Google's Non-Evil Stance on Privacy & Democracy

Google’s refusal to hand over aggregate search information to the Bush administration — while the other major engines reportedly have — is zinging through the blogosphere this morning (I first read about it on John Battelle’s blog).

Danny’s got a great take on it from the privacy and search perspectives, but there’s a marketing angle here, too.

MSN and Yahoo! are already suffering a consumer backlash resulting from their decisions to turn over information on Chinese bloggers to the authorities. There have been calls for boycotts of both companies, first in the blogosphere, now in mainstream media.

By taking the high road, Google’s not only walking the walk insofar as it’s “don’t be evil” corporate motto is concerned, it’s also garnering some serious goodwill as its competitors’ reputations further tarnish insofar as democracy and human rights are concerned.

Way to go, Google.