It’s Only Words

Google’s unofficial motto is “Don’t Be Evil”.

Apparently it’s just a slogan without meaning.

Google to pay $500 million over online drug ads

“While Canada has its own regulatory rules for prescription drugs, Canadian pharmacies that ship prescription drugs to U.S. residents are not subject to Canadian regulatory authority, and many sell drugs obtained from countries other than Canada which lack adequate pharmacy regulations,” the Justice Department said.

Google at one time accepted advertising from overseas online pharmacies but later confined such ads to those from the United States and Canada.

You can argue the propriety of allowing people to buy drugs from Canada that are supposed to be the same as US sold drugs, only cheaper. Of course in some cases the drugs from Canada aren’t really from Canada and some of them might not actually be the drug advertised.

Either way, Google was making money from advertising products that were illegal in the US and they knew it.

This story is from August, so it’s not exactly new. What is new is the story that the FBI built the case against Google using a convicted con man serving time in a federal prison. Set a thief to catch a thief, I guess.

Con Artist Starred in Sting That Cost Google Millions

The full story is subscriber content only, so if you’re not a subscriber you’ll only see part of the story.

So, I guess Google’s motto only applies when money isn’t involved.

$500 Million is a huge amount to most people, but to Google it’s pocket change since they have about $45 Billion in cash reserves.