Edit: @dogecoinbase: What you propose is a shallow and dismissive analysis of the oversimplicative variety. Please put in a little more effort before derailing an otherwise thoughtful conversation.
I'm genuinely curious how much Google spends on their privacy org, and esp. how that compares with the other big tech companies.
No other company I can think of has invested in such a rigorous Privacy review and support structure in an attempt to reduce risk. Other BigCorps do take it seriously, but get by with much less investment. Despite this, FB et. al. are keen to poach Google Privacy employees, because there are very few Privacy Engineer in existence and Big-G pioneered modern day corporate privacy efforts. Google is a huge target for hacking and public criticism or even loss of human life due to product decisions, especially because the products are so ubiquitous and widespread (browser, mobile OS, search engine, Gmail, ad network, etc). See subjects such as Differential Privacy.
Source: I have a few friends who've worked in the G-Privacy org.
> They are the arbiters who can to block a production releases if privacy and security issues are discovered and not remedied.
Every company I’ve worked at outside of tiny startups has had this level of gating by the security team.
> No other company I can think of has invested in such a rigorous Privacy review and support structure in an attempt to reduce risk.
Which companies have you worked at in the last 8 or so years? It sounds like you’ve just watched the industry mature a bit in PII from the perspective of the inside of Google.
In recent court cases Google employees admitted they have no idea where user data is stored (specifically location data), which systems have access to it, and how to fully turn tracking off.
80-90% of Google's revenue comes from online ads. There's a huge conflict of interest between Google's business model and whatever "arbiters" pretend they want to block.
And of course the number of privacy things that Google pioneered is minuscule to non-existent. Google has been dragged into caring about privacy against its will, kicking and screaming, by government actions like GDPR and CCPA.
Facebook poaches Google's privacy people because Facebook is the only one of mega corps who are worse than Google, and wants to continue its practices as much as Google.
Really? Do you happen to have a source for that?
