Apple isn't the only one using Foxconn services.
In the last week I have asked Hewlett-Packard, Samsung, Microsoft and others about their reports on labor conditions. Most responded with a boilerplate public relations message. Some didn’t even respond.
The answer from Barnes & Noble, the maker of the Nook e-reader, was typical.
Mary Ellen Keating, a senior vice president, said only, “We don’t comment on our supply chain vendors.”
Lenovo e-mailed a general report on sustainability. Samsung, which sells more cellphones than Apple, gave no response.
It's odd that companies that usually are very vocal about their strengths against Apples products suddenly falls silent when asked about the very thing Apple has been very open about since 2006. Why can't Samsung release information about their supply chain labor conditions?
Amazon declined to comment specifically about worker conditions in the factories of its suppliers, which include Foxconn, but pointed to a section of its site that mentions audits by a third party, which are not made public.
We're looking into it, but it's a secret, so you can't know.
I've always said that it's silly for Apple to be held to a different standard than all these companies, yet still I would like to applaud their openness in this respect.