Google Engineer Stalked Teens, Spied on Chats
I have ranted about people placing blind trust in social networking sites and SaaS providers that host email et cetera. Here is a lesson in what can happen when things go wrong…and creepy.
From Gawker:
David Barksdale, a 27-year-old former Google engineer, repeatedly took advantage of his position as a member of an elite technical group at the company to access users’ accounts, violating the privacy of at least four minors during his employment, we’ve learned. Barksdale met the kids through a technology group in the Seattle area while working as a Site Reliability Engineer at Google’s Kirkland, Wash. office. He was fired in July 2010 after his actions were reported to the company.
Google did the right thing in canning this guy but, why was no one minding the store?
Read on for the full article.
(Image used under CC Philipp Lenssen)
Posted by Dave Lewis
on September 14, 2010. Filed under Breach,Privacy.
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2 Responses to Google Engineer Stalked Teens, Spied on Chats
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Brooks
September 16, 2010 at 6:42 pm
This is a very interesting case of who watches the watchers, especially since the company he worked for more or less constitutes THE watchers.
Dave Lewis
September 16, 2010 at 8:05 pm
@Brooks Yup. They’re holding all the keys. So when one of them abuses their access it raises the question…how many others are doing it?