incendi: It appears to be the work of overzealous staffers...

I would imagine it's less a Google thing than the way business is done in a modernizing African nation.

Jamdug!: Google has a motto?

"Don't be evil"; so they can't possibly be evil. You know, just like how Fox News' "Fair and Balanced" has made them the most objective source for news.

incendi: It appears to be the work of overzealous staffers...

just like their ads for chrome that violated their own pay for play policy - they only gave themselves a slap on the wrist after they got caught Link (new window)

"Don't be evil" is a silly motto. "Do good" is more proactive.

Plus, it allows an occasional evil.

This is the second time Google's use of sub-sub-contractors has resulted in a screw up, see Unruly Media and the pro-Chrome videos they produced.

What was amazing about that one was that even if Google was doing that their spam-filtering software should have caught it. Oh wait maybe they don't play fair with what they consider spam if it comes from them.

It seems like in in the drive to become more "profitable" they cut too many people and projects and now rely on outside contractors which, probably through budget constraints, aren't the most ethical people out there.

If you believe googles crap about "don't be evil" you probably think Iraq had WMDs.

lelio: This is the second time Google's use of sub-sub-contractors has resulted in a screw up

Yeah it was a "screw-up"

Thats the ticket.

Seriously?
Google has an initiative to get African people on the internet and the Getting Business Online group gives a website and some training to a company in Kenya, and those guys then go and (in Google's name) defraud people. Is that Google doing the evil?

Mayhem of the Black Underclass: Seriously?
Google has an initiative to get African people on the internet and the Getting Business Online group gives a website and some training to a company in Kenya, and those guys then go and (in Google's name) defraud people. Is that Google doing the evil?

No, don't you see? Doing business in the developing world is always exactly like the first world with nothing people in the first world would think is an ethical grey area.

VON_RUFF: THE WITTIEST POSTER ON FARK!

It's true because I say so!

/Doubters will added to the ignore list.

Von_Ruff: VON_RUFF: THE WITTIEST POSTER ON FARK!

It's true because I say so!

/Doubters will added to the ignore list.

I doubt this

I don't know that it was was ever a hard and fast rule, but anyone who still believed it after their shenanigans in China is a rube.

loonatic112358: Von_Ruff: VON_RUFF: THE WITTIEST POSTER ON FARK!

It's true because I say so!

/Doubters will added to the ignore list.

I doubt this

loonatic112358: Von_Ruff: VON_RUFF: THE WITTIEST POSTER ON FARK!

It's true because I say so!

/Doubters will added to the ignore list.

I doubt this



You just made the list!

Von_Ruff: You just made the list!

woohoo!!!

Von_Ruff: You just made the list!

That sounds like a Hungarian Fantasy.

_{/I just made the Liszt!}

google isnt evil is the biggest joke of our time.

well besides bush iraq and that whole wmd thingy

The article suggests but never susses out that the actions were a scam or just the actions of a bad actor inside Google, rather than a corporate policy. yet if you just read the headline and the teaster intro, the author sums up that Google is evil and must die.

This is nothing but 12th rate shoddy schoolboy journalism and an obvious click-whore. Nothing to see here. I guess ars technica is basically just the Fox news of technology

kenyans, dude

this is probably just obama getting back at some mullah who almost blew his cover before he emigrated here in 2001 and created the fake birth certificate

The company promises that as soon as it has "all the facts" it will be "taking the appropriate action with the people involved."

As in, they will figure out a way of doing this without getting caught.

Oysterman: Jamdug!: Google has a motto?

"Don't be evil"; so they can't possibly be evil. You know, just like how Fox News' "Fair and Balanced" has made them the most objective source for news.

And Best Korea is actually the "DEMOCRATIC PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC" of Best Korea

Snarfangel: "Don't be evil" is a silly motto. "Do good" is more proactive.

That was one of the most poorly written articles I have read in some time.

But if google isn't evil how will they be able to keep up the payments on their skull shaped island lair where they are plotting to take over the world. The upcoming war with FB will not be cheap you know.

Chthonic Echoes: incendi: It appears to be the work of overzealous staffers...

I would imagine it's less a Google thing than the way business is done in a modernizing African nation.

How business is done.


fark you, shiney rock whores.

StoPPeRmobile: fark you, shiney rock whores.

And then you factor in that De Breers has more diamonds stockpiled than anyone could ever need.

tjfly: That was one of the most poorly written articles I have read in some time.

Ars has some of the greatest articles on various tech topis. They also have some of the dumbest.
A few weeks ago they reviewed some Bluray software on a laptop that did not meet the minimum requirements for decoding HD content of any kind, and declared the software as "not crap, because saying that would get us in trouble, but, yeah...you know...".