Former Google Marketing Exec's Memoir Details How 'Don't Be Evil' Died Inside the Company
Claire Stapleton spent years inside Google's marketing organization as one of its most enthusiastic internal boosters, the kind of employee who genuinely bought into the company's early promise to build technology that wouldn't harm the world. Her new memoir, Don't Be Evil, charts how that faith eroded as she watched leadership prioritize legal risk, PR management, and shareholder interests over the ethical commitments that once defined the company's public identity.
Stapleton became a visible figure in Google's internal activism, notably helping organize the 2018 walkout over the company's handling of sexual harassment claims against executives. According to her account, that involvement marked a turning point: she went from insider to target, describing retaliation and sidelining that pushed her toward an exit and, eventually, toward writing the book as a fuller reckoning with what she saw.
The memoir joins a growing shelf of insider accounts from Google, Facebook, and other tech giants whose employees once believed their companies were meaningfully different from traditional corporations, only to conclude that scale and profit incentives eventually swallow founding ideals.