Google Exposed User Data, Feared Repercussions of Disclosing to Public
I think the these three passages really sum up where Google's moral compass is these days:<p>>"A memo reviewed by the Journal prepared by Google’s legal and policy staff and shared with senior executives warned that disclosing the incident would likely trigger “immediate regulatory interest” and invite comparisons to Facebook’s leak of user information to data firm Cambridge Analytica."<p>>"The document shows Google officials felt that disclosure could have serious ramifications. Revealing the incident would likely result “in us coming into the spotlight alongside or even instead of Facebook despite having stayed under the radar throughout the Cambridge Analytica scandal,” the memo said. It “almost guarantees Sundar will testify before Congress.”"<p>>"Internal lawyers advised that Google wasn’t legally required to disclose the incident to the public, the people said. Because the company didn’t know what developers may have what data, the group also didn’t believe notifying users would give any actionable benefit to the end users, the people said."<p>These statements and tactics seem to be taken from the same playbook that Big Pharma, Big Tobacco or any other soulless Mega Corp uses. As long as it it's legal they don't care if it's right. Did their arrogance prevent them from entertaining the idea that disclosure would have provided users with the "actionable benefit" of considering whether or not they wanted to delete their Google accounts?