Sony Corp., upset over efforts by enviros to hold electronics manufacturers responsible for the final disposal of their products, may soon be hiring an Internet investigation agency to keep track of activists’ plans and actions. In a leaked Sony paper, the company lists five specific groups that it believes pose a public relations threat: Greenpeace, Friends of the Earth, the European Environment Bureau, the Northern Alliance for Sustainability, and the Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition. Sony is particularly unhappy that these groups support an effort by the European Union that would require electronics makers in the next few years to begin recycling or reusing 70 percent to 90 percent of the weight of their products at the end of their lifecycles and phasing out the use of certain toxic materials. Numerous other corporations have also begun spying on environmental and activist groups via web snoop companies.
