Assessment of Ethical Practices: Major Internet Companies Report

This business report assesses the ethical standards of Google, Microsoft, Apple, and Facebook. It begins with a survey of 10 individuals to gauge public perception of these companies' ethical conduct. The report then delves into each company's ethical codes and conduct policies, providing summaries and comparisons. These policies are then contrasted with real-world actions, highlighting instances of both ethical and unethical behavior, including tax avoidance, marketing practices, labor law violations, and data privacy concerns. The report concludes with an evaluation of the ethical standing of each company, drawing on the survey results, policy analysis, and observed behaviors to provide a comprehensive overview of their corporate ethics. The report covers the ethical implications of their actions, and the potential impact on users and stakeholders.

Running head: ETHICALITY OF MAJOR INTERNET COMPANIES
Ethicality of Major Internet Companies
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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Table of Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................2
What do People Think............................................................................................................2
Ethical/Code of Conduct Policies..........................................................................................5
Ethical Behaviour...................................................................................................................6
Australian Tax........................................................................................................................8
References..................................................................................................................................9

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Introduction
This business report would address as the ethical standards of four chosen major
organizations that have their existences as the online businesses. The businesses that would
be in discussion in this particular business report would be Google, Microsoft, Apple and
Facebook. The report would focus on the probability of the businesses in maintaining the
ethical standards with the help of conducting a short survey on the probability of these
businesses in maintaining their ethical standards. This would also be conducted with the help
of the findings of the Ethical Codes and Conduct policies of the organizations and comparing
the policies with the real world actions. Finally, a conclusion would be drawn about the
ethical behaviour for each.
What do People Think
This study has been conducted by taking 10 people for this particular survey and they
were asked to answer four questions about the organizations to find out the public review of
how the mass perceives the organizations as ethical ones. They were asked to rate their
preferences on a scale of 1 to 10 with 1 being the lowest and 10 being the highest. The results
of the test can be viewed as below:

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Questions
1. On a scale of 1-10, from 1 being the lowest to 10 being highest, how would you
believe is Google an ethical organization?
Options Frequency Percentage
1 1 10%
2 5 50%
3 1 10%
4 0 0%
5 1 10%
6 2 20%
7 0 0%
8 0 0%
9 0 0%
10 0 0%
Table 1: Google Ethical Evaluation
2. On a scale of 1-10, from 1 being the lowest to 10 being highest, how would you
believe is Microsoft an ethical organization?
Options Frequency Percentage
1 0 0%
2 1 10%
3 0 0%
4 3 30%
5 3 30%
6 0 0%
7 0 0%
8 1 10%
9 1 10%
10 1 10%
Table 1: Microsoft Ethical Evaluation
3. On a scale of 1-10, from 1 being the lowest to 10 being highest, how would you
believe is Apple an ethical organization?

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Options Frequency Percentage
1 0 0%
2 2 20%
3 2 20%
4 0 0%
5 2 20%
6 1 10%
7 1 10%
8 1 10%
9 0 0%
10 1 10%
Table 1: Apple Ethical Evaluation
4. On a scale of 1-10, from 1 being the lowest to 10 being highest, how would you
believe is Facebook an ethical organization?
Options Frequency Percentage
1 1 10%
2 4 40%
3 2 20%
4 1 10%
5 0 0%
6 0 0%
7 0 0%
8 1 10%
9 1 10%
10 0 0%
Table 1: Facebook Ethical Evaluation
Thus, the public review of the survey has found that the people also believe the fact
that the amongst Facebook, Google, Apple and Microsoft, only Apple is the only
organization that has the potential of having proper ethical conduct.
Ethical/Code of Conduct Policies
Google: Google has its own codes of conduct that the company utilizes to transform
its value proposition in their real world business practise. Google tries to be follow their

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codes of conduct as the highest standards of ethical business conducts. Google has its policies
developed around the following criteria as listed below:
 Serve the users with integrity
 Usefulness of the products needs to be maintained with extensive
responsiveness
 Privacy, Security and Freedom of Expressions must be kept at the most
priority
 Establishment of a supportive work environment
 Equal opportunity for the employment system
 No mercy against harassment, bullying and discrimination of any kind
 No use of drugs, alcohol or any intoxication agents
 Dog policy for employees with canine pets in the corporate work culture
Microsoft: Microsoft is essentially committed to the codes of conduct and treat them
as the biggest priority. Microsoft has a separate link that is available to the public for viewing
the codes and policies that the organization follows. The organization claims that this is
followed by the organization to build and maintain the trust with the government, the
customers, the communities, the people in the organisation, the representatives and the
investors as well. The link that guides towards the company policies is easy to learn about the
company codes of conduct specified in separate sections that describes how the organization
reflects their values and culture.
Apple: Apple is an organization that is recognized as one of the leading online
businesses in the world. The company thus have to look for its codes of conduct to be
absolutely aligned with the legal and ethical standards of the highest regard. The ways by
which the organization is committed to its code of conduct ensures the complete safety of the

