Google has fired four employees saying they breached company data security policy, but some people are claiming that this is just a way to silence employees as the company struggles with handling sexual harassment allegations.
It didn't say who it fired, but said that four employees accessed other employees' personal data - work, calendars, and emails, thus breaching Google data security policy.
“We have always taken information security very seriously, and will not tolerate efforts to intimidate Googlers or undermine their work, nor actions that lead to the leak of sensitive business or customer information,” the company wrote in an email.
“This is not how Google’s open culture works or was ever intended to work.”
However, some employees think there's more to the firing. One of the employees that's getting axed is Rebecca Rivers. She openly spoke against Google's work with the US Customs and Border Protection, and some seem to think there's a connection.
“With these firings, Google is ramping up its illegal retaliation,” staff members wrote in a statement posted online, according to CityAM. “This is classic union busting dressed up in tech industry jargon, and we won’t stand for it.”
While Meredith Whittaker, who led the protests against Google's sexual harassment policy, and a former Google employee, called the firing “illegal” and “craven retaliation”.
Google said the employees were fired for “clear and repeated violations of our data security policies”.
Gloss