I found this article that is titled, "Seven "Corporations of Interest" in Selling Surveillance Tools to China". This article was very interesting and as you can see from the title, it tells the viewers and readers why the corporations sell surveillance tools that can be used to abuse human rights. There may be no hard evidence against some of these companies that are about to be listed but what is known is that technology is being used to censor the citizens and infringe upon their human rights.
1. Cisco is a company that has admitted to their knowledge in terms of what their technology is being used for. They are involved in China's Golden Shield Project which is a censorship and surveillance project by the Chinese government.
2. Nortel is reported to have sold hardware to help this censorship and surveillance project along with working with a University in order to come up with a software to monitor telephone conversations.
3. Oracle is reported to have sold software to China and had admitted that one-third of their profit in China comes from their government.
4. Motorola is said to have sold hand held devices to "tap into "sophisticated data repositories" on Chinese citizens."
5. EMC is reported to have sold to the Chinese authorities a sophisticated data storage with security precautions.
6. Sybase is reported to sell database programs.
7. L-1 Identifying Solutions is said to have sold software to help the government identify individuals in criminal investigations.
As you can see from this long list, the only company that has actually come out and admitted is Cisco. Cisco also appeared in front of congress in their role of the Golden Shield Project. All the other six companies have just been reported by news articles and there is not much hard evidence yet. I think this is very interesting that companies/corporations do in fact believe that there is nothing that triumphs profit. I remember the previous line from "The Corporation" documentary that we just finished today in class.
Also, it should be noted that there are many other corporations out there besides these seven listed and also other technologies that can be configured for China's own use.
LINK TO ARTICLE
This is an interesting article. I understand that a corporation exists to make money but it seems to me like they should take human rights and liberties into account.
ReplyDeleteHowever, a corporation does not really have any say about how their technology is going to be used. They just provide a product and it is up to the end user to make use of it. Even if a company were to cut off sales of their product to China, the government there would probably still be able to acquire it and use it for their own purposes.
This is nuts! I think corporations have a responsibility to see that their technologies are used appropriately. If a company is selling software and hardware that violate the rights of citizens in ways that citizens do not approve of then I don't think its right. I mean its okay if a companies products are being manipulated but if companies are profiting off of Chinese censorship them I don't know what to think.
ReplyDeleteI think that both points are valid! Companies provide a product and how that product is used is not necessarily their responsibility. Yet we require people to register guns!
ReplyDeleteI also believe that if a company know that what they are doing is wrong (socially) they should think beyond the bottom line.
Excellent information! A companies primary objective is to make money. A lot of the companies can care less about the ethics in business or human rights. After reading the article it reminding me of IBM's participation in the Holocaust. They sold punch card computers to the Nazi party and went to the concentration camps every month in order to service the machines. To me it's incredible how IBM was able to overlook the fact that they had established a business relationship with an organizations that was killing millions.
ReplyDeleteI also thing that corporations should feel responsible for the proper distribution and use of their products. If companies are allowing this then they should be held responsible for any violations made by their products.