Google Employees Convicted Of Italian Privacy Violations
Three Google executives have been convicted by an Italian court for privacy violations for not moving quickly enough to take down an online video of students at a Turin school bullying an autistic boy, Google said Wednesday while vowing to "vigorously appeal" appeal the decision.
Senior Vice President David Drummond, Global Privacy Counsel Peter Fleischer and former Chief Financial Officer George Reyes were convicted for failing to comply with the Italian privacy code, Google Deputy General Counsel Matt Sucherman said on the firm's blog. A fourth Google employee, Arvind Desikan, was acquitted, while all four also were found innocent of criminal defamation.
Sucherman said the "video was totally reprehensible and we took it down within hours of being notified by the Italian police," adding that Google also worked with authorities to help identify the person who uploaded the video.
"We will appeal this astonishing decision because the Google employees on trial had nothing to do with the video in question," he said, adding that "We are deeply troubled by this conviction for another equally important reason. It attacks the very principles of freedom on which the Internet is built."
Judge Oscar Magi sentenced the three Google employees to a six-month suspended sentence, the Associated Press reported.
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