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Seth Godin blogged something that I’ve long said. We live in a world where privacy is not a given. If you have a credit card, your life is an open book (one example among many). What Seth pointed out is that the lack of privacy isn’t what bothers us—it’s the ability of companies to take [...]
Tags: privacy·seth godin
Just when you thought, oh, the well is capped and Tony Hayward’s gone, maybe we can get back to normal—comes this little bit of news, courtesy of my colleague Chris MacDonald, a business ethics guy in Canada: BP faked a photo of its Houston command center to make it look busier and more determined than [...]
“I’ve been beating myself up for not challenging your racism when you expressed it. So today, I’m going to stop beating myself up and tell you that I didn’t appreciate your put downs of those who look different from you, and I’ll not have you cut my hair again.” Then stand still and listen for dialogue. It may be quite vitriolic, but you may be able to go deeper. And you owe him that much.
You do this, not for his soul, but for yours. But there may be a side benefit of reaching his, too (maybe not right away).
Personally, I go into the online world with the expectation that there is no privacy. And therefore the specific changes don’t bother me over-much. But as someone who writes about ethics, I have a problem with obtaining consent for one restricted set of behaviors and then wildly expanding it while requiring opt-out (and difficult opt-out at that) rather than opt-in. It’s nothing more than an electronic form of bait-and-switch–something I find unethical and in fact argue against in my latest book on business ethics, Guerrilla Marketing Goes Green: Winning Strategies to Improve Your Profits and Your Planet (co-authored with Jay Conrad Levinson).
Tags: apple computer·bait-and-switch·facebook privacy·google·Guerrilla Marketing Goes Green·Jay Conrad Levinson·mark zuckerberg·san francisco chronicle·tim o'reilly·user bill of rights
I am totally sure this so-called survey will be used to trumpet the citizens of Massachusetts’ supposed stance in favor of biofuels and against the proposed law. While the law’s definitions could be sharpened, I actually feel that eliminating nuclear power and large-scale wood-burning biomass plants from being counted in the progress toward a Green economy is a GOOD thing.
Tags: biofuels·green energy·manipulative surveys·renewable energy·survey bias
My friend Peter Shankman solicited comments from PR practitioners about Tiger Woods’ apology scheduled for later today, and the fact that reporters will not have access to him during the event; they’ll actually be in another building. This drew lots of comments on Tiger but basically none other than Peter about how the media will [...]
While visiting Minneapolis, I took in the opening day of the new Ben Franklin exhibit at the Minnesota History Center in downtown Saint Paul. I’ve long ben a Franklin fan. To me, his far-reaching curiosity, big-picture viewpoint, multiple interests, creativity, willingness to question authority and even make fun of it, media and persuasion skills, dedication [...]
Tags: abolitionism·Ben Franklin·Benjamin Franklin·contradictions·diplomacy·ethics·invention·morality·science·slavery
Guest post by Elizabeth Johnson I was very proud of the notebook computer I had purchased a year ago; in my mind, I felt I had secured a good deal and that it was value for money. The only flaw (if you could call it that) was that it came with the Norton Antivirus security [...]
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mmediate spark of this post (which has been brewing for over a week), is my deep concern about Google’s Sidewiki.Sidewiki, as I understand it, allows users who have the Google Toolbar installed to comment, unmoderated, in an area that appears on the left side of the webpage–but those comments are only visible to others who have the Toolbar installed! Among the many evils this can lead to: spamming, blocking site owners’ sources of revenue (or even replacing them with links that benefit those commenting), loss of control over one’s own website, black hat search technique, slander of site owners or contributors, unethical business practices such as deceptive advertising, and even something as simple as wrecking the aesthetic and content integrity of a carefully designed website
Tags: censorship·don't be evil·google·intellectual property rights·privacy·sidewiki
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Name: Shel Horowitz
Location: Hadley, Massachusetts, United States |
A blog about business ethics from Shel Horowitz, expert on Green principles and business ethics as success drivers. This blog covers the intersections of ethics, politics, media, marketing, and sustainability.
About Shel: Copywriter, marketing and publishing consultant, speaker, and award-winning author of seven books. The three most recent are Principled Profit: Marketing That Puts People First, Grassroots Marketing for Authors and Publishers, and Grassroots Marketing: Getting Noticed in a Noisy world.
Shel specializes in affordable, ethical, and effective marketing for authors, publishers, small businesses, nonprofits, and community groups.
He's currently engaged in a campaign to get 25,000 people to sign--and spread--the Business Ethics Pledge: www.business-ethics-pledge.org
