Yahoo! In China: Is There E-mail Privacy in Global Markets? Yahoo! has come unde

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Yahoo! In China: Is There E-mail Privacy in Global Markets?

Yahoo! has come under criticism by human rights groups who allege that the company has helped the Chinese government identify at least four people, including journalist Shi Tao, who have voiced dissent. Shi Tao, a reporter and editor for a Chinese newspaper, claims Yahoo! helped the Chinese government, causing him to be jailed for a decade.

In August 2007, the U.S. Congress began investigating Yahoo!’s role in passing sensitive information to the Chinese authorities. Police in Beijing arrested Tao after Yahoo! provided information about his e-mail account, his Internet Protocol (IP) address, log-on history, and the contents of his e-mails. Yahoo!’s vice president and general counsel admits that the company gave the details to the Chinese authorities but said they did not know why they wanted this information. Another Yahoo! spokesman said that companies doing business in China have no choice but to comply with Chinese law and that they do not know the information may be used to punish political dissidents.

Also in 2007, another Chinese political prisoner Wang Xiaoning, and his wife, filed suit against Yahoo! under the Alien Tort Claims Act and the Torture Victims Protection Act, claiming the company helped turn him in and that it led to physical beatings and a 10-year prison sentence. In the suit, Mr. Wang admitted that he was distributing online journal articles calling for democratic reforms and a multiparty system in China. He did this anonymously by posting the articles in a Yahoo! Group. He claims Yahoo! HK, a wholly owned subsidiary of Yahoo!, provided the police information linking him to the postings. Yahoo! HK denies the charges.

Yahoo!, along with Google, Microsoft, and Cisco, argue that issues of human rights and censorship in China are too great for them to handle alone, and they have appealed to the U.S. government to take a leadership role in this issue.

1. Has Yahoo! violated the privacy rights of these Chinese dissidents? What e-mail privacy protection could they reasonably expect from Yahoo!?

2. Does Yahoo! have a responsibility in global markets to go extra lengths to protect e-mail privacy?

3. Should the U.S. government, or any government, take a leadership role in cases like this? If so, what should they do?

NOTE

YOU MUST APPLY ETHICAL THEORIES AND PRINCIPLES IN ANSWERING THESE QUESTIONS

Explanation / Answer

1. Yahoo has violated the privacy rights of these Chinese dissidents. The reason behind this is Yahoo has not adhered to the broadly accepted ethical theories. The four broad ethical theories are

These theories broadly guide an ethical practice an individual or organization can perform. By providing the private data of the people, Yahoo has violated their rights to privacy. While the rights to privacy may be a subjective matter depending on the country, Yahoo could have used the utilitarianism approach to predict the outcome these dissidents would suffer.

By providing their information to the Chinese government Yahoo has violated utilitarianism and rights of the ethical models.

The reasonable expectation from Yahoo should be maintaining user privacy and executing their global policy. The expectation from Yahoo was that they will not be disclosing user data unless that user is likely to cause harm to others (for example, terrorist attack to kill innocents).

2. Yes. Yahoo has a responsibility in global markets to go extra length to protect email privacy. It is true that different countries may have different sets of rules and different rights for their citizens. However, on a global scale Yahoo should follow the basic ethical principles.

3. As stated earlier, each country is governed by their own set of rules and understanding of rights. This is why communist countries like China does not provide their citizens with as much rights as USA. However, governments of USA should not interfere in the Chinese government’s dealing. If any government should take lead on such matters, it should be the government of the country in question. The government should conduct their affairs following the ethical principles and theories (mentioned above) and set an example.

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