Trying to avoid antitrust suits, Google systematically told employees to destroy messages, avoid certain words and copy the lawyers as often as possible.
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/11/20/technology/google-antitrust-employee-messages.htmlJudge James Donato of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, who presided over the Epic case, said that there was “an ingrained systemic culture of suppression of relevant evidence within Google” and that the company’s behavior was “a frontal assault on the fair administration of justice.” He added that after the trial, he was “going to get to the bottom” of who was responsible at Google for allowing this behavior.
If employees wanted to keep an electronic record, they were rebuked. In a group chat from 2021, one employee inquired: “ok for me to keep history on here? need to keep some info for memory purposes.” Not OK, said Danielle Romain, the vice president of Trust, a Google team that looks for solutions that enhance user privacy and trust.
