 during Russian election. Google is in an
ethical dilemma when other media houses revealed that Russian-bought advertisements were
mainly placed on YouTube, Gmail and other Google-based platforms. Businesses must be ethical
and it must follow corporate citizenship. Holistic concept of ethical practices of corporate culture
follows as for how the company ensures process and policies. In case of Google, most of the
stakeholders are not aware of the semantics that Google is using. Google packages its corporate
responsibility as sustainability and it proposes corporate citizenship. Users of Google want to
know that Google should be more transparent in corporate governance performance and
company's social responsibility practices.

3BUSINESS ETHICS AND SUSTAINABILITY
In the computerisation of digital advertising, technologies are the main responsible for
running ads. Technologies and the experts decide in appearing of the ads in web pages. Google
has been performing in this field and it is called programmatic advertising. It is billion dollar
industry as the internet is one of the vast media that can attract people. Google has its
responsibility to maintain corporate ethics in running the ads. Now the fundamental shifting has
been noticed in reaching the users. Google decides where the ads will be running and data of
audiences decide the factors. However, with great power, there comes great responsibility.
Google does not use infrastructure of digital advertising and Google is not managing the
inventory that comes enough in making the data available. In case of Russian ads, when people
clicked on the advertisement link, it automatically installed on the system of the users. Google
tried to remove the ads, however, for a couple of days, it was not possible for them. Google,
however, launched an investigation of the Russian ads. It was clear that one Russian firm took
the responsibility to influence the people during Russian election. Google could not disseminate
misinformation easily when it invaded users’ systems.
2. Case description
Google identified in ad buys by Russian accounts which had used in Google
advertisements and YouTube video to spread misinformation about Russian election. These
accounts had also been used for sowing the discord in politics of America. Google provides
advertisements services and it is billion dollars industry in digital marketing section. Google has
been using modern technologies in identifying the accounts which have been posted for the
advertisements (Byers 2017). However, some of the Russia based accounts posted
misinformation in YouTube and Google advertisements and in DoubleClick platforms in order to
push divisive campaigns on various issues like gun rights and race immigration in America.

4BUSINESS ETHICS AND SUSTAINABILITY
However, Google could not identify the Google accounts which had done the wrong deeds. In
the later time, Google team has identified that most of the accounts are related to the Internet
Research Agency and it is based on Kremlin-link Troll Farm. Troll Farm is associated with
buying ads for social media, Facebook and Twitter. However, in the previous time, Google has
averred that it could not find any links of misrepresentation in advertisements and they were
unable to find any links (Csrhub.com 2017). However, Google also said that they are not sure
about linking with IRA and these accounts can extend beyond the Twitter and Facebook.
In case of Facebook, these advertisements reached 10 million people. It has been clear
that most of the advertisements reached a maximum number of people. In case of Google, it tries
to make transparent in works of business. Google has two separate policies in order to deal with
the account creating and for the one who can buy advertisements. Therefore, it gets harder for
Google to police accounts that created for advertisements or YouTube campaigns, maybe, these
accounts are not paying money to advertise. Google has been facing these issues as people are
making free accounts for Gmail activities, however, people are using those accounts to promote
their business using those free accounts (Kaye 2017). Moreover, Google spokesperson Mrs
Faville rightly opined that Google has policies and limit in political campaigning and religion
campaigning on Google page. Like other social networking sites, Google's parent organisation
Alphabet had to agree to publicly testify the hearing in front of House Intelligence Committee
and Senate. Facebook identified approximately 470 accounts that shared misinformation of
Russian election and religious fervour of American; they demanded that most of the accounts
used Gmail to log in to Facebook (Theguardian.com 2017).
Google is the one who is to blame by the media as it is the largest online advertisement
seller in the world. Google must have a team who can scrutinise the content of the advertisement

