Why Google reportedly told employees to ‘CC’ company’s legal team in all important internal communication – Times of India

Google, in a confidential memo to employees in 2008, outlined its long-standing efforts to minimise and control its internal communications, a report has said. The memo also urged the employees to add a Google lawyer to the list of recipients – a practice aimed at shielding the tech giant from potential legal challenges.
A report by The New York Times highlighted that this ‘culture of deletion’ within the company has come to light through recent antitrust lawsuits. This practice reportedly started from 2008, when Google faced antitrust scrutiny over an advertising deal with its rival Yahoo, the report cited a memo as saying.

What the memo urged employees to do

Facing antitrust scrutiny and various legal battles, Google executives urged employees to exercise caution in their internal communications, warning that casual remarks could be used against the company in court. They encouraged employees to avoid speculation, sarcasm, and discussions on sensitive topics, the report added.
“We believe that information is good,” the executives told employees in the memo, adding that employees should refrain from speculation and sarcasm as well as “think twice” before writing one another to minimise the odds that a lawsuit may flush out comments that may be incriminating.
“Don’t comment before you have all the facts,” the employees were told, as per the New York Times report. The company also encouraged employees to mark documents as “attorney-client privileged” and include lawyers as recipients, even in non-legal discussions.

Google also put technological measures

To further limit potential legal exposure, Google reportedly implemented technological measures, including making its instant messaging tool “off the record” and automatically deleting chat histories. This practice of minimising internal records has continued for over 15 years, the report highlighted.
The company exempted instant messaging from automatic legal holds, requiring employees to manually preserve their chat history if involved in litigation. This practice effectively minimised the availability of such communications in legal proceedings, the report said.

How Google’s communication practice came to fore

Evidence from recent antitrust trials against Google, brought by Epic Games and the Department of Justice (DoJ), has shed light on Google’s efforts to suppress internal communications. In fact, during its trials, Google faced criticism for its actions as all the judges in all three antitrust cases pulled up the company for its communications practices.
While Judge James Donato who presided over the case brought by Epic Games Epic said there was “an ingrained systemic culture of suppression of relevant evidence within Google” and that the company’s behaviour was “a frontal assault on the fair administration of justice.”
Simailry, Judge Leonie Brinkema, who is overseeing Google’s antitrust case involving advertising technology, said in August that the company’s document retention policies were “not the way in which a responsible corporate entity should function.”
“An awful lot of evidence has likely been destroyed,” she added.
Google responded by saying that it had provided “millions of documents” in the Justice Department cases alone.
Google said in a statement that it took “seriously our obligations to preserve and produce relevant documents. We have for years responded to inquiries and litigation, and we educate our employees about legal privilege.”