Google

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Chapter 10: Google: The Drive to Balance Privacy with Profit: 10-3h Expanding the Product Mix Book Title: Business Ethics: Ethical Decision Making and Cases Printed By: Toure Williams ([email protected]) © 2019 Cengage Learning, Cengage Learning

10-3h Expanding the Product Mix

Google offers a number of other popular products to businesses and consumers. Google Translate and Google Maps offer automated translation and mapping/directional services. Google Analytics tracks and freely reports website traffic statistics, giving businesses a market research tool to understand how customers are interacting with their websites. Google Drive allows users to store files in the cloud and share them with others. The service offers 15 gigabytes of free storage per user, and more can be purchased if desired. The company is also investing in artificial intelligence processing and has developed a new chip called the Tensor Processing Unit. Early studies of the chip claim that it runs 30–80 times more efficiently than competitors’, leading to a possible breakthrough in the more sophisticated systems needed to run artificial intelligence applications.

Google is also known for its forays into exciting and cutting-edge technologies, especially through its secretive Google X department, whose mission is to develop “moon-shots”— science fiction-like technologies that have a slim chance of succeeding but could change the world if they do. Research projects underway at Google X include self-driving car technology and a drone-based product delivery system. One of these initiatives involved developing a real-time heads-up display for the average consumer. The end result was Google Glass, a wearable computer in the form of glasses worn on the face that can display information in front of the wearer’s eyes, respond to verbal and movement commands, and more. Google Glass was publicly released in 2014 and has been applied to a wide variety of commercial applications, from providing doctors with hands-free information during surgery to helping autistic children interact with their environment. However, the device also created privacy concerns, as the glasses are so unassuming that it is relatively easy to record others without their permission. There is concern that students could use Google Glass to cheat by wearing it during tests without anyone noticing. Cheating concerns are not limited to the classroom; many casinos banned Google Glass from their floors. Google ended up pulling the prototype but plans to release a more developed version in the future.

Chapter 10: Google: The Drive to Balance Privacy with Profit: 10-3h Expanding the Product Mix Book Title: Business Ethics: Ethical Decision Making and Cases Printed By: Toure Williams ([email protected]) © 2019 Cengage Learning, Cengage Learning

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