[Aaronstotle]

Any google employees/friends of google employees here with insight as how staff is receiving this news? My guess is like all other egregious abuses of power, the employees will stage a "protest" to feel good about themselves then keep working there.

[mc32]

I don’t see them staging a protest. The issue is too mainstream to earn them any Internet points. However, this is the kind of issue that matters to many people and could affect adversely. Still I think it’s up to the Congress and people to push back on abuses like this.

[urgeblumbling]

As opposed to yelling into the void on an anonymous online forum?

[shadowgovt]

I don't think they see this as an egregious abuse of power. Googlers trust Google to do a pretty decent job of securing private information almost all of the time; this isn't an area of moral concern for them.

(i.e. the question in their minds is "Is the data safer in the source repositories?" And it's probably not).

[JohnFen]

The problem is that Googlers (like far too many tech companies) view data as being secure if outsiders can't get access to it. They don't count access by themselves as a security issue, even though it objectively is.

[smueller1234]

Googler here. I don't speak for Google and obviously shouldn't and won't divulge internals, but this just makes me cringe so hard: unauthorized or illegitimate access by staff is OBVIOUSLY treated as a security issue. I'm kind of shocked that folks would think otherwise.

[JohnFen]

Just to clarify, I was not referring to unauthorized or illegitimate access. I was referring to company-sanctioned access.

[mav3rick]

Unlike other companies Google employees atleast protest. In many cases they win. No company is a saint. It's a bit rich asking everyone to leave their jobs. 99% of HN will work for the most money. Google still tries its best unlike Facebook or Oracle. None of the good things it does ever get attention.

[Zenst]

I wonder what type of biometric and other monitoring of employees by employers that could happen under employment contracts or in the name of security or `Health and Safety`.

After all, many companies trial new ideas and technology in house.

So would be insightful into what companies like Google do inhouse.

[big_chungus]

Google's employees appear from their past behavior to protest when the issue at hand is one about which the far left cares. [0][1][2][3][4] This issue is rather bi-partisan, so I don't expect any significant protest.

[0]: https://www.zdnet.com/article/google-employees-protest-dont-...

[1]: https://www.theverge.com/2019/7/16/20695964/google-protest-l...

[2]: https://www.cnn.com/2019/05/01/tech/google-employees-protest...

[3]: https://www.vox.com/recode/2019/6/19/18691870/google-employe...

[4]: https://www.theverge.com/2019/5/1/18525473/google-employee-s...