Do you know how many products you own with a Siemens/Infineon chip in them, or how to avoid buying more, or how big your purchases (and those of everyone else who is an active supporter of NO2ID) are in proportion to random market fluctuations in the 100Bn+ turnover of the group?
To quote what I wrote on another thread long ago:
Quote:
I can't see NO2ID ever sponsoring a boycott (though I don't claim perfect vision). That's partly because boycotts tend to be quite partisan and discriminatory, but also because they just don't work: keen boycotters are generally people who aren't heavy users of the products/services/etc concerned, so for all the self-righteous joy they give to some, organised consumer boycotts are very poor value for effort.
Publicising poor privacy practice and abject sucking up to authoritarian government by large corporations in order to bring indirect market pressure on them, on the other hand, I can see us doing quite a lot. If you honestly - no McLibels - show people there is good reason to regard a firm with suspicion, then they'll make their choices under that condition. That choice isn't a boycott or political statement, as far as the consumer is concerned (and most consumers wouldn't think of themselves as that sort of person), but it is far more fearsome to the firms involved because its reach is much greater.
The difference is this. "Boycot X!" says: X is wicked and you must p(o)ut yourself out to punish X. Exposé of X, market pressure by PR, says X: is doing something that is potentially harmful to its customers, are you completely sure you want to be a customer?
It ought to be obvious why one works better than the other.
PR to emphasise political risk to the business is also likely to be effective, and with the opposition parties committed to scrapping the scheme, it can be used to encourage the contracting companies to avoid massive commitments. If the scheme is likely to be cancelled, then the firms involved will be building their tenders in such a way that cancellation is less painful. Meanwhile the IPS will be trying to lock them in, along with everyone else.
