Google sues Indian engineer for leaking Pixel trade secrets

Harshit Roy allegedly took photos of highly-sensitive information about Google’s Pixel products and posted them on social media

By Arun Kumar

Google has filed a lawsuit against one of its former Indian engineers, Harshit Roy, accusing him of leaking trade secrets about the tech giant on social media before fleeing India and turning up in Austin, Texas.

Google, under the names Google LLC and Google India Private Limited, filed the suit in the US District Court for the Western District of Texas in Austin Tuesday, chron.com reported.

READ: Is Sundar Pichai on his way out at Google amid Gemini debacle? (March 2nd, 2024) 

The tech company claims that Roy, who worked at Google as a silicon engineer in India between 2020 and ’24, took photos on his phone of highly-sensitive information about Google’s Pixel products before ending employment.

Then, says the original complaint, Roy posted the photos in August through X and LinkedIn accounts. This activity went against the confidentiality agreement Roy allegedly signed with Google as a condition of his employment.

“I need to take unethical means to get what I am entitled to. My apologies,” the account allegedly belonging to Roy read on the same day it started to publish multiple photos showing purportedly proprietary and confidential information regarding a Google Pixel processing chip.

According to the complaint, Google sent Roy letters demanding he take down the posts, but in October he posted more images, instead. Google also claims that news outlets have published articles about the Pixel after the alleged leaks, and the writers of those articles used information found in the leaks as part of their reporting.

Google then tracked Roy down, finding he left Bangalore, India and was living in Austin. The complaint says Roy was found on the campus of the University of Texas at Austin, where he is studying to receive his doctorate in electrical and computer engineering.

“Google has suffered and will continue to suffer irreparable harm because of Roy’s continued publication of its trade secrets,” reads the suit. “Google also stands to suffer continued and additional harm because, upon information and belief, Roy remains in possession of more documents and information than what he has disclosed to date.”

“After an investigation, we found that this former employee stole numerous documents, and we’re pursuing legal action against them for the repeated and unauthorised disclosure of confidential company information,” Google spokesperson Jose Castaneda was cited as saying by Reuters. “This behaviour is something we will simply not tolerate.”

Google is seeking compensatory relief, and looks to block Roy from using any of the information he allegedly procured, according to the suit. On Wednesday, a judge granted Google a temporary restraining order from Roy.