Snowden, as of now, is not with his family, does not have a job, can't see his girlfriend, any number of things - so to argue he is doing something Google can't, namely to keep living his life from a Russian airport, makes no sense
If people can give up their lives or parts of it to do the right thing, why can't a company? (I would add that if you have a good reason for it, that's also a reason to re-think companies, and not to simply accept that they can't do the right thing because that's how they are)
I could see a CEO not wanting to see his employees out of a job, or being afraid of his shareholders caring more about the share value than what they see when they look in the mirror; but that doesn't automatically justify anything. Especially since even if Google "died", just for refusing and resisting a little (which I doubt, but I'm willing to assume it and argue from there anyway), something else would have to replace at least parts of it, and former Googlers would be the first hired for any and all of that.
But considering Erich Schmidt says stuff like "If you have something that you don’t want anyone to know, maybe you shouldn’t be doing it in the first place.", it kinda seems like the issue sits deeper. It's not (just) cowardice, it's lack of awareness.
If people can give up their lives or parts of it to do the right thing, why can't a company? (I would add that if you have a good reason for it, that's also a reason to re-think companies, and not to simply accept that they can't do the right thing because that's how they are)
I could see a CEO not wanting to see his employees out of a job, or being afraid of his shareholders caring more about the share value than what they see when they look in the mirror; but that doesn't automatically justify anything. Especially since even if Google "died", just for refusing and resisting a little (which I doubt, but I'm willing to assume it and argue from there anyway), something else would have to replace at least parts of it, and former Googlers would be the first hired for any and all of that.
But considering Erich Schmidt says stuff like "If you have something that you don’t want anyone to know, maybe you shouldn’t be doing it in the first place.", it kinda seems like the issue sits deeper. It's not (just) cowardice, it's lack of awareness.