Annalee Newitz writes in a recent Wired article (Privacy Debacle Hall of Fame) that AOL’s recent public release of 500,000 search queries, “may have been one of the dumbest privacy debacles of all time, but [that] it certainly wasn’t the first.” Newitz proceeds to list her top ten “privacy snafus” providing a good overview of each.

It is worth checking out her list from a personal privacy standpoint, but also from a business ethics and governance standpoint. Individuals are quite touchy about their privacy, and companies face considerable potential liabilities (theft, loss, breach of privacy, etc.) when they collect and store their customer’s information. Moreover, when a company chooses to make public or relinquish personal information in any manner, such as in the case of Google and Yahoo! releasing information on Chinese political dissidents to China’s government, the line separating right and wrong becomes increasingly complex and the need to define it correctly is imperative.

TAGS: Privacy | Ethics | Newitz | Wired | AOL | Google | Yahoo!

I am in the process of upgrading the blogging software from this site as well as changing a few other back-end things. There may be some downtime as things get switched over in the next week or so, but I will do my best to keep it to a minimum.

[Update: 8/21/06] Things are still in limbo so I thought I would provide a bit more info about the coming changes. First, I am in the process of switching web hosts, and am waiting for the credoadvisors.com domain name to point to the new host. In the meantime, I’ve installed Wordpress 2 on the new server and have imported all of the content over there (not a task I’d recommend trying for fun) so that the transition will appear seamless when it happens. The new host should be faster, more reliable, and offer more features. Also, there are a few noticeable changes in functionality with Wordpress 2, so the blog will look and function a little more smoothly. I’ve also installed an upgraded gallery image script (Lightbox 2) that allows for a bit more interactivity from what I currently have up. And I have my fingers crossed that with the Wordpress upgrades, the Technorati issues disappear as well. Hopefully the domain will switch over in the next few days!

[Update: 8/22/06] I became impatient and decided to install the Wordpress 2 upgrade on this server (the domain still hasn’t been pointed to the new server…) and in the process managed to tweak most of the images I have linked on the blog. I’m re-uploading everything now so they should appear as normal shortly.

TAGS: Wordpress | Hosting | Technorati | Lightbox

Check out this story from the New York Times: Wal-Mart Image-Builder Resigns

I am quite surprised at the situation surrounding Mr. Young’s resignation, especially given his background. The nature of his comments–the business side of them at least–also make me wonder if there is a larger sentiment among the Wal-Mart ranks that the company really is doing a good thing by combating the price-hiking small businesses. The concept seems rather ludicrous, but perhaps not that far off base.

Here are a few snippets from the article:

“In the interview, published yesterday in The Los Angeles Sentinel, a weekly, Mr. Young said that Wal-Mart ’should’ displace mom-and-pop stores in urban neighborhoods.

“’You see those are the people who have been overcharging us,’ he said of the owners of the small stores, ‘and they sold out and moved to Florida. I think they’ve ripped off our communities enough. First it was Jews, then it was Koreans and now it’s Arabs.’”

…Wow. And then speaking of his comments later:

“’It’s against everything I ever thought in my life,’ Mr. Young said. ‘It never should have been said. I was speaking in the context of Atlanta, and that does not work in New York or Los Angeles.’”

He started out well, but the latter half pretty much negates the apology in my book.

TAGS: Wal-Mart | Andrew Young | Ethics | PR

We celebrated my son’s 1st birthday last week and I thought I would share a few photographs. The first batch are from a quick trip we took a few days prior to Portland, Maine, while the second are from his birthday. We went to the Boston Aquarium and then walked around the city for a while. Then we headed home and baked him a birthday cake. He was pretty exhausted from everything we did that day but still managed to try his first bite of cake.

This first batch is from our trip to Portland, Maine:

Here are the images from his birthday:

TAGS: Father | Son | Birthday | Family

I’ve been in Massachusetts for almost three weeks now but figured I should post some photographs from my drive out before they become stale. I made the trip with our dog Nadine, as my wife and I opted not to attempt a cross-country trip with a sub-1 year old just yet. Here are a few shots from our adventure:

TAGS: Road Trip | USA | I-40 | Boston

SiliconBeat brought to my attention some very welcome news this afternoon: Solar Revolution Continues in California, China.

The China article linked in the body of SiliconBeat’s post shows the power of the Chinese government to throw a massive amount of capital to fulfill a specific agenda. It also presents a nice overview of China’s energy market, and the potential ups and downs for companies in that sector.

TAGS: Renewable Energy | Solar Power | Environment | PG&E | China | California

A bit of a brief post for the afternoon–here are a few articles/posts that I thought I should pass along:

• CSRwire.com has a press release about socially responsible investing (SRI) analysts’ opinions about the state of corporate social responsibility (CSR) reporting.
• Jack Yan discusses why “New Zealand Made” should be afforded to companies that are located and manufacture in New Zealand.
• Michael Standaert covers the issue of increasing scrutiny of the power industry.
• Stanford economist Ward Hanson discusses Google’s China dilemma (audio file — thanks to Dr. Chris Carr for the link), a topic mentioned on this blog a number of times in the past (here, here, here, here, and here).
• Shel Horowitz contemplates his patronage and praise of BP.

