If a Google employee changes the search algorithm without the knowledge of his manager, how would we ever know?
- You have to ask for a review.
- Even if you find a like-minded programmer, most key parts of the code are flagged by senior programmers who get alerted where there is a significant change.
- Assuming this goes through, any significant change in which websites get listed, clicked on, etc. will be flagged by an anomaly-detection tool.
Changing anything impactful requires to pass through a lot of internal radars, certainly far more sensitive, informed and exhaustive than anything external.