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."

Comments

Always a concern

[Pojut]

You never know who is watching or listening in. People don't realize that every single thing they do online can, at some point along the pipe, be potentially seen by someone.

Re:Always a concern

[sjs132]

An old friend of mine used to work for a high clearance group out in Colorado someplace. This is going back to 1995'sh... He has since gone silent (No contacts) , but I remember one conversation that we had had where he warned:

"If you want it to be a secret you better keep it in your head. Don't write it down, don't email it, don't call on the phone... Because if they want, they can know." (Paraphrased from so long ago...) But you get the point.

It was true then and even more so now. Who are "They"? Well, that's the problem... in 1995 I presumed it was the Federal Government that could disseminate the information to state/local. And under Homeland Security we do have "FUSION CENTERS" so you know that happens. But also it seems corporations of large magnitude can fall into it. If it is for "research, Statistics & Administration" then big whoop, but obviously it is a big temptation for people to abuse it once they are on the "inside."

Case in point would be Crystal Bowersox. She had her privacy violated multiple times in Ohio. Probably by people paid to dig up dirt for tabloids or something, but just like Google, Creepy.

http://www.dispatchpolitics.com/live/content/local_news/stories/2010/09/09/copy/ohio-apologized-to-idol-star-for-illegal-snooping.html?adsec=politics&sid=101

http://content.usatoday.com/communities/idolchatter/post/2010/09/crystal-bowersoxs-privacy-breached-by-ohio-officials/1

http://marquee.blogs.cnn.com/2010/09/09/ohio-apologizes-to-crystal-bowersox-for-security-breach/

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5i_29YKZdSnooBzedGCwrNGaqfyDgD9I4IR7G1

http://au.eonline.com/uberblog/b199540_why_were_cops_snooping_on_idols_crystal.html

 

Duh

[ebonum]

Young single male admins at companies like Google and Yahoo are golden contacts. If you are looking to research something, they can help. For a price.

Surprise!

[nomad-9]

Hardly surprising, since Google CEO Eric Schmidt's notorious "if you want privacy, you have something to hide" remark.

The problem with this guy power-tripping on some kids, was not that he didn't give importance to people's privacy - which is apparently along the lines of the company's general mindset - but that he got caught for being stupid.

Re:More than enough reason for no business

[Runaway1956]

Hell, I'm not even an admin worthy of the position - and I can do as you say. Crap - some ditzy female was playing one of the kids for a fool - I knew she was a worthless tramp, but you don't just tell your kids that, because they will HATE YOU FOREVER for interfering in their personal love lives. Well - she used a computer at my house to read some personal emails and such stuff. Dad just forwarded all the dirt, complete with account passwords, to the son via a "proxy". The female disappeared from the son's life faster than pizza on football night. No, I don't condone spying on people - but bitches don't count, LOL