TAGS: CSR | Ethics | Google | China | SRI

Jack Yan posted about backlash against Coca-Cola and other soda companies today, and raised some interesting points about brand strength. Tied into this story are some very interesting ethical issues that are worth exploring.

As Jack notes and cites in his post, several bans against cola products and production have surfaced as a result of pesticide level findings. Of note, in several areas of India, the drinks are banned in educational institutions government hospitals.

The obvious ethical question is whether or not it is appropriate for the cola companies to produce beverages with such high levels of pesticides. Theoretically, it is possible (and prior to the backlash and bans, probable) that the local governments did not prohibit such high levels of pesticides in the drinks, and the cola companies, accordingly, produced beverages in line with local regulations. More pesticides probably coincided with greater profits…just a guess.

But is it ethical to cut corners in such a manner, even in the absence of a regulation or law that eliminates the question of legality? Unfortunately, the frustrating answer is that it isn’t certain. For a decision or action to be deemed ethical or not, many criteria have to be evaluated. Moreover, the ethical framework you choose could vastly alter your conclusions. So, what do you do?

If you intend to make a serious effort to incorporate strong ethics and moral theory into the structure of your business, I would start by forming a solid understanding of the many intricacies of business ethics and moral theory. A great place to start is Ethics Updates, though a trip to your local library should also produce a nice stack of weekend reading.

Absent of a more academic and rigorous approach, I would like to believe that we are all capable of making sound ethical decisions by asking ourselves a few simple questions (…optimistic, but quite naive). The caveat, of course, is that you need to have a strong moral basis to begin with, to measure your situation against. Regardless, the following questions should give you a place to start when analyzing the ethics of a challenging situation:

1. Is there anything illegal about the scenario? If I am not sure, am I certain that the situation is entirely legal?
2. Will anyone experience physical, mental, or other distress as a result of the situation, either in the short term or the long term?
3. Would this situation be considered legal and ethical in my own country or local area?
4. Does the situation compromise any of my personal beliefs?
5. Has anyone connected to the scenario raised doubts about its ethics?

The above list is very, very thin, and only intended to give you a simple starting point. As mentioned, ethical dilemmas can be complex and may involve a large number of criteria and viewpoints.Since much of this sounds so simplistic (what’s so incredible about asking a few common-sense questions) why do these kind of things end up as news stories? Why do we hear about sweat shops, toxic waste being dumped into rivers, stock option scandals, etc.? Are people not asking themselves these very simple questions? Are they ignoring the conclusions they come to? Are they forming the wrong conclusions? Is the ethical framework they are using completely out of date and irrational? Are they so motivated by money that they come to the right conclusions but delude themselves into thinking that their actions are okay regardless? What gives?

[Update, 8/12/06]: Wow. Be sure to read this update regarding Coca-Cola, pesticides, and India from Jack Yan. I find the political twist very interesting though the lack of action and transparency by Coca-Cola and Pepsi definitely take the cake.

TAGS: Soda | India | Business Ethics | Moral Theory | Coke | Pepsi | Jack Yan

It occurred to me that friends, colleagues, and visitors, whom may wish to read my China trip posts in chronological order, may find the reverse date structure (most recent date first) quite frustrating. Accordingly, I have listed the daily entries below in a more user-friendly structure:

• China Journal [China no. 1]
• China Trip: Businesses & Organizations We Will Visit
• China-Bound
• Home From China
• China Daily Re-cap
• Days 1 & 2: LAX to Shenzhen [China no. 2]
• Day 3: Shenzhen [China no. 3]
• Day 4: Shenzhen [China no. 4]
• Day 5: Shenzhen to Shanghai [China no. 5]
• Day 6: Shanghai [China no. 6]
• Day 7: Shanghai [China no. 7]
• Day 8: Shanghai [China no. 8]
• Quick Clarification [China no. 9]
• Day 9: Shanghai [China no. 10]
• Day 10: Shanghai, Wuzhen & Hangzhou [China no. 11]
• Day 11: Hangzhou & Grand Canal [China no. 12]
• Image Captions [China no. 13]
• Day 12: Suzhou [China no. 14]
• Day 13: Suzhou to Beijing [China no. 15]
• Day 14: Beijing [China no. 16]
• FTP Photos Posted [China no. 17]
• Day 15: Beijing [China no. 18]
• Day 16: Beijing [China no. 19]
• Day 17: Beijing [China no. 20]
• Final Thoughts [China no. 21]

For those visitors to this blog that come here via Technorati, I wanted to make note of the fact that the content here hasn’t been successfully spidered for several weeks now. Accordingly, Technorati shows my most recent post as 29 days old despite the fact that there are quite a few more recent entries. I’ve contacted them to see what the issue is and hope to have it fixed soon.

TAGS: Technorati | Tags | Blogs | Blog