- In late 2008, an investigation into the Google and Yahoo deal began - He sent out a confidential e-mail to his employees - Google wrote that their correspondence could be taken out of context - Employees were asked not to write speculation, sarcasm, etc. - Google's warning concerned discussion of “hot topics” - Google began removing dangerous comments the next day - This is the first “shot” in 15 years of the “default campaign” - Employees were warned about being “chatty” - Employees were encouraged to tag documents with an NDA - Lawyers were also asked to be added inside correspondences - Judges have condemned Google several times for this approach - It has been claimed that Google has “destroyed a lot of evidence” - Corp. policy advises against retaining anything risky - Google also advised to avoid metaphors for a number of topics - It asked employees not to use certain phrases - For example, “market share”, “dominance” and “market” - Google denies there is a “culture of withholding information” - But some employees “don't understand the meaning of some words” - For example, for them, “privilege” and “confidential” are the same thing - The courts were amazed that Google was hiding information