Does “Evil” Include Lying To Get Business?

It seems that Google has not yet managed to implement “Don’t Be Evil” worldwide in their organization.

Here is the story of representatives of Google systematically lying about their relationship with another company (whose public directory they were using to get contacts) in order to get business. Stefan Magdalinski (who I have met a couple of times) has amassed a conclusive portfolio of evidence, including taped phone conversations, of a persistent campaign of such lies.

These people were clearly working to a script. Therefore, someone somewhere within Google authorized these call centre employees in Kenya and India to lie about Google’s relationship with Mocality. That person should be fired.

We recently saw Google do the right thing in relation to another part of their company which had broken their advertising guidelines. Let’s hope we will see the same again.

[Update 2012-01-17: The plot thickens.]