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Google Engineer Spied On Teen Users
bonch writes "Former Google employee David Barksdale accessed user accounts to spy on call logs, chat transcripts, contact lists. As a Site Reliability Engineer, Barksdale had access to the company's most sensitive information and even unblocked himself from a teen's buddy list. He met the minors through a Seattle technology group. Angry parents cut off contact with him and complained to Google, who quietly fired him."
But I found anotherFA.
Free Martian Whores!
"...So even if you think logging out and making a new separate account is enough, it's all linked"
That's relatively easy to get around. Create your initial gmail account on 1 machine using a particular ISP, and create your second acct by using a different computing device(like a droid) on another ISP. Of course, you must remember to never use one machine to check both accounts. It takes dicipline, but it an be done.
I have a gmail account that I created on Comcast with my home desktop, and a completely different one that was created when I purchased my droid through verizon.
I never check the droid gmail account from home on the phone because I do not want GPS to put me close to the other gmail account. I never check my original gmail from work (I'm blocked)
I highly doubt that google can link these two accounts together.
Sig Follows: "Suppose you were an idiot. And suppose you were a member of Congress. But I repeat myself." -- Mark Twain
In this case the motivation is a bit creepier...
Well, if the linked article has its guesses and quotes correct then it seems this guy was just trying to show off with his neat GEP (Google Employee Powers) and overstepped privacy boundaries doing so. Now, IMHO this is generally worse than just being curious or "nosey[sic]" but probably not creepier (I worked tech support just after college and I saw more than one "curious" co-worker search the customer database for members of the opposite sex who happened to live in the same city as we were in and who had a date of birth within a few years of their own. Sure, I'm guessing none of them actually used this info to their advantage (by say, looking up phone numbers and email addresses to people they had met at a club or something) but that's still a lot more creepy than trying to show off in front of others).
Oh, and in case someone missed it, I didn't say this guy shouldn't have been fired or that what he did was ok, simply that I'm not sure "creepy" is the best word to describe it (since that word tends to lead the minds of readers into "OMGZ SEX OFFENDARS PERVART!!" territory which apparently doesn't apply in this case).
Greylisting is to SMTP as NAT is to IPv4
More than enough reason for no business to store any business e-mail on their servers and no one with any e-mail which has real world value.
You are basically suggesting that no one uses the Internet anymore. End-to-end encryption aside, there will always be a system administrator with the technical ability to snoop data stored or in transfer. The only reason you can slam Google here is because they actually caught the guy.
“If you have something that you don’t want anyone to know, maybe you shouldn’t be doing it in the first place.”
"And it’s important, for example, that we’re all subject in the United States to the Patriot Act... "
The "Patriot Act" was given as just one example, not as the main reason. The old "security versus privacy."
After RTA it appears that David Barksdale violated Google internal policies so that means some Federal ECPA laws were violated, specifically 18 USC 2701(a).
The exceptions outlined in voluntary 18 USC 2702 and mandatory 18 USC 2703 don't apply either.
If Google doesn't have a policy of handing privacy violations over to AUSA/Federal or local law enforcement then I would urge a review of Google's policies.
Holy shit, Pope Benedict must be a majority shareholder at Google!
It said quietly fired, not quietly transferred to a different regional office.
The only reason you can slam Google here is because they actually caught the guy.
No, Google didn't catch the guy. The kids' parents caught the guy and told Google about it, and only *then* did Google take action.
Power-tripping on some kids ... is apparently along the lines of the company's [Google Inc.'s] general mindset.
See what happens when you don't quote somebody, but quote a segment of what they said, and rearrange the order to imply something totally different? It's a favorite tactic of politicians and journalists.
Now that you're finished butchering Schmidt's quote, here's a real, accurate, summary of the conversation, courtesy of Wikipedia:
During an interview, aired on December 3, 2009 on the CNBC documentary "Inside the Mind of Google", Schmidt was asked "People are treating Google like their most trusted friend. Should they be?" His reply was: "I think judgment matters. If you have something that you don’t want anyone to know, maybe you shouldn’t be doing it in the first place, but if you really need that kind of privacy, the reality is that search engines including Google do retain this information for some time, and it’s important, for example, that we are all subject in the United States to the Patriot Act. It is possible that that information could be made available to the authorities."
What is wrong with what he said now? Because all I see is sound advice. Most people, when given the opportunity, do something so stupid that they would later regret it, if they had known their actions were under surveillance. Most people need to know that Google is being monitored, and that their queries don't just disappear into a black void.