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supply chain, the fair treatment of the workers with complete dignity and respect and even
ensures that the manufacturing of the products for the use of the customers are
environmentally responsible. It follows the basic Labour and Human Rights with a separate
Code of Conduct for the suppliers engaging their health and safety including saving
themselves from occupational injuries and even human trafficking. The manufacturing
procedure also involves the environmental impact and the occupational safety for the
workers. The Codes of Conduct about the organization is easy to go through except for the
supplier code of conduct that is a bit confusing to look at.
Facebook: Facebook is the online social networking website that allows the users to
freely share their media, posts or data on the internet available for the others. The company
deals with the user data and therefore the codes of conduct that the organization has is much
more essential towards the user data and the policy states that it needs to be handled with
extreme sensitivity and caution. The employment and other customer relationship with
Facebook is also established dependent of the proper exercise of the good judgement and
discretion of the employees and the users as well as per the user behaviour. The ethical code
of conduct as specified by the Governance Policy of Facebook is extremely specific and is
arranged in the most concise and appropriate way possible with crisp descriptions and to-the-
point approaches.
Ethical Behaviour
Following would be examples of the unethical conducts by the company specified at
various instances gathered from various resources:
Google: Google has been accused of an unethical tax behaviour and for this the
company has been termed as devious, unethical and calculating (Alphabet Investor Relations,
2019). There had been unfair representation of the operations of Google, what the sources

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claim is common for business with less capital for relocation and which is not at all expected
from an organization like Google. This is clearly regarded as the unlawful and criminal
activity.
Microsoft: Even if the online business of Microsoft has its own Governance Policies
to go by ethical means, there have been incidences where it has been found that the
organization has often found to be violating their own set principles and policies
(Microsoft.com, 2019). It had been accused for its destructive marketing policy, Microsoft
was found to be dictating the price for its products and the presence of zero competition made
the customers pay for the services at the highest possible prices. Thus, the organization
unethically took advantage of its superiority in the unchallenged market to extract money
from the customers for their personal needs.
Apple: Even though Apple is one of the most renowned organization in the world,
there has been incidences where the organization have been deviating from their own set
governance policies (Apple.com, 2019). The company has failed to acknowledge their own
employee rights and labour laws with the evidence that there had been audited incidences that
revealed that some employees have been found to be working for over 60 hours at a stretch
with even evidences of employees working
Facebook: Facebook has been part of various controversies that have presented the
examples for the company being unethical and points out how the company has failed to
abide by its own codes of conduct and policies by behaving unethically (Investor.fb.com,
2019). There has been the instance when the user data was being available to the
unauthorized sources such that the users were falling vulnerable to be influenced by the
online campaigns of the American Government, which is absolutely unethical on the part of
the company.

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Australian Tax
Google: Google has reported to be avoiding taxes since a long time and that can be
calculated as a criminal offence.
Microsoft: In 2017 financial year, Microsoft Australia has been reported to pay the
Australian Government a full and final tax of 39 million AUD after they settled their ATO
bill.
Apple: Apple has reported to pay a tax rate of 30 percent consisting of a 119 million
AUD bill, with 15 million AUD in expenses not deductible for tax purposes, and an under-
provision from previous years of 30 million AUD.
Facebook: Facebook has also found to be reporting to a 33 million AUD pre-tax
profit disappear under a 42 million AUD tax bill.

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References
Alphabet Investor Relations. (2019). Alphabet Investor Relations. [online] Available at:
https://abc.xyz/investor/other/google-code-of-conduct/ [Accessed 28 Apr. 2019].
Apple.com. (2019). [online] Available at:
https://www.apple.com/supplier-responsibility/pdf/Apple-Supplier-Code-of-Conduct-
January.pdf [Accessed 28 Apr. 2019].
Investor.fb.com. (2019). Facebook - Corporate Governance - Code of Conduct. [online]
Available at: https://investor.fb.com/corporate-governance/code-of-conduct/default.aspx
[Accessed 28 Apr. 2019].
Microsoft.com. (2019). Microsoft Code of Conduct | Ethics & Compliance. [online]
Available at: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/legal/compliance/default.aspx [Accessed 28
Apr. 2019].