Is the DoJ's argument that if you anticipate being sued in the future, you're not allowed to use private messaging at all?
> All this time, Google falsely told the United States that Google had “put a legal hold in place” that “suspends auto-deletion.”
...then you better not be auto-deleting things for the next 3 years.
The lawsuit details that the language Google used when telling the DOJ what they were protecting. Hangouts is included in that language.
Google also revised their retention policies for chats not once, but _twice_ during the litigation, but somehow no-one thought that maybe deleting the chats should be mentioned to the US government.
Well it would be funny if their counterargument is that "Hangouts" was a specific thing and the OTR chats were actually on one of that company's 600 other chat products.
Because total surveillance has never been goal or precedent.
The legal profession has always understood that people act differently when they speak and when they write.
It is unrealistic to hold people accountable to every mis-spoken word, mistake or dumb thing they have said in spur of the moment. If I ask someone 'how long will X take' and they must answer on the spot, I do not expect an accurate answer.
When you are writing, you have a chance to think through what you are saying. You should also be aware that these words could be read in 1 hour or in 1 day, and they still need to be understood correctly. You could be help accountable for the promises, whether legally, or informally by friends and family.
That's why the law recognizes the superiority of written versus verbal agreements.
Not if you rely on the ephemeral nature of "auto delete" chat messages
Man, you and my boss are not the same person!
Corporate body cams. They wanted it first for fast food register workers but maybe it comes to white collar jobs first (aside from police). It is already sort of there with work from home surveillance-ware.
When you're a "company employee" for at least third of your life you're still human that deserves some privacy away from spying eyes of HR, lawyers and government looking for something you did wrong.
(Is this really so hard to understand? Is that something we from ex-socialist totalitarian regimes really understand?)