According to the DOJ’s filing, Google employees typically used their internal chatroom, which was set to delete history every 24 hours, to discuss “substantive and sensitive business.” The agency expected Google to change its chat history setting in 2019 when the company “reasonably anticipated [the] litigation,” but it left the decision to individual employees. Only a few people deemed their chat histories relevant to the case and preserved theirs for the court, while Google continued deleting most people’s chats even after the lawsuit was filed.
