googlers

"Don't be evil" is the informal corporate motto (or slogan) of Google.[1] It was first suggested either by Google employee Paul Buchheit[2] at a meeting about corporate values in early 2000[3] or, according to another account, by Google engineer Amit Patel in 1999.[4] Buchheit, the creator of Gmail, said he "wanted something that, once you put it in there, would be hard to take out", adding that the slogan was "also a bit of a jab at a lot of the other companies, especially our competitors, who at the time, in our opinion, were kind of exploiting the users to some extent."[2] While the official corporate philosophy of Google[5] does not contain the words "Don't be evil", they were included in the prospectus (aka "S-1") of Google's 2004 IPO (a letter from Google's founders, later called the "'Don't Be Evil' manifesto"): "Don’t be evil. We believe strongly that in the long term, we will be better served — as shareholders and in all other ways — by a company that does good things for the world even if we forgo some short term gains."[6] The motto is sometimes incorrectly stated as Do no evil.[3][7]
While many companies have ethical codes that govern their conduct in contract, Google claims to have made "Don't Be Evil" a central pillar of their identity[8] as part of their self-proclaimed core values.[9] The words: "Don't be evil" form part of the sixth point in these Core Values, and in full states: "Do the right thing: don't be evil. Honesty and Integrity in all we do. Our business practices are beyond reproach. We make money by doing good things."[5][8]
Criticism of Google often includes a reference to "Don't be