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Re:Google hid evidence by training workers to avoid words mo... by jeffbee on Thursday September 14, 2023 @10:42PM (#37517622)
You are not really engaging with these training materials in context. The entire point of the training is to not draw conclusions in areas in which you are not an expert, in discoverable media. For example, you are a software developer. Writing to your colleague that this change-list reduces an algorithm from quadratic to linear time complexity is within your wheelhouse. Posting on a mailing list that you think some other team's product will crush the competition is not really within your domain, because you are not an economist. Drawing conclusions of law is the worst of all things to do because even though you're just some idiot, those conclusions become discoverable and opposing council will put them on the record out of context even though you are just a Junior Associate Moron, not a person in a position to draw that conclusion.
Re:Google hid evidence by training workers to avoid words mo... by ffhhttt on Friday September 15, 2023 @05:46AM (#37520599)
So executives, marketing people etc. can say that their products “will crush the competition” and that would be fine?

> Moron

Not so much because they might making some incorrect conclusions but because they don’t know when to keep their mouths shut.

Re:Google hid evidence by training workers to avoid words mo... by jeffbee on Friday September 15, 2023 @08:11AM (#37521785)
Well the training as I remember it is not really about how to fix your attitude, it is about how to avoid this gotcha. The thing is, opposing counsel would never be allowed to ask a deponent to draw a conclusion of law in a deposition. If they asked you do you think such and such thing is anticompetitive, your lawyer will object and you won’t have to answer. But, if you had emailed your pal at work and volunteered that you think something is anticompetitive, that’s admissible, even though you still aren’t qualified to draw that conclusion. Then at trial they will say “Google knew this was anticompetitive!” even though the member of the organization who “knew” this was a probationary sys admin.

When one actually suspects that something is anticompetitive, subverts the privacy policy, or is against the law, the done thing is to go talk to an attorney. Either product counsel inside the company if you are just curious or concerned in good faith, or your own attorney if you think the company is acting in bad faith.