Ethical Practices Report: A Study of Major Internet Companies

This report examines the ethical standards and actions of major internet companies, namely Google, Dell, Apple, and Facebook. It includes a survey to gauge public perception of their ethical conduct, followed by an analysis of each company's ethical policies and codes of conduct. The report compares these policies, highlighting their strengths and weaknesses, and investigates the actual ethical behavior of the companies, including issues like data privacy and tax practices. By comparing the companies' stated policies with their actions, the report draws conclusions about their overall ethical performance, providing insights into which companies demonstrate greater ethical responsibility and areas where improvement is needed.

Running head: INTERNET COMPANIES
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Internet Companies
Student’s name
Institutional affiliation
Date

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How ethical are Major Internet Companies?
Internet companies such as Google, Dell, Apple, and Facebook have raised a lot of
various ethical issues that are related to their privacy. The main components for the internet
companies are the ethical standards and the core values which help them run their businesses and
plans. The internet companies have come up with ethical policies and code of ethics which are
set to guide the people in the company and their users. The set values set of the internet
companies portray to their customers the commitments that the companies have made in the
provision of quality services and taking responsibility for any unethical decisions made. The
companies have also published their business code of conduct and ethical standards they require
from their customers in their websites. The paper will focus on determining how ethical the
major internet companies, that is; Dell, Google, Facebook and Apple are through their set ethical
standards and code of conduct policies.
What people think
A survey was taken to analyze the ethical standards and code of conduct of the four
companies, Dell, Facebook, Google, and Apple. The survey took ten people coming from the
four companies. The recruitment involved a web-based survey before the survey was carried
out; emails were sent to the participants to encourage them to participate in the study. The
participants were given one week to the date of the survey to identify how ethical their
companies are. The results of the study were found and tabulated as below.

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Internet company Ethical unethical completely
unethical
Dell 8 2 0
Apple 6 3 1
Facebook 4 5 1
Google 7 3 0
From the results of the survey, it was noted that Dell was the internet company which had a high
level of integrity as compared to others while Facebook had the least.
Ethical Policies/Codes of Conduct
Each of the internet companies has ethical policies or code of conduct that guide them. All the
employees and customers are supposed to adhere to the set standards and follow them. Some of
the ethical standards are discussed as below;
Google
Google understands that, any business in the world has ethical challenges which should be
addressed for the business to be successful. Google requires its personnel to possess high levels
of integrity since the company’s reputation is built on the trust of their service. Google makes
sure that all the communication with their users earns them trust. All the communications and
interactions with the clients are of high integrity levels. Google policy also prohibits any form of

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discrimination, bullying or harassment in any form. Google encourages reporting of any
incidences of harassment and bullying by anyone in the company to the supervisor or human
resource they would, in turn, investigate any of the complaints and take necessary action (Google
Code of Conduct, n.d.).
Google also does not permit any form of drug abuse. This is for health and safety
purposes of the employees since it impairs their performance and endangers the safety and also
violates the set laws. For purposes of freedom of expression, security and privacy, their users are
always asked to trust them with their personal information; the preservation of that trust requires
respect, privacy and security to the personal information. Google security strictly limits the
access and usage of any of individual’s information and requires every user to take measures in
protecting the data of users from access that is unauthorized. Google is also committed in
advancement of their freedom and privacy for their users around the world.
Dell
Dell code of conduct requires their members to be honest and transparent when carrying
out the company’s activities. The company requires their personnel to respect on ant tret their
clients with a lot of dignity and value their contributions and ensuring there is fairness in all the
business transactions that take place. Dell also stands for courage. In order to ensure that
everyone speaks of what is right and report any wrongdoing when noticed. Dell ensures
everyone accepts their wrongdoings and takes responsibility for their actions (ethics and
compliance, n.d.). People should also admit their mistakes and correct them where necessary.
There should be no retaliation against the people who report the violation of the policy or law

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retaliates against those who report violations of law or policy. All the Dell employees are
required to base daily actions and conduct on these standards.
Apple
Apple’s code of conduct requires the fair treatment of its workers and suppliers and
prohibits any form of harsh treatment. This includes sexual harassment, corporal punishment or
physical coercion. Suppliers shall not involve in any form of trafficking and nobody should use
them as slaves. According to Apple Inc. Code of Conduct (n.d.), this includes transport, transfer
or force payments to anybody for the exploitation purposes. All the work should be done
voluntarily, and the workers are required to be free to terminate their contract or leave their
employment with a reasonable explanation. Workers are not to surrender to any of the
government issued passports or work permits as a condition to guarantee employment. Suppliers
are to ensure all the third party agencies that provide workers comply with the provisions of the
code of conduct.
Facebook
The Facebook ethical policy requires that the welfare of other people comes first.
Facebook Personnel are also expected to act in best interests of the company when they carry out
their duties. Facebook Personnel are required to avoid by all means possible any forms of
conflicts of interests. Another code of conduct is that Facebook does not allow any form of
harassments and mistreatment by any of their workers, guests or clients in the workplace and
also in the situations of work from color, nationality or race among others (Investor relalations,
n.d.). Facebook also ensures that all the business records and other communication are made
clear and accurate. Another policy is that Facebook ensures that the information of their business

