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the poor recruiter is the wrong person to rant to.

Why? If enough talented individuals reject a Google position (or more accurately, entry to Google's interview process) for moral reasons, the message will be sent up the chain of command.

Google thrives on talent. If it becomes hard to acquire new talent, they have a serious problem.

Well, for one thing, rejecting it at the point of a recruiter reaching out to you is a weak signal. Get through the hiring process and then reject the job offer, and it will become a much stronger signal. I'm willing to bet dollars to donuts that way fewer people reject job offers than turn down recruiters soliciting for a phone screen.

With only a little bit of sarcasm, I would also say that accepting the job offer, working loyally for some amount of time, and then quitting in protest would be a much stronger signal still.

It's an open letter; he's writing for us, not the recruiter. The recruiter merely serves as a prompt.

Better to accept the offer and some months later become a Snowden v2?