Ever since internet became a way of life, there have been debates and doubts on privacy and how much of individual information would remain private. That the internet is an open book and what you write in e-mails are as good as placing hoardings along the roadside, should no longer come across as news to most internet users. If you have not invested much on protecting information using advances in technology, there is perhaps no way you could protect your data from people willing to pry on you.

The other side of the privacy coin is the right to information. Advocates of freedom of information have always claimed that to clamp down on the free flow of information as part of government or administrative propaganda would be to trample on human rights. It is basic human right to have complete, unhindered access to information and any attempt to the contrary would be blatant human rights violation.

Given this background, privacy statements and transparency of web-based interactions assume a lot of importance in the World Wide Web. And it is this concern that has made Google to decide on its course of action when it comes to its operations in China. Google in China has always been a tricky affair, with China imposing restrictions on Google as to what it can display in search results and what it cannot. Google has been doing a balancing act in pursuit of market dominance in China.

However, the recent spate of attacks on human rights activists’ web account has tipped Google towards the right side of the equation. There have been attacks on Google with the aim of having access to e-mail accounts of human rights activists; and such an attack that flies in the face of all the hue and cry already being raised against the human rights record in China, especially at a juncture when Google has been deliberating regarding its future courses of action – Google has been divided between maintaining its quest for transparency and compromising on its principles of freedom of information for the sake of Google’s market share in China. And Google has decided against compromising its position.

Any organisation that has built its structure around the foundations of ethics has to resist the temptation to gain in the market at the cost of values. Yes, market share would be lost – but the goodwill and brand value that companies could derive out of the act of bravery could be worth a lot more than what could be gained by way of increased market share and turnover.