Illustration by Haejin Park
Sept. 23, 2021 6:00 AM PDT

At Google, a seemingly innocuous action can earn an employee the attention of the company’s corporate security department.

For example, when Google wants to find out who has been accessing or leaking sensitive corporate information, the company often homes in on employees who are thinking about leaving it. In the past, its security teams have flagged employees who search an internal website listing the cost of COBRA health insurance—which gives workers a way to continue their coverage after leaving their employer—for further investigation, according to a person with direct knowledge of its tactics. Employees who draft resignation letters or seek out internal checklists that help workers plan their departures from Google have also faced similar scrutiny, the person said.

It has even looked at who has taken screenshots on work devices while running encrypted messaging services at the same time, according to current and former employees with knowledge of the practices. Bulk transfers of data onto USB storage devices and use of third-party online storage services can also raise eyebrows among Google’s security staff.

Get access to exclusive coverage
Read deeply reported stories from the largest newsroom in tech.
Latest Articles
 
The Briefing markets enterprise
Why It’s Tough to Assess the True State of Musk’s Twitter
Elon Musk. Photo by Baron Capital. Background generated in DALL E 2.
Some companies that go private disappear from public view. Not Twitter. It’s hard to think of another corporate takeover whose aftermath has drawn so much media attention, with so many details leaking out. And that has surely complicated Elon Musk’s life by, for instance, scaring away advertisers and possibly making it harder to recruit employees. Even so, Musk’s view that it would be easier to...
Latest Briefs
 
AWS, Microsoft and Meta Teaming Up to Develop Free Map Data
Binance Stablecoin Issuer Say Customers Redeemed $3 Billion in Seven Hours
FTX Seeking to Sell LedgerX, Other Entities in Bankruptcy Proceedings
Stay in the know
Receive a summary of the day's top tech news—distilled into one email.
Access on the go
View stories on our mobile app and tune into our weekly podcast.
Join live video Q&A’s
Deep-dive into topics like startups and autonomous vehicles with our top reporters and other executives.
Enjoy a clutter-free experience
Read without any banner ads.
Eight Sleep co-founders Matteo Franceschetti and Alexandra Zatarain. Art by Clark Miller
The Big Read startups
The Co-Founders of Eight Sleep Want to Optimize Your Performance (in Bed)
Matteo Franceschetti and Alexandra Zatarain spend their nights in the bed of the future. The king-size canopy bed has gray curtains gathered at the sides and a strip of sensors that captures each sleeper’s heart rate, respiration, temperature and other vitals.
Org Charts google ai
Alphabet’s ‘Other Bets’ Come Under Pressure as Health Focus Grows
More than seven years after Google morphed into Alphabet, employees and investors are no closer to figuring out whether Alphabet can generate long-term economic value from moonshot bets such as self-driving taxis, drug discovery and deliveries via drones.
Art by Clark Miller
The New Media crypto media/telecom
How CoinDesk Lit the Fuse That Blew Up Crypto—and Might Singe Its Owner Next
Michael Casey, chief content officer of the crypto news site CoinDesk, was at his Westchester County, N.Y., home on Monday, recovering from a trip to Miami the previous week.
From left: David Sacks, Roelof Botha and Sam Bankman-Fried. Photos by Getty; Sequoia; Bloomberg. Art by Mike Sullivan.
startups venture capital
‘Moment of Panic’: FTX Collapse Deepens Fear in Silicon Valley
A month after the sudden collapse of crypto exchange FTX, Silicon Valley startup founders and venture capitalists are grappling with a new feeling: panic.
Art by Clark Miller.
Screentime
The Junior VC Who Spends Almost Every Waking Minute Online
Em Herrera, 23, earned her social media stripes the hard way: running One Direction and Ariana Grande stan Twitter accounts as a teenager.
Apple's App Store boss Phil Schiller. Photo by Bloomberg
apple
The Four Biggest Changes Apple Made to its App Store as Regulators Turned Up the Heat
For years, Apple has defended its iron grip over the way developers distribute apps in the App Store, and the 30% commission it takes from in-app purchases.