Google Employee Sues For $3.8 Billion Over Confidentiality Policies (theverge.com)

An anonymous reader writes: A Google product manager has filed a lawsuit against the company for its confidentiality policies on the grounds they violate California labor laws. California labor laws give employees the right to discuss workplace issues with law enforcement, regulators, the media, and other employees. Google is accused of firing the employee for exercising his rights, then smearing his reputation in an internal email sent to the rest of the company. These policies are put in place to allegedly prevent the leaking of potentially damaging information to regulators or law enforcement. They in turn prohibit employees from speaking out about illegal activity within the company, even to its own lawyers, and encourage them to report other employees suspected of leaking information. The Verge has obtained a copy of the complaint, linked below in full. "Google's motto is 'don't be evil.' Google's illegal confidentiality agreements and policies fail this test," the lawsuit reads. One policy allegedly even prevents employees from writing a novel about working for a large Silicon Valley corporation -- like, for instance, Dave Eggers' dystopian novel, The Circle -- without first getting final draft approval from Google. The Information confirmed that this lawsuit was filed by the same individual, known in the suit only as "John Doe," who filed a complaint with the National Labor Relations Board earlier this year over many of the same confidentiality policies.

Comments

Re:Seeking an insane amount of money.

[Guybrush_T]

RTFA, that's a headline madness. He is not suing for 3.8 Billion, he is suing for up to $14,600 per employee, per the law. Times 61000 employees, that's 3.8 billion total distributed among the employees. Makes perfect sense.

Re:ethics/governance contact

[hondo77]

Have you ever actually tried to USE one of the ethics hotlines?

I did once. About a year after ethics training. The hotline had been disconnected and no longer existed. It no longer appeared in the company directory. I figured the training and hotline were setup as part of a court settlement and that once the terms had been fulfilled, it was all dismantled.