A Google employee was reportedly behind a number of leaked Nintendo ads

A number of leaked Nintendo ads originated from a Google employee who accessed private videos in the Switch maker’s YouTube account.

That depends 404 mediawhich acquired an internal Google database to track thousands of potential privacy and security issues reported by employees between 2013 and 2018.

This includes Google accidentally collecting audio data from children, leaking rides and home addresses of carpool users, and YouTube making recommendations based on videos that users have deleted from their history.

In one case, a Google employee was said to have accessed private videos on Nintendo’s YouTube account, leaking information ahead of the company’s planned announcements.

An internal interview concluded that the activity was “unintentional,” according to the leaked report.

“At Google, employees can quickly report potential product issues for review by the relevant teams,” the company said in a statement to 404 Media. “When a staff member submits a flag, he or she suggests the priority level to the reviewer.

“The reports obtained by 404 go back over six years and are examples of these flags – each of which has been reviewed and resolved in that time. In some cases, these employee flags turned out to not be issues at all or were issues that employees found on third-party services.

Nintendo recently confirmed that it will announce its next console this fiscal year, meaning the Switch’s successor will be revealed before April 2025.