I am a native English speaker, I just find the original statement to be more natural and less forced. Out of curiosity if you think that the statement is true,

I am a native English speaker, I just find the original statement to be more natural and less forced. Out of curiosity if you think that the statement is true, but constructed in a way that hides information, what do you think actually happened? If I understand your position it looks something like this: 1. The four people mentioned setup watches on people's calendars, went looking for information on people... the targets of their searches weren't part of their every day work life. 2. They shared that information with someone (no one knows who) but not the press or externally. 3. The people who had the information shared with them then leaked it externally. 4. Google found out and fired the original four people from step 1 and wrote a memo deliberately masking step 2. It's possible the above is accurate (please let me know if I got your position incorrect), but I don't think the wording of Google's announcement alone is enough to prove that. I'm apt to take it at its face value, especially because step 1 is by far the worst part in my mind and that doesn't seem to be in doubt. That's why I'm curious if you have some inside knowledge or something (your bio says you work at Google).