How Google Spent 15 Years Creating a Culture of Concealment | Trying to avoid antitrust suits, Google systematically told employees to destroy messages, avoid certain words and copy the lawyers as often as possible.

The New York Times ^ | Nov. 20, 2024, 5:00 a.m. ET | David Streitfeld

[E. Pluribus Unum]

In late 2008, as Google faced antitrust scrutiny over an advertising deal with its rival Yahoo and confronted lawsuits involving patent, trademark and copyright claims, its executives sent out a confidential memo.

“We believe that information is good,” the executives told employees in the memo. But, they added, government regulators or competitors might seize on words that Google workers casually, thoughtlessly wrote to one another.

To minimize the odds that a lawsuit could flush out comments that might be incriminating, Google said, employees should refrain from speculation and sarcasm and “think twice” before writing one another about “hot topics.” “Don’t comment before you have all the facts,” they were instructed.

The technology was tweaked, too. The setting for the company’s instant messaging tool was changed to “off the record.” An incautious phrase would be wiped the next day.

The memo became the first salvo in a 15-year campaign by Google to make deletion the default in its internal communications. Even as the internet giant stored the world’s information, it created an office culture that tried to minimize its own. Among its tools: using legal privilege as an all-purpose shield and imposing restraints on its own technology, all while continually warning that loose lips could sink even the most successful corporation.

How Google developed this distrustful culture was pieced together from hundreds of documents and exhibits, as well as witness testimony, in three antitrust trials against the Silicon Valley company over the last year. The plaintiffs — Epic Games in one case, the Department of Justice in the other two — were trying to establish monopoly behavior, which required them to look through emails, memos and instant messages from hundreds of Google engineers and executives.

[glorgau]

Don't be evil.

[Fai Mao]

“Don’t be evil.”

Is evil and calls it good

[Brian Griffin]

[An easy way to get around Google]

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[Brian Griffin]

Microsoft keeps trying to retire my use of Luxxle.

[rdcbn1]

Google is basically a digital extortion ring.

Lets say you have a business and you and anyone does a google search on that business.

The first 10 pages of hits from that search are BS and often not even related to your company. A lot of the time the hits include negative press on your company or products.

Pay Google the proper fees and your company and products go right to the top of the search page and all the negative stuff gets pushed down to page 90 or so and buried.

They have been doing this for years and they are pros at this kind of stuff.

They are using the algorithms they have developed for this manipulation in politics, DEI propaganda and free speech suppression and manipulation to shape and control public opinion.

[BradyLS]

DON’T BE EVIL

It’s like one of those slogans in Animal Farm. And like one, the corruption of its leadership made it into a lie within a couple of decades. Now waiting for an amendment into something close, but not the same, like…

DON’T BE EVILE”

[Brian Griffin]

Our key business is simple:
1. build the best search engine
2. expand the use of that search engine
3. sell high-margin targeted advertising based on search engine queries

We have on our payroll cool, calm and collected as well as wild & crazy guys and gals to try to grow our business. These people are not lawyers or experts in contract, tax, labor relations or anti-trust law.

We also have on our payroll expert lawyers to ensure business is done according to law. These expert lawyers have the final say in all significant matters.

[Brian Griffin]

Getting search close to being right is a difficult business.

Alot of links are outdated. Many are redundant.

Getting a useful search result now often takes quite a bit of time.

Many searches using three words often only appear to give results based on two words.

[Brian Griffin]

After about 7 pages I try different search words.

[Wuli]

Why are we not surprised.

[DAC21]

Seems Google stopped send The NY Times their checks on time.

[Paal Gulli]

G**gle is the largest and most pervasive censor and manipulator of information that has ever existed ...

... at least on this planet.

G**gle exists entirely to modify what you think by controlling what you see and read. If you use any G**gle product (without first making some technically astute modifications), you're as much as begging for a proctological exam every time you fire up a PC or handheld digital device.