Google’s chief privacy officer, Keith Enright, will depart the tech giant after 13 years, with no plans yet to replace him, as the company restructures its teams in charge of privacy and legal compliance.
Staff were informed of Enright’s departure in mid-May, according to two sources with knowledge of the matter. One told Forbes the news came as a shock to employees, as Enright was well-liked and respected, having steered Google’s privacy team through years in which its data handling practices were held under a microscope by lawmakers, regulators and civil courts.
Matthew Bye, Google’s head of competition law, will be leaving as well, after 15 years with the company and during a critical moment for Google when it comes to antitrust. Last month, the company wrapped up closing arguments in a landmark competition trialbrought on by the Department of Justice, over Google’s contracts with device manufacturers that push users to Google search. Bye did not respond to a request for comment.
Google had a privacy chief?
What exactly was he doing? Jacking off Pichai?
He was entrusted with protecting Google’s privacy; not it’s customers!
Google used to at least pretend to not be amoral, but I think this restructuring pretty much reveals them for what they are now.
We know what he wasn’t doing. He wasn’t preventing the leak of internal documents detailing how search works. Which is probably why he’s fired. Someone has to take the fall. Kind of wonder if he’s got a golden parachute.
He’s ex-C-suite of IBM and Macy’s I’m sure he’s fine.
I’m trying my best to un-Google. i switched to firefox and ddg but the mapping… ugh. i cant quit the driving maps.
Magic earth is ok for nav but the problem with all openstreetmaps options remains the terrible search. This has been my experience for the past decade.
Recently the folks at jmp.chat released an alpha search which passes navigation intents in Android to the nav app of your choice, so I think we are getting close to a real alternative in the next few years.
Matthew Bye is also leaving
Nominative determinism tells me he must leave a lot of jobs.
Nominative determinism is pretty accurate. Steve Jobs did generate a lot of jobs. Bill Gates had a lot of gates to his name.
</joke> just in case it wasn’t obvious
Matthew Bye, Google’s head of competition law, will be leaving as well
Bye Matthew
20th century Google: “Don’t be evil.”
Wow. They sure let that motto slide, didn’t they?
In the past I have been surprised to encounter some genuinely privacy-minded folks working at Google.
It’s hard not to see this as an announcement that era is ending now…
I de-Googled awhile ago, based on my personal belief that Google wouldn’t keep those people. I’m not happy to feel like this verifies my worst expectations.
