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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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.
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.
20th century Google: “Don’t be evil.”
Wow. They sure let that motto slide, didn’t they?
Don’t don’t be evil
They changed it to “do the right thing” around 2015 but never defined what “the right thing” might be - mostly shareholder value, I guess.
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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.
Paywalled
Time to bring back AltaVista.
Privacy Schmivacy
Since when has google been about privacy in any form?
I hope this is not fallout from the 404 Media article







