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> THE SECRECY SURROUNDING the work was unheard of at Google Well that's a bit hyperbolic. Of course this kind of secrecy was and has been around google ever si

> THE SECRECY SURROUNDING the work was unheard of at Google Well that's a bit hyperbolic. Of course this kind of secrecy was and has been around google ever since after IPO. Google+ had a couple floors and even a cafe that you couldn't access unless you were on the team. The X building (or buildings now?) are inaccessible to anyone not part of X, and X does not interact with the rest of Google^WAlhphabet at all. By design. I'm sure there are many other, smaller secret passages that insiders are well aware of. But otherwise, wow this is a pretty damning article. If I can have you recall the recent article about things to ask a startup as an interview candidate, one of my comments was that you should work at a startup if you don't enjoy big company politics. Well, timely enough, here is the exemplar.

gaius 8y ago
Google+ had a couple floors and even a cafe that you couldn't access unless you were on the team And how did that work out, isolating themselves from everyone who could tell them it was a bad idea? I wonder if all of Google’s cancelled projects are developed in echo chambers, it would explain alot.
reaperducer 8y ago
> THE SECRECY SURROUNDING the work was unheard of at Google Well that's a bit hyperbolic. Of course this kind of secrecy was and has been around google ever since after IPO. The article states that Google’s own internal auditing teams (legal, privacy, and security) were kept in the dark, and this was extremely unusual. Are you saying that it’s normal for Google to keep these teams out of projects? I cannot imagine a company that willfully keeps its own legal team in the dark about anything, unless it’s leaders intend to commit serious crimes.
- casefields 8y ago
  Honestly this seems to be the MO for people with power today. The top bankers in the 2008 financial crisis, Trump with the Mueller investigation and now Googles top brass. They all stay a step away from the dirt, even though they all have some amount of culpability to their various misdeeds.
  - gronne 8y ago
    you understand why you where downvoted right? (fyi: not my doing)
- londons_explore 8y ago
  Frequently projects are super-secret to begin with, even from legal, privacy etc. That's because they're small projects that are far in the future, but very secret. Googles TPU designs would be an example. Google didn't want competitors finding out what they were up to. As the launch date of the product gets closer and closer, restrictions relax. The product will still need to pass legal, privacy, security, management etc. review, but can do that in the few weeks before launch. The risk of doing all those reviews late is that if they don't pass, major rework might be necessary. The risk of doing the reviews early is leaks are more likley, but also the project might get caught up in political battles between managers, or might get severe scope creep (you can't design your project without it supporting XYZ!).
  - paganel 8y ago
    To be fair Google’s TPU design is mostly a technical thing (I’m not a hardware guy and as such I had to search what it really is) so it’s understandable that Google’s legal team might be left out of it until the later stages of product development. On the other hand Google thinking to launch a censored search engine in China “screams” about needing the assistance of the legal department from the very beginning. I mean, who’s going to guarantee me, as a potential Google engineer working on this project, that I won’t be dragged in front of a Senate committee in 2-3 years’ time for “helping the enemy” or any such thing involving future US - China geo-political shenanigans?
- jiveturkey 8y ago
  > Are you saying that it’s normal for Google to keep these teams out of projects? not normal, but not unique. I know from close sources that the security team involvement around Google Home was actively discouraged and the "launch bit" silently removed. For example. Google is a very large company with very large politics and perverse incentives. Security is a hindrance for most of the product teams.

gaius 8y ago

Google+ had a couple floors and even a cafe that you couldn't access unless you were on the team And how did that work out, isolating themselves from everyone who could tell them it was a bad idea? I wonder if all of Google’s cancelled projects are developed in echo chambers, it would explain alot.

reaperducer 8y ago

> THE SECRECY SURROUNDING the work was unheard of at Google Well that's a bit hyperbolic. Of course this kind of secrecy was and has been around google ever since after IPO. The article states that Google’s own internal auditing teams (legal, privacy, and security) were kept in the dark, and this was extremely unusual. Are you saying that it’s normal for Google to keep these teams out of projects? I cannot imagine a company that willfully keeps its own legal team in the dark about anything, unless it’s leaders intend to commit serious crimes.

casefields 8y ago
Honestly this seems to be the MO for people with power today. The top bankers in the 2008 financial crisis, Trump with the Mueller investigation and now Googles top brass. They all stay a step away from the dirt, even though they all have some amount of culpability to their various misdeeds.
- gronne 8y ago
  you understand why you where downvoted right? (fyi: not my doing)
londons_explore 8y ago
Frequently projects are super-secret to begin with, even from legal, privacy etc. That's because they're small projects that are far in the future, but very secret. Googles TPU designs would be an example. Google didn't want competitors finding out what they were up to. As the launch date of the product gets closer and closer, restrictions relax. The product will still need to pass legal, privacy, security, management etc. review, but can do that in the few weeks before launch. The risk of doing all those reviews late is that if they don't pass, major rework might be necessary. The risk of doing the reviews early is leaks are more likley, but also the project might get caught up in political battles between managers, or might get severe scope creep (you can't design your project without it supporting XYZ!).
- paganel 8y ago
  To be fair Google’s TPU design is mostly a technical thing (I’m not a hardware guy and as such I had to search what it really is) so it’s understandable that Google’s legal team might be left out of it until the later stages of product development. On the other hand Google thinking to launch a censored search engine in China “screams” about needing the assistance of the legal department from the very beginning. I mean, who’s going to guarantee me, as a potential Google engineer working on this project, that I won’t be dragged in front of a Senate committee in 2-3 years’ time for “helping the enemy” or any such thing involving future US - China geo-political shenanigans?
jiveturkey 8y ago
> Are you saying that it’s normal for Google to keep these teams out of projects? not normal, but not unique. I know from close sources that the security team involvement around Google Home was actively discouraged and the "launch bit" silently removed. For example. Google is a very large company with very large politics and perverse incentives. Security is a hindrance for most of the product teams.