California labour laws give employees the right to discuss workplace issues with law enforcement, regulators, the media, and other employees. But Google has been accused of firing the employee for exercising his rights, then smearing his reputation in an internal email sent to the rest of the company.

The employee claims these policies are put in place to allegedly prevent the leaking of potentially damaging information to regulators or law enforcement. They stop employees from speaking out about illegal activity within the company, even to its own lawyers, and encourage them to report other employees suspected of leaking information.

According to the Verge one policy allegedly even prevents employees from writing a novel about working for a large Silicon Valley corporation -- like Dave Eggers' dystopian novel, The Circle -- without first getting final draft approval from Google.

The lawsuit says that Google’s Code of Conduct classifies confidential information as “everything at Google”. It operates a programme called “Stop Leaks” that encourages employees to grass up suspicious behaviour. This suspicious behaviour includes asking other employees detailed questions about projects or other work details.

The suit alleges that Google “suppresses information” about potentially illegally products or regulatory-skirting practices by advising employees not to include emails signalling how the company may have broken the law or violated contract terms.

A spokesGoogle said the lawsuit was without merit and it will defend it vigorously.

“We're very committed to an open internal culture, which means we frequently share with employees the details of product launches and confidential business information. Transparency is a huge part of our culture. Our employee confidentiality requirements are designed to protect proprietary business information, while not preventing employees from disclosing information about terms and conditions of employment, or workplace concerns," she said.