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Ethics Policy and Disclosures

This is a statement of my ethics policy and disclosures when writing commentary and essays. This may be more than you wish to know, but in the interests of including more than less, I'm erring on the side of additional disclosures.

I aim to abide by the Code of Ethics adopted by the Society of Professional Journalists. It requires journalists to verify information, identify sources and their motives and reliability, provide access to source material, and always remember that people—especially those with whom we disagree!—are human beings deserving of respect.

This is the principle of charity, properly understood: considering someone else's arguments in their best and fullest form. (It's related to the traditional virtues of kindness and humility, which all of us could use more of nowadays.)

I worked for over a decade as a reporter and columnist at CNET, CBSNEWS.com, Wired, Time Inc., and HotWired. I believe the SPJ's Code of Ethics applies to commentary as well.

My wife is a lawyer at Google currently working on Google Search and Google Maps. Until the second half of 2015, she previously worked on projects related to advertising. She has never shared information with me about these or any other projects she worked on at Google.

If Google screws up, and I happen to be writing about that particular screwup, I will say so.

I do not serve as a consultant to any companies. I do not accept money from companies I may mention in articles, or their public relations or advertising agencies.

I am a licensed pilot. (This is probably only relevant when I'm writing about aviation, as I did here.)

I own shares of Recent Media Inc., which has published an iOS and Android news app backed by our recommendation engine.

I do not own shares in any other company. I do not trade in options or take short positions in the financial markets. I own shares in Vanguard mutual funds, none of which is technology-focused.

Updated March 23, 2018 to include aviation disclosure.