I googled "SOC 2 Audited" - and I've got: """ A SOC 2 audit is a company-wide certification that evaluates an organization's standards regarding its core data security infrastructure, information handling practices, consumer privacy, and confidentiality. For this purpose, an SOC 2 auditor needs to evaluate various aspects of a company's systems and processes """ So it is about security. I guess your point is that it is just a security theatre and not related to the real thing - but that is a different discussion. It would be a discussion about https://slatestarcodex.com/2014/07/30/meditations-on-moloch/ and https://www.amazon.com/Moral-Mazes-World-Corporate-Managers/... and etc

Just to point out to readers that DannyBee works for Google (reference: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6658276)

DannyBee - have you read Moral Mazes by Robert Jackall (http://www.amazon.com/Moral-Mazes-World-Corporate-Managers/d...)? It was one of Aaron Swartz's favorite books.

It's an excellent, and fair to all sides, dissection of morality in corporate management. It explains how and why managers rehearse to explain actions their company's have taken.

In this particular comment of yours, you say lots of true things. However, you are not acting in a straightforward "hacker" way, as befits this site, telling the truth how it is.

Google can continue to behave in this way as a company, but it will alas find it harder and harder to hire good geeks.