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is kept confidential and is protected. All personnel are expected to use the information for
business and keep information in strict confidentiality.
Ethical behaviour
Google
Google also ensures that they adhere to the set standards of businesses and regulations.
The culture of Google is also based on the foundation of not being evil that gives them the sense
of personal morality which is supported by the policy which states that there are always gray
areas where you need to apply the right judgment and making sure you don't disclose any vital
information about the company. Most people avoid Google because it involves in breaching of
the personal privacy due to the massive gathering of data (An Analysis of the Ethical, Social and
Environmental Standards and Practices of Google, 2015).
Apple
The commitment of Apple is to ensure that the supply chain is safe and workers are
treated with a lot of dignity and respect. The suppliers of Apple Company commit in all the
company's activities and in compliance with set laws, regulations, and rules of the company
where they operate. The Suppliers Code of Conduct draws upon the standards which are
recognized internationally to advance socially and environmentally. Apple often visits the
facilities of the Suppliers without notices to find out if they comply with the code of conduct and
audits the wages and payroll of the supplier.

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Dell
The code of conduct of Dell helps in ensuring that high standards are maintained and
business integrity. Dell has been recently awarded for maintaining high levels of integrity and
prioritization of ethical standards of the business (World's Most Ethical Companies, 2018).
According to ethics and compliance, (n.d.), the ethical policies of Dell include different
components. One of the essential codes is trust; Dell ensures there is an absolute trust which
exists between them and their stakeholders. Dell also ensures there is Integrity and discourages
impropriety issues with its clients. Dell has thus significantly been recognized across the world
for their commitments of ensuring ethical standards are followed.
Facebook
Facebook has recently been accused of allowing some violent videos and fabricated
article news. The employees and the executives admit having made a platform that manipulates
the users to psychological Facebook dependence. Facebook is one of the major channels in
history it has never accepted the responsibility of the ethical issues raised in the platform.
Australian Tax
According to the accounts which were carried out by Australian Securities and Investments
Commission, (2016), Apple pays an average of $80 million to Australia each year. Apple profits
are about $250 million and make annual revenue to more than $6 billion every year. Dell report
was an average of $11.49 million profit, the average revenue earned is $268.4 million, and the
tax average is $2.6 million. Google pays an average amount of $7.1 million in tax, profit of $46

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million and $357.7 million of revenue according to the review (Australian Securities and
Investments Commission [ASIC], 2016).
According to Australian Financial Review, (2016), Facebook earns an average of $326.9 million
revenue every year in Australia. The net income tax is $3.3 million, and profit of $3 million.
As per the report on the taxes collected each year it is evident that the internet companies do not
pay an equal share of the overall tax. The taxes levied depend on the average revenue collected
by individual companies.
Conclusion
From the discussions, it is clear that some internet companies have better ethical responsibilities
as compared to others. For instance, Dell is found to be much better regarding ethical
responsibilities due to its way of following their ethical standards as compared to the rest of the
companies. To improve on the ethical behaviors of the companies, it is therefore essential for all
the people in it to follow the set code of conduct and ethical policies.

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References
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Apple Inc. Code of Conduct (n.d.). Retrieved from
https://sites.google.com/a/email.vccs.edu/bus100mlmuseappleinc/home/apple-inc-code-of-
conduct
Australian Securities and Investments Commission. (2016). Dell Australia reports. Retrieved
from https://www.zdnet.com/article/dell-australia-reports-au11-49m-profit-for-2016/
Australian Securities and Investments Commission. (2016). Senate tax inquiry. Retrieved from
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/senate-tax-inquiry-google-apple-microsoft-policies-
highlight-golden-days-of-tax-laxness-20150410-1mi9k9.html
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corporate/ethics_compliance?c=eu&l=en
Financial review (2016). Facebook's Australian revenue questioned under new tax laws.
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australian-revenue-questioned-under-new-tax-laws-20170428-gvuf3v
Google Code of Conduct.(n.d.). Retrieved from https://abc.xyz/investor/other/google-code-of-
conduct.html
Investor relalations.(n.d.). Retrieved from https://investor.fb.com/corporate-governance/code-of-
conduct/default.aspx
World's Most Ethical Companies (2018). Retrieved from https://www.prnewswire.com/news-
releases/dell-inc-named-one-of-worlds-most-ethical-companies-for-2018-300596515.html