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How Google spent 15 years creating a culture of concealment

(www.nytimes.com)
203 points tysone | 2 comments | 20 Nov 24 11:45 UTC | HN request time: 0.399s | source
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getpost ◴[20 Nov 24 23:05 UTC] No.42199072[source]▶
If anything you ever say during routine business operations can end up as evidence, clear and honest communication will suffer. The effectiveness of organizations, including the ability to act ethically, will be seriously degraded.

There needs to be some kind of work product doctrine, which protects the privacy of routine business communication. Defining that, while allowing the collection of evidence of criminal activity, won't be easy, but the current state of affairs is unworkable.

I don't wish to facilitate corporate crime, and it's obvious that some of Google's anti-competitive behavior is unlawful. But, I don't see any realistic alternative to what Google is doing in the current legal environment.

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1. alexey-salmin ◴[20 Nov 24 23:57 UTC] No.42199476[source]▶
> There needs to be some kind of work product doctrine, which protects the privacy of routine business communication

Funny really that it was Eric Schmidt who said on the topic of privacy: "If you have something that you don't want anyone to know, maybe you shouldn't be doing it in the first place."

"... except if you're a corporate employee in a routine business conversation" – added Schmidt after some additional consideration.

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2. lubujackson ◴[21 Nov 24 00:07 UTC] No.42199560[source]▶
But.. but.. ethics will degrade if you can't do illegal things!

Call me jaded, but if my 8 person company could say " maybe we should get legal advice before doing that" I am not going to wring my hands over poor, persecuted Google. They've become an ad company with some web tools on top.