Google's Privacy Chief Keith Enright Departs Amid Major Restructuring

Keith Enright, Google's chief privacy officer, is leaving the company after 13 years as part of a broader restructuring of Google's privacy and compliance teams. Enright, who was well-liked and respected, steered Google's privacy team through years of scrutiny by lawmakers, regulators, and civil courts. He will remain with the company until September 2024. Enright confirmed his departure on LinkedIn, stating, 'After over 13 years at Google, I’m ready for a change, and will be moving on this fall, taking all that I’ve learned and trying something new.'

Google is restructuring its privacy and compliance teams by shifting privacy policy work to individual product and engineering teams, instead of one centralized office. This reorganization is part of a broader effort to increase the number of people working on regulatory compliance across the company. Google spokesperson Jenn Crider stated, 'We regularly evolve our legal, regulatory and compliance work as we launch and run innovative services that comply with a growing number of intersecting obligations and expectations.' Additionally, Google laid off several members of its legal investigations team, responsible for handling requests for user data made by law enforcement, the courts, and the public.

Keith Enright had a significant impact as Google's chief privacy officer. He represented the company in front of Congress, the Federal Trade Commission, and several data commissions around the world. In 2018, he testified before the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation on consumer data policies, acknowledging past mistakes and improvements in Google's privacy program. Under his leadership, Google navigated intense scrutiny over its data handling practices, including a $5 billion lawsuit settlement in December 2023 for tracking customers' browsing behavior in incognito mode. Enright's departure marks a notable change in Google's approach to privacy and compliance.

Google has faced several legal challenges regarding privacy in recent years. In late December 2023, Google settled a $5 billion lawsuit in which it was accused of continuing to track customers' browsing behavior in Chrome when users were in incognito mode. Details of the settled amount were not disclosed, but the company promised to delete billions of records. Additionally, 404 Media reported on the leak of an internal database of thousands of privacy incidents, including one from 2016 where Google accidentally collected license plate numbers with its Street View technology. These incidents have kept Google under an intense privacy spotlight, as user data is crucial to its more than $307 billion in annual revenue.