[raduga]

Why has Apple chosen to lock users into service with the phone company who participated in illegal, warrantless wiretaps on American citizens, a company who hands your phone calls over to the NSA, a company which is anti-Net neutrality? Jobs claims that AT&T has the best network but what about bigger issues? Are these the values that Apple stands for?

One company is calling for a boycott of AT&T at the iPhone:
TECH.BLORGE.com � Blog Archive � Steve Jobs addresses new AT&T/iPhone controversy

[lpkmckenna]

Hey, while we're at it: why did Apple partner with Yahoo! for push email? After all, Yahoo! is complicit with the persecution of bloggers in China?

Or for that matter, why does Apple build computers in China? Isn't China a flagrant violator of human rights?

We can play this game all day.

[raduga]

Well, it's a good "game" to play. Corporations can make more ethical choices in what they do, but are they going to do it just for the goodness of their hearts? No, they will act for their bottom line until their customers and shareholders speak up.

Apple has a lot of mind share, and we should hold them to the highest ethical standards.

It's also very easy to be defeatist and think in terms of "well, all corporations are evil so what's the difference?" but that's not going to improve anything.


EFF:

[ghporter]

Please note that at least AT&T has said something about their actions. A company's public statements may not always reflect their private actions. And having the federal government unhappy with a large company is not good for that company's business.

And it's not "collaborating with "the NSA, as suggested by EFF, when you get a "request" from the NSA, as a business you take the safe route and assume that they are working within the law-or tick them off and risk no longer having a business. I will also point out that the NSA was influenced to do this stuff by Homeland Security (and quite probably a few calls from the president to the director), so this is not some "rogue governmental agency" just out fishing, but rather a number of agencies whose directors thought they were doing the right thing. The president is responsible for what agencies under the executive branch do, and often of late is personally responsible for "accelerated actions" ahead of formal clearance by courts. That looks very much like how this started.

So go ahead and boycott AT&T, and any other corporation you think steps over the line. I don't think you'll find very many businesses that will be "clean" by your definition. Big business, big government, and big economy all work together in a complicated and convoluted interactional system. But it all comes down to PEOPLE making crucial decisions at crucial points in time, often (maybe almost always) without all the information needed to make the BEST decision. Of course if you're that one person who's never made a mistake, never made the wrong decision under pressure, and never otherwise screwed up, feel free to cast aspersions and scorn on everybody.

I'm in no way defending the POLICY, nor am I defending the processes. But if you actually take a mature, educated look at what this is all about, you'll see a very different picture from the black-and-white, all-good-or-all-evil idea you seem to have of how things work.