A new book about Google’s early company culture contains anecdotes that allege Google cofounder Sergey Brin was a “playboy” among female employees.
An excerpt published in Vanity Fair claims that Google’s culture was once a sexually-fraught environment, in which company cofounder Sergey Brin was once widely regarded as “the Google playboy.”
“[Brin] was known for getting his fingers caught in the cookie jar with employees that worked for the company in the masseuse room,” Charlie Ayers, a former executive chef for the company, recalls. “He got around.”
When the company’s HR raised eyebrows at Brin’s sexual conquests, Ayers says Brin had suggested he was entitled to engage with his employees in whatever manner he saw fit.
“HR told me that Sergey’s response to it was, ‘Why not? They’re my employees,'” said Ayers. “But you don’t have employees for f—–g! That’s not what the job is.”
Cairn, too, said that she found Brin’s exploits to be troubling: “Oh my God: This is a sexual harassment claim waiting to happen! That was my concern,” she said. – READ MORE
[divider][/divider]After a Wall Street Journal exposé that revealed some companies use humans to read some of your emails, to improve the services and apps they have built upon email, Google came out with its blog post to reassure users that their Gmail accounts are safe.
That’s the right response, considering that Google is practically in the same boat as Facebook when it comes to user data and privacy handling, and the Cambridge Analytica scandal indirectly affects the company, whose entire business is built on user data. Not to mention that Google had its own series of privacy mishaps over the years, so it’s great to see the company get in front of this.
But don’t expect Google to tell you that it’ll stop allowing developers to read your emails if they so desire. In a blog post on the matter, Google insists that your security and privacy is safe within Gmail, even if other parties do access your private data:
We make it possible for applications from other developers to integrate with Gmail—like email clients, trip planners and customer relationship management (CRM) systems—so that you have options around how you access and use your email. We continuously work to vet developers and their apps that integrate with Gmail before we open them for general access, and we give both enterprise admins and individual consumers transparency and control over how their data is used. – READ MORE
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