Google: Do No Evil

I was recently looking into Google's "Don't Be Evil" manifesto to gain some insight into their internal policies surrounding the data they collect. It's fascinating to learn what various organizations define as "evil," or how they avoid this perception. Even working for FamilySearch, a non-profit organization, there were those who chose to interpret some of the software updates and changes as ill-intended. I never saw that as the case, and felt that those who took this perspective were failing to look at the bigger picture.

Google, while providing privacy settings in all of their products, does not set these as default settings. Many users are unaware of these privacy settings, and Google continues to collect "helpful" information about them. Products like Blogger, YouTube, Chrome, Google+, and Gmail allow Google to collect information about users in order to market to them better. Google's Android is set up to do the same, and as recently as a few months ago, was discovered to include flaws that leaked personal information about Android phone users.

While some users (including myself), are willing to overlook these flaws in interest of Google's super-usable offerings, it is interesting to discover just what is meant by "Don't Be Evil." Wouldn't it be nice if there were organizations whose motto was "Do Good," rather than "Don't Be Evil?"

Having come from the non-profit sector, I thought it would be impossible to find a private organization that was engaged in doing good. I thought that I would need to adjust my philosophy of being a benefactor to the genealogical community and the world as a whole. Shortly after starting with Inflection (Archives.com), I started receiving internal e-mails like this:

"Happy Birthday to xxxx, who has donated their cake to Z non-profit organization." What followed was a description of the organization and the good they were doing in the world.

Next I learned that for every software update and release, the company multiplies the release number by a set dollar amount, and donates significant amounts of money to non-profit organizations. They donate food and money to local organizations almost every day, but they do so quietly, without fanfare or accolades. When working with other organizations, they set high standards of integrity and honesty. Who would think that a private-sector, for-profit company would drive me to want to "Do Good" in every way?

Everyone has a slightly different definition of "Do Good," and of "Don't Be Evil," but it's comforting to know that there are companies out there that are going beyond avoiding evil or just making money. I know there are others beyond Inflection/Archives.com that do this. Do you know of a "Do Good" company? Please share below!