Why I'm thinking about boycotting everything

I learned today that in September of 2005 Yahoo provided China with information that led to the arrest of a "dissident" (or rather, a Chinese journalist.) Since then, there have been more arrests associated with information released by Yahoo to the Chinese government, including information released showing that a different Chinese journalist started serving an eight year sentence in 2003 due to information provided by Yahoo. This "dissident" was arrested for participating in an online discussion group wherein he criticized local officials.

So why would Yahoo be providing information to the Chinese government knowing that it would lead to arrests of those choosing to speak out against their government? Because they had to. Yahoo spokeswoman Mary Osako had this to say:

"We pride ourselves on helping citizens around the world search and access information. The choice is not whether to comply with law enforcement demands for information. The choice is whether to remain in the country. We believe that the Internet is a positive force in China."

Google, Microsoft, and Cisco are all also involved with supplying information to the Chinese government, although I haven't yet had to time to look into what exactly their cooperation entailed. I'll keep you posted.