June 04, 2024 – A recent report by 404 Media has revealed a security breach within Google, where an employee accessed private videos from Nintendo’s YouTube channel, prematurely leaking game information intended for an upcoming announcement.
The incident, part of a larger data leak exposing thousands of potential privacy and security issues reported by Google employees between 2013 and 2018, also encompassed concerns such as the accidental collection of children’s voice data, disclosure of ride-sharing users’ travel routes and home addresses, and YouTube’s practice of recommending videos based on a user’s deleted history.
In one notable case, a Google employee viewed private videos from Nintendo’s YouTube channel and subsequently leaked relevant information to the outside world, resulting in the premature exposure of some of the content intended for the launch event. However, according to the leaked report, Google’s internal investigation concluded that this action was “unintentional”.
In response to the 404 Media report, Google stated, “Google employees can quickly flag potential product issues for review by relevant teams. When submitting flags, employees suggest problem priorities to reviewers. The report obtained by 404 Media, dating back six years, serves as an example of such flagging, and each issue was reviewed and resolved at the time. In some cases, the issues flagged by employees were not problems at all or were found in third-party services.”
Meanwhile, Nintendo has recently confirmed that it plans to unveil its next-generation console within this fiscal year, indicating that the successor to the Switch will be released before April 2025. This upcoming announcement has generated significant buzz among gaming enthusiasts, eagerly awaiting the reveal of Nintendo’s latest gaming innovation.
