During the early phases of organization building, Google needed to build a huge army of engineers in a competitive hiring environment. To do that they had to co

During the early phases of organization building, Google needed to build a huge army of engineers in a competitive hiring environment. To do that they had to convince potential hires that it would be morally acceptable to build the most sophisticated tracking/surveillance system in human history. (I don't think this was entirely cynical: I also think it was also necessary for the founders to convince themselves that this was all going to be ok.) Perhaps there's more, but that's the basic story behind "don't be evil." But obviously organizations change. Much of Google's infrastructure now exists and nobody needs to be convinced to build it. Google/Alphabet also has new corporate leadership that is more beholden to the company's shareholders. Of course, one could point out that this was inevitable from the beginning: corporations can temporarily behave in "moral" ways, but (absent outside pressure) they won't necessarily stay that way.