Think Global, Sue Local
You thought running a big tech giant is easy? Well, it’s probably easy enough if your company deals with manufacturing tech goods and the like. But when you’re main business mostly involves the Internet, and thus spans countries and continents, it’s sometimes difficult to deal with laws and whatnot in those countries.
Take for example the Youtube fiasco involving Thailand and its revered king. Or what about Microsoft getting successfully sued in the EU for antitrust? Remember “Gmail” vs. “Googlemail”?
What’s the common denominator? The business is global, but the issues are local. Youtube was blocked in Thailand because of a single video offensive to the Thai monarchy. Microsoft was asked to unbundle Media Player and IE from Windows in the EU. Someone else owned the “Gmail” trademark in the UK, so Google had to use “googlemail” instead in some European countries.
Here’s another fairly recent one. Google is currently in trouble in the EU for potential violations of privacy laws. The BBC says that an advisory group to the European Union has asked Google to clarify its policy of retaining users’ search data for up to two years.
So now Google may find the need to again tailor-fit its policies and services to conform to the law in the EU.
I don’t think this is an issue elsewhere. Or if it is, this has likely been resolved. Frankly, I don’t care whether this affects my country or not. I’m not doing anything illegal or incriminating anyway.
What do you think?