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This is going to be interesting to watch. Alphabet just: - went nuclear on Uber/Otto - revealed what they track internally to all their employees

by bitL 10y ago

morecoffee 10y ago
Google employees are probably aware they are being tracked. Keeping such a thing a secret would likely result in more leaks, not fewer.
- delroth 10y ago
  Not only is it very well known internally, Google has even open sourced some of the tools that are used for that purpose: https://github.com/google/grr https://github.com/google/grr
  - bitL 10y ago
    Still, how can they work in a basically zero trust environment? They can't hope anyone reasonable will come up with some great idea and willingly share it with them.
marricks 10y ago
I think it's reasonable to be suspicious but what they described sounds mostly feasible without extra steps of tracking. What evidence did they present and how could it be tracked? - downloaded 9.7 GB of waymo data -> server logs of what files where accessed and downloaded by what user - searched for special software -> he used google while logged into a work account, so they just looked up that work accounts search history - Connected external hard drive and wiped data -> Short of automatic backups or something this seems like there is software explicitly for tracking when data is copied, where, and how much Most of this besides the external hard drive part can be done by any employer who owns your work your gmail account. What really should be alarming is how easy it is for your employer to get lots of data on you even if they aren't some tech giant.
- mrep 10y ago
  > Most of this besides the external hard drive part can be done by any employer who owns your work your gmail account. Actually, I think that would be the easiest as I would assume any external USB devices connected to a computer would automatically send an alert to the security team due to how easily they can infect your computer with malware. I'm not sure my company has something like that but we have posters everywhere telling people to never plug external USB devices into our computers so I would not be suprised. >What really should be alarming is how easy it is for your employer to get lots of data on you even if they aren't some tech giant. Right? So much for the Principle of least privilege.
DannyBee 10y ago
"- revealed what they track internally to all their employees " Googlers already know this. Like it's not even close to being close to being close to being secret.
GooglyMoogly 10y ago
When your company stores very private info on billions of people, and is actively attacked (sometimes successfully) by the top intelligence agencies of the world[1][2], you have to be extremely careful, and monitor everything. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Aurora https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Aurora [2] https://www.newyorker.com/news/amy-davidson/tech-companies-slap-back-at-the-n-s-a-s-smiley-face https://www.newyorker.com/news/amy-davidson/tech-companies-s...
- thr0waway1239 10y ago
  Some people might see an irony in your comment. Economist Joseph Stiglitz wrote in 2009 "...banks that are too big to fail are too big to exist..." My theory is that the too big to exist theory is now true for basically all the tech giants. Generally, everyone who knows the kind of tracking these companies do (internal and external) agree this is true, except those who benefit from the companies' continued existence e.g. employees, investors, shareholders.
  - kinkrtyavimoodh 10y ago
    You conveniently forgot consumers.
    - thr0waway1239 10y ago
      On the other hand, imagine if the data collection never stops and one of the big companies gets hacked, or faces a serious competitive threat making it more likely to sell its data, starts going out of business, or needs to cooperate by sharing its data in return for government favors, or needs to share data to get access to foreign markets etc. I have a feeling this venerable "consumer" is going to learn a painful lesson one of these days.

This is going to be interesting to watch. Alphabet just: - went nuclear on Uber/Otto - revealed what they track internally to all their employees

by bitL 10y ago

This is going to be interesting to watch. Alphabet just: - went nuclear on Uber/Otto - revealed what they track internally to all their employees

morecoffee 10y ago

Google employees are probably aware they are being tracked. Keeping such a thing a secret would likely result in more leaks, not fewer.

delroth 10y ago
Not only is it very well known internally, Google has even open sourced some of the tools that are used for that purpose: https://github.com/google/grr https://github.com/google/grr
- bitL 10y ago
  Still, how can they work in a basically zero trust environment? They can't hope anyone reasonable will come up with some great idea and willingly share it with them.

marricks 10y ago

I think it's reasonable to be suspicious but what they described sounds mostly feasible without extra steps of tracking. What evidence did they present and how could it be tracked? - downloaded 9.7 GB of waymo data -> server logs of what files where accessed and downloaded by what user - searched for special software -> he used google while logged into a work account, so they just looked up that work accounts search history - Connected external hard drive and wiped data -> Short of automatic backups or something this seems like there is software explicitly for tracking when data is copied, where, and how much Most of this besides the external hard drive part can be done by any employer who owns your work your gmail account. What really should be alarming is how easy it is for your employer to get lots of data on you even if they aren't some tech giant.

mrep 10y ago
> Most of this besides the external hard drive part can be done by any employer who owns your work your gmail account. Actually, I think that would be the easiest as I would assume any external USB devices connected to a computer would automatically send an alert to the security team due to how easily they can infect your computer with malware. I'm not sure my company has something like that but we have posters everywhere telling people to never plug external USB devices into our computers so I would not be suprised. >What really should be alarming is how easy it is for your employer to get lots of data on you even if they aren't some tech giant. Right? So much for the Principle of least privilege.

DannyBee 10y ago

"- revealed what they track internally to all their employees " Googlers already know this. Like it's not even close to being close to being close to being secret.

GooglyMoogly 10y ago

When your company stores very private info on billions of people, and is actively attacked (sometimes successfully) by the top intelligence agencies of the world[1][2], you have to be extremely careful, and monitor everything. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Aurora https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Aurora [2] https://www.newyorker.com/news/amy-davidson/tech-companies-slap-back-at-the-n-s-a-s-smiley-face https://www.newyorker.com/news/amy-davidson/tech-companies-s...

thr0waway1239 10y ago
Some people might see an irony in your comment. Economist Joseph Stiglitz wrote in 2009 "...banks that are too big to fail are too big to exist..." My theory is that the too big to exist theory is now true for basically all the tech giants. Generally, everyone who knows the kind of tracking these companies do (internal and external) agree this is true, except those who benefit from the companies' continued existence e.g. employees, investors, shareholders.
- kinkrtyavimoodh 10y ago
  You conveniently forgot consumers.
  - thr0waway1239 10y ago
    On the other hand, imagine if the data collection never stops and one of the big companies gets hacked, or faces a serious competitive threat making it more likely to sell its data, starts going out of business, or needs to cooperate by sharing its data in return for government favors, or needs to share data to get access to foreign markets etc. I have a feeling this venerable "consumer" is going to learn a painful lesson one of these days.