Governance and Business Ethics Report: Google Data Privacy Case Study

This report analyzes the Google case study, focusing on the company's legal issues related to collecting data from over 16 million iPhone users. The report examines the lawsuit, the UK High Court's decision, and the arguments raised. Ethical decision-making models, particularly the utilitarian approach, are applied to evaluate Google's actions. The report highlights the importance of ethical decision-making processes for businesses and the impact on stakeholders, including employees, shareholders, and consumers. The analysis includes discussions on privacy breaches, the lack of proper regulations, and the ethical implications of Google's data collection practices, ultimately concluding with the significance of ethical considerations in business operations and their influence on users.

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Executive Summary
The report is based on the analysis of the case study of Google in which the company had
faced major lawsuits due to the usage of data of the consumers for their personal benefits.
The decision that had been made by the UK high court has also been criticised in the report
and the argument has been raised as well. The ethical decision making based theories and
models have been implemented in order to analyse the situation that had been faced by
Google. The conclusion is related to the importance of the issue and the process of ethical
decision making that can be implemented by the firms.

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Table of Contents
Introduction....................................................................................................................3
A brief history of the organization.................................................................................3
Discussion of the case....................................................................................................3
Argument that can be raised...........................................................................................4
Ethical decision making approaches and theories..........................................................5
Conclusion......................................................................................................................6
Reference list..................................................................................................................7
Appendices.....................................................................................................................9
Appendix 1.................................................................................................................9
Appendix 2...............................................................................................................10
Appendix 3...............................................................................................................11

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Introduction
Ethical decision making can be explained as the process that is implemented in order
to maintain the trust levels of individuals and the company aims at remaining fait to everyone
as well. The decision makers need to demonstrate responsibility and trust in order to make the
decisions in an ethical manner. The review of different options is required for the
development of decisions that are ethical and fair to everyone in the organization (Chell et al.
2016). The report will be based on the analysis of the case study of Google that is based on
the lawsuit that had been faced by the organization due to implementation of unethical
practices.
A brief history of the organization
Google LLC is a multinational technology based organization that specialises in the
internet based products and services that include search engine, online advertising based
technologies and cloud computing hardware and software. Google has gained its position
among the Big Four technology based organizations along with Apple, Amazon and
Facebook. Google was established in the year 1998 by Sergey Brin and Larry Page. The rapid
growth that has been depicted by Google is mainly based on the chain of products,
partnerships and acquisitions. The current CEO of Google Sundar Pichai had been appointed
after Larry Page had become CEO of Alphabet (Google.com 2019).
Discussion of the case
The case study is mainly based on the legal issues that had been faced by Google
when the company had gathered data of greater than 16 Million users of iPhone. The lawsuit
was mainly based on the issues faced by the users and the other organization due to the usage
of their information that was collected by Google. The case was mainly related to the ways
by which Google had tried to defend itself by stating the faults that had been made by the
users of the other organization. The legal team of Google had played a major role in
defending the steps that had been taken by the firm in order to use data of the customers for
its benefits (Theguardian.com 2019). The UK high court had been able to block the decision
that had been taken to impose a fine of 3 Billion Euros on Google for the usage of customer
data. The court had stated that the data of iPhone users that had been surveyed by Google
could have been stopped with the implementation of proper privacy settings by the users of
iPhone (Theguardian.com 2019).

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The litigation against Google was mainly brought by a major campaign group named
“Google You Owe Us”. Richard Lloyd had led the campaign and it was developed as a
representative action for the huge number of users whose data had been surveyed by Google.
The lawsuit would thereby allow a legal team to represent the millions of users without
gaining their individual consent or support. The judgement that had been passed by the UK
High Court was considered to be highly disappointing by the legal team who had represented
the millions of customers (Theguardian.com 2019). The users had also been influenced in a
huge manner due to the loss of personal data in the hands of another organization. The lack of
proper legislations regarding the usage of customer data is considered to be a major issue that
had led to the breach of privacy of the users on a large scale. Google had however denied all
the claims that were made against the organization and stated that the data of customers are
considered to be highly important for them as well (Theguardian.com 2019).
The lawsuits were faced by Google within the years 2011 to 2012 based on collection
of data of the iPhone users in spite of the usage of privacy of the phones. The implementation
of a feature named “Do Not Track” in the Apple devices had been suggested to Apple so that
the organization can block Google from tracking the data of users from different parts of the
web. This issue had led to huge number of conflicts between the two organizations which
thereby ended after Google had paid a compensation of 22.5 Million Dollars to US Federal
Trade Commission due to the practice that the company had implemented of circumventing
the default settings of Safari (Theguardian.com 2019). The facts related to the previous cases
had however not been taken into concern by Justice Warby of the UK High Court. The court
had also stated that although the practice of collection of data by Google was considered to be
wrong, the users were not harmed to a great extent. The possibility of compensating for the
harm that had been caused by the collection of data to the users was also not quite high
according to the UK High Court (Theguardian.com 2019).
Argument that can be raised
The major argument that can be raised in this case is based on the levels of ethical
considerations in the decision that had been made by Google to use the data of customers
without the proper permission provided by the users. The issues that have been faced by the
users due to the deliberate breach of privacy is also considered to be a major concern that can
be raised in this case. The decision that was provided by the UK High Court cannot be
supported as Google had already faced major lawsuits related to the privacy related issues

