'Don't be Evil' Lost its Way

Good morning, hope the new year’s resolutions are holding up strong so far. 

Google workers’ organization effort—while unusual for a tech company—has been criticized for being a little toothless. But given Google’s year ahead, it won’t be ignored.  

This watered-down minority union would have less collective bargaining power than majority unions, writes my colleague Scott Nover. But it sets an achievable model for other tech companies to follow suit as the clamor of voices from labor movements grows louder this year.

What’s clear is the frustrations with how executives handle matters from sexual harassment to retention of people of color: tech giant was accused of unfair treatment of minority workers after it fired Timnit Gebru, a Black artificial intelligence researcher and ethicist, who was fired after criticizing the company’s algorithmic and hiring biases. 

Google can throw its weight around. Publishers often grumble about its one-sided contracts and gagging NDAs. What is interesting is that workers have had enough of not being able to talk openly about sensitive issues like antitrust and monopolistic power. 

After killing third-party cookies in Chrome by 2022, Google is under more pressure for the role it plays in recreating the next version of audience tracking. Publishers are charting their own paths: my colleague Andrew Blustein looked at how The New York Times is adapting to the cookie-crunch.

These themes are going nowhere through 2021. So stay tuned and consider supporting our journalism with an Adweek Pro Subscription, gaining full access to all of Adweek's essential coverage and resources.

Thanks for reading!

Lucinda

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