Skip to main content

Android creator’s alleged sexual misconduct swept under the rug by Google

Andy Rubin Google
James Leynse/Getty Images

When Android creator Andy Rubin left Google in 2014, he was hailed as a hero who changed the mobile landscape forever. While he may well have done so, what was not made public was that he had been accused of sexual misconduct by a woman who said he coerced her into performing oral sex in a hotel room in 2013, according to The New York Times.

The Times cites two Google executives with knowledge of the incident. After Rubin was accused of sexual misconduct, Google investigated the claim, which it found to be credible. Google founder Larry Page subsequently asked for Rubin’s resignation.

Recommended Videos

The report notes that while Google could have fired him for sexual misconduct, it gave him a $90 million exit package, amounting to $2.5 million per month for two years, then $1.25 million per month for two years after that.

This was not the first time Rubin ran in trouble. The Times notes that security staff once found bondage sex videos on Rubin’s work computer, and he dated other women at the company while married to his wife. In 2011, he had a consensual relationship with a woman at Google who was not his subordinate, however, the pair did not report the relationship to Google human resources, despite rules requiring them to do so. Rubin and his wife divorced in August.

In 2013, Google combined the management of the Chrome and Android divisions, and Rubin lost a power struggle to Sundar Pichai, who went on to become Google CEO. Around that time, Rubin was reportedly also casually seeing another woman from the Android division. They started seeing each other in 2012, but in 2013, the woman reportedly wanted to break things off with Rubin, but was concerned that doing so would affect her career. They agreed to meet at a hotel, where Rubin pressured her into oral sex. The incident ended their relationship, but she waited until 2014 to report it to Google HR, after which Google began investigating. Shortly after the investigation began, Google awarded Rubin a stock grant worth around $150 million. It’s unclear if the board members who approved the grant knew about the investigation at the time.

That $150 million grant was enormously helpful for Rubin in negotiating his exit package later. That’s because Google wanted to avoid any kind of wrongful termination lawsuit, which could have brought negative attention to the company.

The news about Rubin may not be all that surprising — The Information reported late last year that Google had investigated Rubin for an inappropriate relationship. After the report, Rubin took a leave of absence from Essential, a smartphone company he founded after leaving Google.

After the news circulated on Thursday, October 26, Pichai and Vice President of People Operations Eileen Naughton sent an email (which was obtained by CNBC) to employees saying that the company was “dead serious about making sure we provide a safe and inclusive workplace,” and that it had taken a number of steps over the past few years to ensure a safe environment, including “taking an increasingly hard line on inappropriate conduct by people in positions of authority: In the last two years, 48 people have been terminated for sexual harassment, including 13 who were senior managers and above. None of these individuals received an exit package.”

Updated on October 25, 2018: Google released an emailed statement to employees.

Christian de Looper
Christian de Looper is a long-time freelance writer who has covered every facet of the consumer tech and electric vehicle…
Apple and Google under more scrutiny, this time for mobile browser dominance
A person using the Chrome browser on the OnePlus 13.

A report from a UK antitrust body, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), has found that Apple and Google have such dominance over the mobile browser market that it is harming users who could be missing out on new features. With 88% of Apple users running Safari and 77% of Android users running Chrome, the situation is "not working well for consumers and businesses" and is "holding back innovation," the CMA says, and it singles out Apple's mobile browser policies for particular criticism.

Apple has previously been criticized for its restrictive policies around mobile browsers, as users can install browsers other than Apple's Safari on their devices -- but those browsers can only use Apple's WebKit engine. That makes them essentially overlays for Apple's own browser, limiting the features that can be supported on a mobile browser.

Read more
Google Maps’ new feature sees Android play catchup to iOS
Samsung Galaxy S24 in Marble Gray showing Google Maps.

Android users are getting their first glimpse of a new operating system feature while using Google Maps, as the app is the first to make use of the Live Updates ability that was added for Android 16. The feature will give users updated information in their status bar so they can keep track of ongoing activity such as following directions using maps.

Similar to Apple's Live Activities system, the Android function can potentially be used by a range of apps but has first been seen in Google Maps. "Live Updates are a new class of notifications that help users monitor and quickly access important ongoing activities," Android developers explained in a post highlighting the feature when it was first announced.

Read more
Google quietly fixed USB flaw that left over a billion Android devices exposed
Official Android mascot and splash screen on a phone.

In the first week of February, Google published its usual Android Security Bulletin, detailing security flaws that have been plugged to strengthen the platform safety. These flaws are usually declared once they have been fixed, except in special circumstances.

February is one of those rare situations for a kernel-level, high-severity flaw that was still being actively exploited at the time of the bulletin’s release. “There are indications that CVE-2024-53104 may be under limited, targeted exploitation,” says the release note.

Read more