How Google spent 15 years creating a culture of concealment

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.

I don't know, looking back in over two decades of my career in the industry, I can hardly think of any communication that, if it ended in evidence, would constitute any trouble. Sure, some would be embarrassing for me personally, revealing me asking stupid questions, making wrong decisions and being responsible for some failures, but that's life. There would be some commercial secrets, sure. But noting that I would need to work hard to conceal.

Maybe that's because I am a low level code monkey and communications in the higher spheres are full with nefarious plans about how to do illegal stuff and suppress competitors - but honestly I never observed anything close to a picture that you are painting.