Harshit Roy, who worked for Google India in Bengaluru, has been sued by Google for disclosing trade secrets about its upcoming Pixel products. Roy apparently released information regarding the private hardware and software used in Pixel devices on social media. With great difficulty, Google was able to locate Roy and trace him down to Austin, Texas.
Roy’s offence is particularly significant because he remained undaunted and even refused to remove whatever he had published and exposed. Not only did he release sensitive material that caused significant injury to Google, but he continued to do so even after being warned. He posted an image of his laptop (which he used while working at Google) on social media, along with an internal document detailing technical specifics for the Pixel smartphone’s processor unit.
The caption on the tweet plainly demonstrated his blatant disdain for the confidentiality agreement with Google. He went on to say in his message that he was happy to share further information if anyone wanted it. That is not all; Roy forwarded the message to Google’s competitors in the smart device industry.
Not surprisingly, his actions prompted Google to hire an outside investigator to serve a ‘stop and desist’ warning to Roy. Google has ordered that Harshit Roy help in resolving the situation by returning the private information and deleting it from his social media accounts.
Harshit Roy has been charged under both the federal Defend Trade Secrets Act (DTSA) and the Texas Uniform Trade Secrets Act (TUTSA).