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faced by the iPhone users (Lehnert et al. 2016). The actions that had been taken by the court
after the development of the lawsuit had also not been studied deeply by Justice Warby
before taking the decision. The information that had been used by Google in this case also
included ethnic or racial origin and the sexual interests as well. The information based on
financial situation of the users had also been used by Google for its own benefits (Lewis and
SIU 2015).
Political affiliations of the customers had been used by the company in order to take
decisions of Google. The major argument that can be raised in this case is mainly based on
the lack of proper privacy based settings. The information based on financial situation of the
individuals that is considered to be highly confidential is also used by Google for different
purposes. The information related to geographical location of customers is also considered to
be a compromise with their security (Oumlil and Balloun 2017).
Ethical decision making approaches and theories
The Utilitarian approach of ethical decision making can be implemented in order to
understand the situation that has been faced by Google. Utilitarian approach is also known as
utilitarianism that is a moral principle which states that the morally correct actions can be
those which are able to provide highest levels of benefits to the people in comparison to the
harms that are caused. The individuals who believe in the utilitarian approach of decision
making are those who think that a moral route is able to provide highest amounts of benefits
to the individuals (Schwartz 2016). The decisions and actions that are made by people are
considered to be based on the moral duties that are performed by the individuals. This
approach can be implemented in this case in order to understand the ethical decisions that
have to be taken by Google in order to maintain its operations and fulfil the moral duties as
well. The common good has to be taken into consideration by Google in order to fulfil the
corporate responsibilities of the organization in an effective manner (Schwartz 2017). Google
had taken the decisions of using the information of customers without taking into
consideration the common good of the individuals or the society as a whole. The company
was only concerned about its own profits while taking the decision of using the data of the
users that had been obtained in an unethical manner (Shapiro and Stefkovich 2016).
Ethical decision making process is an important factor that has an impact on the
operations of business organizations in the modern environment. The importance of the
process of ethical decision making is considered to be quite high in order to reduce the illegal

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activities that have been implemented by the firm. The stakeholders who are a part of the
ethical decision making approach of the firms mainly include the employees, shareholders,
natural environment and the consumers (Wittmer 2016). The operations of the firms in
various industries are influenced in a huge manner by the ethical decisions that are made by
organizations. The steps that have been implemented by Google in order to gain information
of the customers are considered to be unethical in nature (Zollo et al. 2018). The ethical
decision making models and theories have been taken into consideration in order to
understand the ways by which various organizations are able to maintain their operations in
the industry. The situation that had been developed due to the usage of information by
Google has also been analysed with the help of proper implementation of the ethical decision
making models (Kavathatzopoulos 2017).
The implementation of utilitarian approach is considered to be an important ethical
approach that has proved to be helpful for the purpose of understanding the situation that had
been faced by Google. The issues faced by the customers due to lack of ethical decision that
could have been made by the management of the organization. The organization has been
continuously facing issues based on the use of the data of the private data of the customers.
However, no steps have been taken by the organization in order to improve the decisions that
can be taken based on the situation and issues of customers as well (Oumlil and Balloun
2017).
Conclusion
The report can be concluded by stating that the ethical decisions of organizations are
able to influence the users and the other organizations in the industry as well. The decisions
made by Google had been able to play a major role in influencing the users of Apple and their
privacy levels as well. The huge breach of privacy that had been caused due to the usage of
customer data had been able to play a major role in the ways by which the firm aimed at
maintaining its position. Although the organization had been facing major issues due to
breach of privacy no major steps have been taken by the organization to improve the
situation.

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Reference list
Chell, E., Spence, L.J., Perrini, F. and Harris, J.D., 2016. Social entrepreneurship and
business ethics: Does social equal ethical?. Journal of business ethics, 133(4), pp.619-625.
Google.com 2019. Google. [online] Google.com. Available at: https://www.google.com/
[Accessed 6 Oct. 2019].
Kavathatzopoulos, I., 2017. Ethical leadership in business: The significance of Information
and Communication Technology. In Keynote speech at Japan Society for Information and
Management 75th Annual Conference (pp. 1-4). Japan Society for Information and
Management.
Lehnert, K., Craft, J., Singh, N. and Park, Y.H., 2016. The human experience of ethics: A
review of a decade of qualitative ethical decision‐making research. Business ethics: A
European review, 25(4), pp.498-537.
Lewis, L.F. and SIU, W.S., 2015. Corporate Entrepreneurship and Ethical Decision-Making
of Marketing Managers. In Proceedings of the 1997 World Marketing Congress (pp. 646-
655). Springer, Cham.
Oumlil, A.B. and Balloun, J.L., 2017. Cultural variations and ethical business decision
making: a study of individualistic and collective cultures. Journal of Business & Industrial
Marketing, 32(7), pp.889-900.
Schwartz, M.S., 2016. Ethical decision-making theory: An integrated approach. Journal of
Business Ethics, 139(4), pp.755-776.
Schwartz, M.S., 2017. Business ethics: an ethical decision-making approach (Vol. 10). John
Wiley & Sons.
Shapiro, J.P. and Stefkovich, J.A., 2016. Ethical leadership and decision making in
education: Applying theoretical perspectives to complex dilemmas. Routledge.
Theguardian.com 2019. UK high court blocks mass privacy action against Google. [online]
the Guardian. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2018/oct/08/uk-high-
court-blocks-mass-privacy-action-against-google [Accessed 6 Oct. 2019].

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Wittmer, D.P., 2016. Developing a behavioral model for ethical decision making in
organizations: Conceptual and empirical research. In Ethics in public management (pp. 57-
77). Routledge.
Zollo, L., Yoon, S., Rialti, R. and Ciappei, C., 2018. Ethical consumption and consumers’
decision making: the role of moral intuition. Management Decision, 56(3), pp.692-710.

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Appendices
Appendix 1

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Appendix 2

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Appendix 3