Google fired dozens of employees between 2018 and 2020 for data misuse - which could include stealing or leaking corporate information, or even abusing Google tools to stalk or spy on users, leaked documents show.
The internal data, which was obtained by Vice News, details the results of the tech giant's internal investigation into how its employees leverage their positions to steal, leak or abuse the data they have access to.
According to Vice, they show that 36 employees in 2020 were fired for security-related issues, as were 26 people in 2019 and 18 employees in 2018.
DailyMail.com has reached out to Google for comment.
Google fired 36 employees in 2020 for security-related issues, according to internal memos obtained by Vice News. Here is the Google headquarters in Chicago
A vast majority - 86 percent - of those who were fired from their positions at Google last year were terminated for sharing internal information with outside parties.
Another 10 percent of cases concerned the misuse of the company's systems, which can include accessing user or employee data or helping others to access that data.
That figure is down from 2019, when 13 percent of the terminated employees were fired for reported misuse of the company's systems.
Employees who engage in data misuse are reportedly also warned, trained and coached before they are let go.
'The instances referred to mostly relate to inappropriate access to, or misuse of, proprietary and sensitive corporate information or IP,' a Google spokesperson told Vice.
'Regarding user data, we tightly restrict employee access through a number of industry-leading safeguards, including: limiting access to user data to necessary individuals, requiring justification to access such data, multi-stage review before access is granted to sensitive data and monitoring for access anomalies.'
The spokesperson added: 'The number of violations, whether deliberate or inadvertent, is consistently low.
'Ever employee gets training annually, we investigate all allegations, and violations result in corrective action up to and including termination.
'We are transparent in publicizing the number and outcome of our investigations and have strict processes in place to secure customer and user data from any internal or external threats.'
A Google spokesperson said the company has put a number of procedures in place to restrict each employee's access to sensitive data. The company is headed by Sundar Pichai (pictured)
In 2010, an employee reportedly used his position at Google to access four teenagers' personal information
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