this post was submitted on 05 Jun 2024
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396
Google’s Privacy Chief Is Out And Will Not Be Replaced (www.forbes.com)
submitted 5 months ago by Stopthatgirl7@lemmy.world to c/technology@lemmy.world
29 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

Google’s chief privacy officer, Keith Enright, will depart the tech giant after 13 years, with no plans yet to replace him, as the company restructures its teams in charge of privacy and legal compliance.

Staff were informed of Enright’s departure in mid-May, according to two sources with knowledge of the matter. One told Forbes the news came as a shock to employees, as Enright was well-liked and respected, having steered Google’s privacy team through years in which its data handling practices were held under a microscope by lawmakers, regulators and civil courts.

Matthew Bye, Google’s head of competition law, will be leaving as well, after 15 years with the company and during a critical moment for Google when it comes to antitrust. Last month, the company wrapped up closing arguments in a landmark competition trialbrought on by the Department of Justice, over Google’s contracts with device manufacturers that push users to Google search. Bye did not respond to a request for comment.

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[–] Alphane_Moon@lemmy.ml 119 points 5 months ago (5 children)

Google had a privacy chief?

What exactly was he doing? Jacking off Pichai?

[–] xep@fedia.io 49 points 5 months ago

Google used to at least pretend to not be amoral, but I think this restructuring pretty much reveals them for what they are now.

[–] kirk781@discuss.tchncs.de 26 points 5 months ago

He was entrusted with protecting Google's privacy; not it's customers!

[–] 1984@lemmy.today 7 points 5 months ago

Vest and rest I guess. :)

[–] atrielienz@lemmy.world 5 points 5 months ago (1 children)

We know what he wasn't doing. He wasn't preventing the leak of internal documents detailing how search works. Which is probably why he's fired. Someone has to take the fall. Kind of wonder if he's got a golden parachute.

[–] funkless_eck@sh.itjust.works 6 points 5 months ago

He's ex-C-suite of IBM and Macy's I'm sure he's fine.

[–] magikmw@lemm.ee 5 points 5 months ago

We can only assume he was doing a lot of work that made google just as evil as it is now compared to the alternative without him, which we'll get now.

[–] NutWrench@lemmy.world 49 points 5 months ago (5 children)

20th century Google: "Don't be evil."

Wow. They sure let that motto slide, didn't they?

[–] Empricorn@feddit.nl 23 points 5 months ago

I mean, it's now the same as every massive corporation: "Quarterly profits."

No single person will ever be as greedy as a Board filled with the fuckers. It will never be enough...

[–] eee@lemm.ee 16 points 5 months ago

Don't don't be evil

[–] DandomRude@lemmy.world 15 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (1 children)

They changed it to "do the right thing" around 2015 but never defined what "the right thing" might be - mostly shareholder value, I guess.

[–] DoucheBagMcSwag@lemmy.dbzer0.com 4 points 5 months ago (1 children)

It's definitely not Do Tha Right Thang

[–] ArtVandelay@lemmy.world 4 points 5 months ago

Do Tha Fiduciary Thang just doesn't quite have the right sound

[–] Alphane_Moon@lemmy.ml 5 points 5 months ago

I was young in the 90s/2000s and it honestly felt like computing was a new stage for human progress.

I clearly wasn't the only one. There was the "A Declaration of the Independence of Cyberspace" in 1996:

Governments of the Industrial World, you weary giants of flesh and steel, I come from Cyberspace, the new home of Mind. On behalf of the future, I ask you of the past to leave us alone. You are not welcome among us. You have no sovereignty where we gather.

I think the moral of all this is that fundamentally technology doesn't matter. If you don't have the public structures to reign in the oligarchs, shills and liars, you're not going to get anywhere.

[–] dinckelman@lemmy.world 1 points 5 months ago

Money always comes first, for most of these companies. The era where your data was private is truly over. Now most of these platforms only give you a choice between your data being sold, and your data being sold for like a 2% cut

[–] Exec@pawb.social 40 points 5 months ago

Matthew Bye, Google’s head of competition law, will be leaving as well

Bye Matthew

[–] MajorHavoc@programming.dev 22 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago)

In the past I have been surprised to encounter some genuinely privacy-minded folks working at Google.

It's hard not to see this as an announcement that era is ending now...

I de-Googled awhile ago, based on my personal belief that Google wouldn't keep those people. I'm not happy to feel like this verifies my worst expectations.

[–] Kolanaki@yiffit.net 17 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Matthew Bye is also leaving

Nominative determinism tells me he must leave a lot of jobs.

[–] GravelPieceOfSword@lemmy.ca 5 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago)

Nominative determinism is pretty accurate. Steve Jobs did generate a lot of jobs. Bill Gates had a lot of gates to his name.

just in case it wasn't obvious

[–] SouthFresh@lemmy.ml 9 points 5 months ago

Privacy Schmivacy

[–] aniki@lemm.ee 9 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Paywalled

[–] Marcumas@lemmy.world 7 points 5 months ago

Time to bring back AltaVista.

[–] Whirlygirl9@kbin.melroy.org 4 points 5 months ago (1 children)

I'm trying my best to un-Google. i switched to firefox and ddg but the mapping... ugh. i cant quit the driving maps.

[–] ruse8145@lemmy.sdf.org 2 points 5 months ago

Magic earth is ok for nav but the problem with all openstreetmaps options remains the terrible search. This has been my experience for the past decade.

Recently the folks at jmp.chat released an alpha search which passes navigation intents in Android to the nav app of your choice, so I think we are getting close to a real alternative in the next few years.

[–] Sam_Bass@lemmy.world 3 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Since when has google been about privacy in any form?

[–] JeffKerman1999@sopuli.xyz 5 points 5 months ago (1 children)

When they were a search engine 20+ years ago

[–] Sam_Bass@lemmy.world 2 points 5 months ago

Oh yeah i forgot heh

[–] semitones@lemmy.ml 1 points 5 months ago

I hope this is not fallout from the 404 Media article