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Do you believe in the tech giants when they give you specific privacy options, such as the ability to share your photos only with a small circle? Everyone trusts tech giants to a greater or lesser extent, but new discoveries are pushing more and more people to the “lower” side. For example, employees of these companies usually have the ability to access your accounts through back door measures, and new evidence shows that they to have fact, which is in strict disregard of confidentiality standards.
Documents released yesterday (August 4) show that Google has fired dozens of its employees in recent years for improperly accessing data.
Before we begin, one point of clarification: it’s not just Google employees who spy on others. Employees of other tech companies, like Facebook and Snapchat, were also found guilty of doing this and were punished by their employers. Just in case you thought this was a new phenomenon, like Vice reports, it’s actually a problem that goes back at least to MySpace. Back in the days when the social networking site was popular, several employees engaged in anti-privacy behaviors, such as reading user messages.
Such revelations aren’t exactly moments of glory for tech companies, as they often try to portray themselves as entities defending civil liberties. These leaked documents reveal that while companies take action against offending employees, they do not disclose details with their quarterly results, which would allow users to make informed choices about whether or not to use products.
On the contrary, the information about the dismissal of its employees by Google came from a source which was decidedly not Google itself.
Vice, the recipient of the leaked document, did not reveal many details about how the companies identify spy incidents or begin investigations into them. However, it offers concrete figures on the measures taken. So while we don’t know how many privacy breaches occur each year, we have an idea of how many serious enough that Google is taking tough action against its employees.
The document revealed that in 2020 alone, Google laid off 36 employees for these serious breaches, while the figures in 2019 and 2018 were 26 and 18 people, respectively. The upward trend is probably an indication that companies are also taking these breaches seriously and have the means to identify them when they occur.
The report adds that 86% of breaches in 2020 involved sharing data with people not authorized to receive the information, while 10% of breaches involved accessing, modifying or erasing user or employee data. .
In a statement given to Vice, a Google spokesperson said most incidents related to the leaked document involved “accessing or misusing proprietary and sensitive corporate or IP information.” When it comes to user data, the spokesperson added that the company follows leading industry standards (such as limiting access, multi-step review before data access, and training of its employees) to protect data from all insider threats. The company said it is also investigating all allegations and taking corrective action, if necessary.
We’ve reached out to Google for a statement and will update the story based on the company’s response.
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