Yahoo! in China Case

Yahoo! in China Case

1.

a. One ethical responsibility concern regarding the decisions that Yahoo China made was the decision to release Shi Tao’s information to the Chinese government. Companies have ethical responsibilities to customers who uses their product, one of these responsibilities is privacy. A company must implement precautions to safeguard consumer information to ensure that it is not stolen or misused. When consumers provide their information to companies, they trust that the company will do all it can to protect their information. When a company releases this information to another party without the consumer’s approval, they have violated the consumer’s trust and right to privacy. Despite failing to protect Shi Tao’s information from the government, I do not think Yahoo has entirely fail to uphold its ethical responsibility. Yahoo also has an ethical responsibility to its shareholders, and failing to comply with the Chinese government would have caused Yahoo to act in a way that is not in the best interest of its shareholders.

A social responsibility concern involving the decisions made by Yahoo, was when it decided to sign the “Public Pledge of Self Discipline.” Yahoo stated that it believed in empowering people by providing them more access to communication, commerce, and independent sources of information. They also stated that they are committed to open access to information. However, when they signed the “Public Pledge of Self Discipline,” they agree to censor the information provided to the people. By signing the pledge, Yahoo in a sense, went back on its own beliefs. Thus, Yahoo has failed in its attempt in upholding social responsibility of providing users with open access to information and empowering them.

b. If I was the decision maker in the situation involving whether to provide the Chinese authority with Shi Tao’s information, I would have provided the information as well. As a manager my primary obligation is to act in the best interest of my shareholders. It is their investment that I am operating with, therefore I need to make decisions that will provide the best possibility of giving them an above average return on investment. Should I refuse to comply with the authority’s demand, I risk Yahoo losing its license to conduct business in China which will result in the loss of shareholders’ investment and employees’ job. After all, Yahoo states in their terms of agreement that they will comply with the local government in which country they conduct business in. Therefore, any users using Yahoo’s product/services to commit illegal act run the risk of having their information divulged to authority, should they request it. What I would have done differently is discuss the matter with corporate, to make sure I have their support before proceeding with my course of actions.

As far as upholding