Comment by 75dvtwin

I have heard (so very anecdotal, not confirmed), but similar stories from folks who worked with Google (not for Google).

Google would reach to incumbent telephone/infrastructure companies and tell them that they want to use their services for some super project. To get well integrated, Google, of course need to know the details/idiosyncrasy of the existing protocols/work around conventions/etc.

So Google employees would receive all the documentation, knowledge/know-how that they could extract.

Then the project would get 'cancelled'. And then, some time later, the 'service provider' would find that Google is implementing similar capabilities that their service is providing, only as part of their some other global initiative that aims at converting majority of infrastructure services to Google.

Perhaps these stories are a reflection of the internal culture characteristic of the 'Do-more-swindle' company.

I see people below recommend NDA/etc. Sure, but US/UK legal system is heavily tilted towards who can hire better lawyers -- and the monopolies win there easily....