5BUSINESS ETHICS AND SUSTAINABILITY
before it rolls out in public. Google must have the corporate responsibility as it is related to
cybersecurity and ethics. Google has more than 40% revenue in digital marketing only in the
USA and this is related to YouTube videos and Google advertisements. Google should have
tracked the misuse of the platforms and Business ethics should have followed (The Verge 2017).
Google demands that it has transparent work culture and it follows corporate responsibility
strictly, however, the biased advertisements of politics and religion based ads spread without
Google notice. Google investigated the matter and it emphasised especially on the
advertisements which cost less than $100,000 (Wang 2017). Google is not sure that all the
advertisements came from Troll Farms or it came from a different origin. Some of the media
strictly criticised Google and referred that Google does not do scrutiny of the accounts. Facebook
published more than 3000 Russian ads publicly and these ads are done by Russian government-
affiliated Troll Farm. The incident of Russian ads makes one thing clear that Russian online
platform can influence many of the American technology in misleading the online services and
platforms.
Stakeholders of the Google Inc. are various as they are mainly group based and they
share the interest. Google takes corporate responsibilities for the stakeholders. Stakeholders of
the Google are users, employees, investors, governments, communities and advertisers and other
consumers (Washingtonpost.com 2017). Google is technological giant and it reaches almost all
counties in the world. Google's top priority stakeholders are employees as they run the
originations. Google takes various measures in order to improve the condition of the employees.
Second most important stakeholder of Google is an advertiser. Advertisers are the main sources
of Google to generate revenue of the organisation. These stakeholders are mostly interested in
having effective services from Google. In this case, Google provides advantages to the

6BUSINESS ETHICS AND SUSTAINABILITY
advertisers and advertisers are taking this benefit and spreading cybercrime. Business ethics of
Google is being violated as corporate responsibility towards the society may not be followed by
Google. Google's ‘code of conduct' says ‘don't be evil' and Google's main aim is to provide
unbiased access to information to the users. Following the law and regulation in respective
countries is important and Google sets high practical and inspirational reasons to be loyal to the
users.
3. Analysis of ethical issues
In business ethics, there are two types of ethics that are followed in business decision-
making concept. In descriptive ethics, it attempts to explain moral systems of societies and
groups and it uncovers mainly the moral beliefs of individuals. Descriptive ethics is related to the
values, ethical ideas, wrong and right behaviours or actions and moral systems (Crane and
Matten 2016). In normative ethics, it is related to main actions that are wrong or right. In this
case, Google collects huge amounts of data on the users who use the search engine. Google
stores the records of users' search history in order to develop the corporate efficiency. Google
keeps the records of the users for more than nine months and then they get deleted. Google
became awestruck when it came to know that social networking services and online paid
platforms were deeply manipulated by the Russian government. Google asks its employees to
follow the code of conducts and Google has its ethics and compliance helpline. Google also asks
the employees not to violate the laws and regulations. In an organisation, corporate ethics are
related to the integrity of employees and management must be honest to deal with the situation.
The management has to stand on what is right. Moreover, as opined by Trevino and Nelson
(2016), management or board of directors must show respect to employees and stakeholders with
fairness and dignity. Ethics is also associated with the employees' accountable for actions and

7BUSINESS ETHICS AND SUSTAINABILITY
commitments towards the organisation (Fifka 2013). In addition, organisations are treated as
responsible citizens and it should follow the rules and laws in each country where it operates. In
case of Google, it also follows the rules and regulations; however, it does not keep track of the
accounts of the users’. The Troll Farm of the Russia used the ‘trench’ of Google’s regulation and
misled the people.
Organisations try to promote associate awareness and commit to conducting the business
in highest ethical standards. Google also follows the compliance policy and adheres to the code
of ethics in pertinent regulations and business. Some of the organisations do ethics training for
the management in order to understand the ethical needs and it is to ensure that organisations
should do business ethically. As stated by Bowie (2017), Google prohibits retaliation for any
employees who can participate in possible violation and investigation process. Google follows
the ethics in serving the users and it provides high standards services to the users. Google has
ethics in integrity and users trust the name of Google. Google trusts the users and it strives to
earn more trust with communicating with the users. Google also tries to provide services that are
useful to the users and Google has various types of users (Leipziger 2017). However, Google
should have systems to track the users' activities in order to identify them. Most importantly,
Google remembers that they ask for users' information, however, preserving someone's data is
related to the privacy policy. Google does not share the data with any third party users and
unauthorised access is strictly prohibited. Google follows freedom of expression and it tries to
advance in the privacy policy and free of expression. It tries to implement it in the world as it
tries to develop it in around the world. Moreover, Google has been facing issues in cybersecurity
as responsiveness is needed and strict scrutiny can solve the issue (Ferrel and Fraedirch 2015).
User's content and advertisements must come under the vigilance of Google team.

