Twitter's Google Docs Hacked

In what could be another public relations blow for Google (GOOG), a hacker broke into the Gmail, Google Docs, and other Google Apps accounts of a Twitter administrative employee a month ago. Twitter co-founder Biz Stone claims in a blog post that the hacker got ahold of "notes, spreadsheets, ideas, financial details and more within the company," adding that "as they were never meant for public communication, publishing these documents publicly could jeopardize relationships with Twitter's ongoing and potential partners." (Hat tip: New York Times.)

The hacker, who goes by the handle "Hacker Croll," then sent all 310 documents to TechCrunch, where Michael Arrington announced plans to publish at least some of them. "There is clearly an ethical line here that we don't want to cross, and the vast majority of these documents aren't going to be published, at least by us," he writes. "But a few of the documents have so much news value that we think it's appropriate to publish them."

Stone took great pains to emphasize that "This attack had nothing to do with any vulnerability in Google Apps which we continue to use." Nevertheless, it's not exactly the kind of news Google wants floating around the Web.