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Comment by michaelfairley | Hacker News Reader

I'm not sure how he was unable to find their security@google.com email address. Searches like "Google security" and "Google report vulnerability" have http://www.google.com/about/corporate/company/security.html (which has a prominent section on reporting security issues) as their first result.

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Because now you know the email is spelled "security@google.com", it would be easy to come up with search query that returns that email address after the fact. If you going by the instinct, search for "google bug report", ...I'm on page 20 and still couldn't find that email. (Personalize search turned off.)

Because the security email address is not a place for bug reports: it shouldn't be ranking for that query. If it did, the team would just be swamped with "bug reports" ;)

Try searching for "google report security" or "security vulnerability google" and you'll find the right information.

Which is sad, because in this case we have a security vulnerability and a bug at the same time, so how one expresses that in a web search depends only on one's current mindframe and set of associations. Eg. when I hear "Google security" I imagine guys with guns, not a place for bug reports.

Any company worth its weight that stands to lose big time from a security vulnerability will have a page with info on how to report it to them, and searching "[company name] security" will usually get you right to it. Disclosure is what you do after you've contacted them and not heard back.

http://www.apple.com/support/security/

http://www.microsoft.com/security/msrc/report.aspx

https://www.dropbox.com/terms/#security

http://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html/ref=hp_l...

I don't think it's reasonable to expect most people not immersed in the proper culture to see this as a "security" issue. They'd agree with "vulnerability" if you suggested it to them, but "bug" is really the first word that comes to mind.

The list of Google email addresses, including security@google.com is TWO clicks away from the google.com homepage.

Footer -> About Google -> Contact Us

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