The Company Shitlist

(HEY, IF YOU’RE HERE, THIS IS A WORK IN PROGRESS. YOU WOULDN’T BE PEEKING, WOULD YOU? :>)

There are lots of troublesome companies. Many attempts have been made to list and detail unethical companies, but this list is most influenced by Richard Stallman’s intensely detailed lists of unethical practices of companies, as well as Louis Rossmann’s hardware-focused Consumer Rights Wiki.

The goal of this list is to give you a brief overview of the concerning practices of a company when they relate to unethical, negligent, or exploitative uses of technology, and to give you sources to learn more. It is not meant to be detailed, but it does aim to hit the most important points of why a company may be unethical.

You can use this list however you would like. I encourage you to reduce purchases from these companies, dissuade others from purchasing from them, and explore alternatives to them. Using this as a boycott list might drive you absolutely insane, so just do what you can! Remember that many people simply slightly reducing their purchases from unethical companies is more effective than a handful of people completely boycotting.

Please feel free to contact me at nat@outofbound.net if you believe that a company is missing from this list or is missing key points of interest. I expect this list to grow immensely over time.

note to self, consider having tags per issue? unethical/neglient/security concern/state/exploitative/manipulative/speculative? maybe multiple tags per issue and maybe consider listing the year if applicable

MENTIONED IN COVERT ADVERTISING ARTICLE

Anker

pooossibly implicated in unethical advertising

Better Homes & Gardens

THE OBVIOUS ONES

Amazon (and Alexa and Ring)

https://www.stallman.org/amazon.html https://www.thebignewsletter.com/p/the-ftc-sues-to-break-up-amazon-over https://pluralistic.net/2023/04/25/greedflation/ https://www.vice.com/en/article/ring-fired-employees-abusing-video-data/ - employees have seen ring videos lmaooo amazon surveils listings of products elsewhere to cause mass economic inflation https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2022/jul/13/amazon-ring-doorbell-videos-police-11-times-without-permission - amazon hands over ring videos to law enforcement https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2025/10/ring-cameras-are-about-to-get-increasingly-chummy-with-law-enforcement/ - same as above

Google

X/Twitter

https://mashable.com/article/twitter-x-new-clickbait-ad-format - covert advertising literally built into the site what the fuck https://www.commondreams.org/news/2022/12/18/ftc-urged-take-close-look-musks-twitter-bans-links-competitors - x tried to ban linking to competitors at all

Instagram

Snapchat

Apple

https://www.stallman.org/apple.html

Meta/Facebook

stallman page is a good summary page, as is https://salimvirani.com/facebook/ facebook audio message leak - https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2019/aug/13/facebook-messenger-user-recordings-contractors-listening hospitals sending stuff right over to facebook - https://themarkup.org/pixel-hunt/2022/06/16/facebook-is-receiving-sensitive-medical-information-from-hospital-websites (the hospital is just as much to blame) https://thefreethoughtproject.com/technology/new-facebook-patent-will-secretly-watch-users-cameras-monitor-emotions - THE FACE WATCHING PATENT LMAOOOOOOOO facebook deliberately targeted kids to spend money on games - https://revealnews.org/article/facebook-knowingly-duped-game-playing-kids-and-their-parents-out-of-money/ deliberately targeting distressed kids - https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2017/05/facebook-helped-advertisers-target-teens-who-feel-worthless/

MENTIONED IN SURVEILLANCE PRICING ARTICLE

Uber

Lyft

Staples

Target

Orbitz

Tinder

ZipRecruiter

MENTIONED ON STALLMAN’S SITE

OTHER