> Corporations will abuse your personal integrity whenever they get a chance, while abiding the law.
Call my cynical if you will, but I'd leave "while abiding the law" out of that, or at least replace it with "while hoping they aren't breaking the law". Due diligence on these matters is often sadly lacking. They'll take the information first and only consider any such implications when/if they come up later.
Large organisations like Google probably will make the up-front effort to remain legal, because they are in the public eye enough for lack of doing so to attract a lot of unwanted press, but you don't have to get a lot smaller than that to start finding companies who are a lot less careful (or in some cases wilfully negligent).
I would use Microsoft as a precedent. Sure they will attempt to stay legal but by pushing it as far as they can.
For instance the browser choice script that came with Windows imposed by the EU never worked. It was a "bug". Somehow they must have omitted to test the feature...
Until last year Microsoft started playing nice, and I think Google and Facebook have become the new corporate villains. But recently the Windows team seems to be minded to challenge them in that position.
Often, it's indeed cheaper to pay a government-mandated fine than lose market opportunities afforded by behavior that later runs afoul of some law or regulation.
Call my cynical if you will, but I'd leave "while abiding the law" out of that, or at least replace it with "while hoping they aren't breaking the law". Due diligence on these matters is often sadly lacking. They'll take the information first and only consider any such implications when/if they come up later.
Large organisations like Google probably will make the up-front effort to remain legal, because they are in the public eye enough for lack of doing so to attract a lot of unwanted press, but you don't have to get a lot smaller than that to start finding companies who are a lot less careful (or in some cases wilfully negligent).