8BUSINESS ETHICS AND SUSTAINABILITY
In case of Google's incident of Russian ads that reached millions of people. Russian
advertiser who bought these ads was connected to the Kremlin. The impact of the significant
breach of the regulations posed by Google was on mainly Google itself as from the perspectives
of worldwide media; Google is now ethical breached organisation. People now believe that
Google's vigilance can be breached easily (Blowfield and Murray 2014). This incident imposed
the negative impact on Google as the sustainable policy of Google now is in question and
efficiency of Google's team is at stake as Google took a few months to identify the accounts
(Weiss 2014). Google took help of Facebook in order to identify the accounts and its link up with
Russian agency. Another stakeholder of this incident who has been facing negative impact was
American political party for whom these ads were running. Russian Troll Farm proved that
Google can be fooled and it was a moral win for them to run the ad campaign without notice of
the Google. As stated by Hoffman et al. (2014), businesses command huge resources and it can
impact on society. Each business has a social responsibility and Google has been following this
since long. However, there are grey areas in the business and in this case; management has to
provide the best judgement. Incorporate security, the organisation itself does not share any
information of the clients. Managers of the business should not make promises to the
shareholders in many cases. The primacy of consequentialist ground, as opined by Hartman et al.
(2014), firms should be managed in the interest of shareholders, not in the interest of managers'
themselves. As stated in the stakeholders' theory, managers should not run the business only on
the benefits of shareholders; managers need to make balance in the interests of all stakeholders.
4. Recommendations
Business transformation programmes

9BUSINESS ETHICS AND SUSTAINABILITY
Google is a large organisation and even if it wants to make some organisational changes
initiatives, it would not be easy. The company has been following the same Codes of Practices
for long and Google can warp ethical climate by putting stress on change the top. Leaders in the
Google need to understand the stakeholders' interests and it would be lucrative for them to have
business transformation programme. Leaders may have a conflict of interests and some leaders
may counter values. In ethical dilemma and breach of ethics that come from stakeholders,
Google needs to take strong standpoint and transformation or alteration of policies would be
beneficial for them. In order to be the sustainable organisation, Google needs to identify the
benefits. The investment, philanthropy and the corporate social responsibility; each part of the
business must be highlighted. Google should highlight those issues and business transformation
will be successful through these.
Engage the stakeholders
Google has the corporate responsibility as Google thinks itself as one of the leaders in
corporate citizenship. In this regard, stakeholders' engagement is important. In stakeholders'
theory, it is mentioned that while making the policies of the organisation, each of the
stakeholders' interests should be checked. Stakeholders' may come from different cultures and
ethical issues can be profoundly difficult. Stakeholders' engagement makes the communication
easy and it can provide benefits to the organisation and also to stakeholders. Russian Troll
Farm's ethical breach to Google could be avoided if the stakeholders' engagement was there with
the viable plan. Business ethics is basically normative and vast choices of decisions need to take
in making an ultimate decision. Google needs to be more transparent in publishing a report to the
stakeholders as entire business process and sustainability are prescribed in this report. Google
should let the stakeholders know about their expectations.

10BUSINESS ETHICS AND SUSTAINABILITY
Establish systems and process
Google knows where it stands in the market and it knows what really matters to them. In
this scenario, as Google is in the technological field, it needs to improve systems and process.
Google's account making system should be more secure. Using Google's accounts, users can
easily post advertisements and Google cannot identify the accounts. Google needs to ban the
accounts as well as the misrepresented advertisements also. Systems and process of technology
and organisation running procedure should be renewed. More transparent and ethical work can
be progressed through refurbishing of the systems. Collaboration must be facilitated with an
implementation of new initiatives.
5. Conclusion
It has been observed that Google did not breach any regulations; however, some weak
policies of Google made it easier for Russian Troll Farm to post the advertisement on Russian
politics. Google's account making policy should be revised. Google avoided this issue when it
published it sustainable report at the end of 2016, however, they should have published this issue
and made everything transparent. People should know the actual issue what had happened.
Google mainly follow principles of serving the users, respect the stakeholders, preserve
confidentiality, protect Google's assets and obey the law and regulations. The Government can
also use Google information in order to investigate any case. Moreover, Google makes the free
million of books online and many publishers made a lawsuit against Google in digitalising any
information. In this way, Google tries to make happy the stakeholders in recent view of corporate
responsibility. In this case, Google found out that Russian agents purchased ads on from wide
ranges of a network during 2016 presidential election. The theoretical perspectives of the

11BUSINESS ETHICS AND SUSTAINABILITY
business ethics are related to the normative ethics and it is regulated as the academic discipline.
In business ethics, there are varieties of disciplines that are related to corporate ethics,
philosophy, economics, psychology and public policy. In normative ethics, the management of
business makes some assumptions in an economic framework. The management makes
assumptions that buyers and sellers of any services can mutually determine decisions. In case of
Google, allocation of a team with the resources must be done perfectly that should not have any
debate that can be misguided.
Google is for-profit organisation and it has mainly philanthropic approach in funding new
companies and it makes a bond with novel technologies with investors. Moreover, Google
Google's lobby Congress makes legislation in favour of the social issues. Google's corporate
sustainability cannot be broken in such manner; however, it should make some policies to battle
with the risks. Corporate responsibility is s high risk and Google knows that their Code of
Conduct may not solve the ethical issues that might come up. In this respect, Google has to tell
all the employees being alert in every choice they make. Organisations itself is a moral
individual and it describes the moral agency to describe decision-making structure. It is related to
the cause-events to happen and the organisation can act intentionally. In order to stop such
inconvenience in future, Google needs to modify the Code of Conducts along with the policy.
Google's accounts are free; however, it can apply more security interface within this. Google can
join in any trade association with integrating corporate culture.

