GP's points still stand, if coming from the perspective that Google is a successful, multinational corporation, with a reputation to protect, and staffed with thousands of engineers who also have their own job standards and individual reputation to protect.
And again they don't stand if your perspective accounts for the following observable facts:
- Multinational corporations care little about their reputation - the public has very short memory, and it's rare that a reputational issue outweighs considerations like sunk costs, network effect, or lack of better alternative on the market. See literally almost every scandal involving a corporation ever.
- The larger the organization, the less individual ethical and reputational concerns of bottom-line workers matter. See literally every corporation. For particular recent examples, see e.g. Volkswagen emissions scandal or Boeing 737 Max fiasco, both cases involving actual engineers with actual careers on the line, and not just software devs risking unemployment for 10 minutes.
Note that both statements are explainable even without attributing malice to any corporation. They're side effect of scale and market power.
Your friends have your friendship to protect, right? If multinational corporations have your interests at heart more reliably than your friends then maybe it's time to meet new people!
Different entities can be entrusted with different responsibilities, not because I trust one more but simply because they're different.
I'll never ask my friends to memorize my schedule and remind me on time. I'll also never ask Google to take care of my cat. Sounds pretty straightforward to me.
