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.

    • xep@fedia.io
      49·
      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.

    • magikmw@lemm.eeEnglish
      5·
      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.

    • atrielienz@lemmy.worldEnglish
      61·
      5 months ago

      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.

  • NutWrench@lemmy.worldEnglish
    501·
    5 months ago

    20th century Google: “Don’t be evil.”

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

    • Empricorn@feddit.nlEnglish
      23·
      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…

    • DandomRude@lemmy.worldEnglish
      15·
      5 months ago

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

    • Alphane Moon@lemmy.mlEnglish
      5·
      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.

    • dinckel@lemmy.worldEnglish
      1·
      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.socialEnglish
    411·
    5 months ago

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

    Bye Matthew

  • MajorHavoc@programming.devEnglish
    231·
    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.

    • ruse8145@lemmy.sdf.orgEnglish
      2·
      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.