The incident in question dates back to last week when a substantial amount of internal documentation from Google was leaked. This documentation contained crucial information such as the algorithms used to rank search results and various issues being investigated within the company. At that time, Google pointed out that the ranking algorithm was constantly evolving.
Most recently, websites like Insider Gaming and 404 Media uncovered leaked documents indicating that Google’s contract employees were involved in leaking information regarding the game Yoshi’s Crafted World, set to debut at E3 2017 (as posted on Reddit). It was noted that there was a URL referencing admin.youtube.com, suggesting that an administrator had accessed private videos.
Google clarified that a temporary contract employee intentionally released private information about Nintendo, using an admin account and sharing it with others. Following the incident, the company investigated and resolved the issue.
Insider Gaming also reported cases where YouTube administrators accessed video data and leaked information in the past. For instance, KSI distributed Amazon Gift Card codes in a video, only for the codes to be redeemed before the video was made public. Similarly, in a recent State of Play event by Sony, game titles were revealed ahead of the official announcement.
Source: Insider Gaming and The Verge
TLDR: Internal Google documents leaked, revealing issues with search ranking algorithms and employee involvement in leaking information. YouTube administrators have also been implicated in past data leaks.
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