Apple audits unveil child labor, slave labor and more at supplier plants
Apple has released a list of hardware component suppliers (and many of their human rights and environmental violations) as part of its 2012 Supplier Responsibility Progress Report.
This list, the company says, accounts for more than 97 percent of Apple’s procurement expenditures for materials, manufacturing, and assembly of iPads, iPhones, iPods, MacBooks and various other personal computing products worldwide.
In this year’s report, Apple says it conducted more audits of manufacturers than ever — 229 … Continue Reading
Start-up’s gaffe raises questions about blogs in Silicon Valley
We’ve pulled this story down after talking further with the startup involved. We apologize to the startup and to TechCrunch.… Continue Reading
Book excerpt: "I.D.E.A. To Exit: An Entrepreneurial Journey"
(Editor’s note: In this excerpt from the book “I.D.E.A. To Exit: An Entrepreneurial Journey”, author Jeffrey Weber (who founded Technology Resource Center, Inc., eventually selling it in 2006 to a Fortune 100 listed firm) discusses the role honesty and ethics play in your business.)
The topic of honesty and ethics may seem trite. Most new entrants to entrepreneurism don’t give it a thought in their business development process because at the moment it is not … Continue Reading
Google’s in-house philosopher: Technologists need a “moral operating system”
The technology industry needs to think long and hard about ethics, according to Googler Damon Horowitz.
Horowitz has co-founded several startups, and he’s currently a director of engineering at Google (which acquired his latest startup Aardvark). But he also has a Ph.D. in philosophy and apparently holds the title of “in-house philosopher” at the search giant. He spoke today at the TEDx Silicon Valley event at Stanford University, where he offered a slightly more nuanced … Continue Reading
Zynga's Mark Pincus: The ethical founder?
The social era of computing has produced three multi-billion dollar companies: Facebook, Twitter and Zynga. As light is increasingly shed on the formation myths of Facebook and Twitter, a lot of new information casts doubt on the ethics and motivations of their respective founders. It is ironic that Zynga has had no such drama, since the company’s founder Mark Pincus has been lambasted for being unethical due to what TechCrunch dubbed “ScamVille”.
Was ScamVille really … Continue Reading
White hat or black hat? Firefox hacking tool Firesheep raises ethical concerns
Editor’s Note: Was the release of the drop-dead easy hacking tool Firesheep, an extension for the Firefox browser that lets users hijack passwords from others on wireless networks, ethically sound? Philosophy professor Mike LaBossiere tackles the question:
In America there is a saying “guns don’t kill people.” Some wits add “people with guns kill people.” While this saying is just that, a saying, it does put a handy slogan on a view about moral … Continue Reading
10 things you won't learn in school
Editor’s Note: Was the release of the drop-dead easy hacking tool Firesheep, an extension for the Firefox browser that lets users hijack passwords from others on wireless networks, ethically sound? Philosophy professor Mike LaBossiere tackles the question:
In America there is a saying “guns don’t kill people.” Some wits add “people with guns kill people.” While this saying is just that, a saying, it does put a handy slogan on a view about moral … Continue Reading
