"According to the lawsuit, Google’s policies don’t allow employees to discuss work-related topics including salaries, to post their personal opinions about the company online, and must not leak any product or other Google related information to the public. If Googlers break the company’s rules, they just might end up getting fired."
I have read several blog posts of Googlers about their work experience on their own blogs. If leaking unannounced works to the public, that's definitely a standard how work should be treated.
So I'd want to hear more about exactly what's going on. A "spy program" is a catchy phrase to grab reader attention. I think anyone should report if they spot anything against the interest of company such as insider trading, violate NDA etc, especially given Google is publicly traded.
My understanding is that employers may not hinder employees in discussing salaries among themselves, but may impose restrictions on providing salary information to non-employees.
So I can tell another Googler my salary but I can't tell you (unless you're a Googler) because my NDA forbids it. I'm pretty certain that I'm allowed to tell you that I'm not allowed to tell you, though. :)
There's an internal site where a number of Googlers share their compensation, anonymously or otherwise. I've never received any indication of disapproval or retaliation from management for being on it.
This is definitely untrue. I've worked at Google, and salaries were shared internally very much in the open. The official response was something like "we discourage sharing your salary because we think it's bad for the working atmosphere, but we won't stop you". I shared my salary publicly and there wasn't any form of retaliation.
I have read several blog posts of Googlers about their work experience on their own blogs. If leaking unannounced works to the public, that's definitely a standard how work should be treated.
So I'd want to hear more about exactly what's going on. A "spy program" is a catchy phrase to grab reader attention. I think anyone should report if they spot anything against the interest of company such as insider trading, violate NDA etc, especially given Google is publicly traded.