12BUSINESS ETHICS AND SUSTAINABILITY
Sources Data References
Byers, D. 2017. Google has found Russian ads related to 2016 election. CNNMoney. Available
at: http://money.cnn.com/2017/10/09/media/google-russia-ads/index.html [Accessed on 14 Oct.
2017].
CSRHub - Sustainability and Corporate Social Responsiblity (CSR) ratings on over 17,580 of the
world’s largest public and private companies. CSR information for Google, Inc.. Available at:
https://www.csrhub.com/CSR_and_sustainability_information/Google-Inc [Accessed on 14 Oct.
2017].
Kaye, L. 2017. Google Posts Sustainability Update, Yet Lacks Frankness on Russia Ads. Triple
Pundit: People, Planet, Profit. Available at: http://www.triplepundit.com/2017/10/google-posts-
sustainability-update-yet-lacks-frankness-russia-ads/ [Accessed on 14 Oct. 2017].
Sweney, M. and Hern, A. 2017. Google ad controversy: what the row is all about. The Guardian.
Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/mar/17/youtube-and-google-search-
for-answers [Accessed on 14 Oct. 2017].
The Verge. 2017. Google has reportedly found Russia-linked ads on YouTube, Gmail, and
search. Available at: https://www.theverge.com/2017/10/9/16446970/google-russia-ads-youtube-
gmail [Accessed on 14 Oct. 2017].
Wang, U. 2017. How Google is using big data to protect the environment. The Guardian.
Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/2016/oct/12/google-
environmental-sustainability-data-kate-brandt [Accessed on 14 Oct. 2017].

13BUSINESS ETHICS AND SUSTAINABILITY
Washington Post. 2017. Google uncovers Russian-bought ads on YouTube, Gmail and other
platforms. Available at:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-switch/wp/2017/10/09/google-uncovers-russian-
bought-ads-on-youtube-gmail-and-other-platforms/?utm_term=.dfbe8830d160 [Accessed on 14
Oct. 2017].

14BUSINESS ETHICS AND SUSTAINABILITY
Academic References
Blowfield, M. and Murray, A., 2014. Corporate responsibility. Oxford University Press.
Bowie, N.E., 2017. Business ethics: A Kantian perspective. Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press.
Chun, J.S., Shin, Y., Choi, J.N. and Kim, M.S., 2013. How does corporate ethics contribute to
firm financial performance? The mediating role of collective organizational commitment and
organizational citizenship behavior. Journal of Management, 39(4), pp.853-877.
Crane, A. and Matten, D., 2016. Business ethics: Managing corporate citizenship and
sustainability in the age of globalization. London: Oxford University Press.
Ferrell, O.C. and Fraedrich, J., 2015. Business ethics: Ethical decision making & cases. London:
Nelson Education.
Fifka, M.S., 2013. Corporate responsibility reporting and its determinants in comparative
perspective–a review of the empirical literature and a meta‐analysis. Business strategy and the
environment, 22(1), pp.1-35.
Hartman, L.P., DesJardins, J.R. and MacDonald, C., 2014. Business ethics: Decision making for
personal integrity and social responsibility. New York: McGraw-Hill.
Hoffman, W.M., Frederick, R.E. and Schwartz, M.S. eds., 2014. Business ethics: Readings and
cases in corporate morality. New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons.
Leipziger, D., 2017. The corporate responsibility code book. London: Routledge.

15BUSINESS ETHICS AND SUSTAINABILITY
Lin, H.C., Lin, H.C., Wang, C.S., Wang, C.S., Wu, R.S. and Wu, R.S., 2017. Does corporate
ethics help investors forecast future earnings?. Social Responsibility Journal, 13(1), pp.62-77.
Trevino, L.K. and Nelson, K.A., 2016. Managing business ethics: Straight talk about how to do
it right. New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons.
Weiss, J.W., 2014. Business ethics: A stakeholder and issues management approach. London:
Berrett-Koehler Publishers.