diff --git a/builder/googlecompute/private_key.go b/builder/googlecompute/private_key.go
deleted file mode 100644
index cf81cba06..000000000
--- a/builder/googlecompute/private_key.go
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,43 +0,0 @@
-package googlecompute
-
-import (
-	"crypto/x509"
-	"encoding/pem"
-	"errors"
-	"fmt"
-	"io/ioutil"
-)
-
-// processPrivateKeyFile takes a private key file and an optional passphrase
-// and decodes it to a byte slice.
-func processPrivateKeyFile(privateKeyFile, passphrase string) ([]byte, error) {
-	rawPrivateKeyBytes, err := ioutil.ReadFile(privateKeyFile)
-	if err != nil {
-		return nil, fmt.Errorf("Failed loading private key file: %s", err)
-	}
-
-	PEMBlock, _ := pem.Decode(rawPrivateKeyBytes)
-	if PEMBlock == nil {
-		return nil, fmt.Errorf(
-			"%s does not contain a valid private key", privateKeyFile)
-	}
-
-	if x509.IsEncryptedPEMBlock(PEMBlock) {
-		if passphrase == "" {
-			return nil, errors.New("a passphrase must be specified when using an encrypted private key")
-		}
-
-		decryptedPrivateKeyBytes, err := x509.DecryptPEMBlock(PEMBlock, []byte(passphrase))
-		if err != nil {
-			return nil, fmt.Errorf("Failed decrypting private key: %s", err)
-		}
-
-		b := &pem.Block{
-			Type:  "RSA PRIVATE KEY",
-			Bytes: decryptedPrivateKeyBytes,
-		}
-		return pem.EncodeToMemory(b), nil
-	}
-
-	return rawPrivateKeyBytes, nil
-}
diff --git a/builder/googlecompute/private_key_test.go b/builder/googlecompute/private_key_test.go
deleted file mode 100644
index e6cf37be4..000000000
--- a/builder/googlecompute/private_key_test.go
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,87 +0,0 @@
-package googlecompute
-
-import (
-	"crypto/rand"
-	"crypto/x509"
-	"encoding/pem"
-	"io/ioutil"
-	"os"
-	"testing"
-)
-
-func testPrivateKeyFile(t *testing.T) string {
-	tf, err := ioutil.TempFile("", "packer")
-	if err != nil {
-		t.Fatalf("bad: %s", err)
-	}
-	defer tf.Close()
-
-	b := &pem.Block{
-		Type:  "RSA PRIVATE KEY",
-		Bytes: []byte("what"),
-	}
-
-	if err := pem.Encode(tf, b); err != nil {
-		t.Fatalf("err: %s", err)
-	}
-
-	return tf.Name()
-}
-
-func TestProcesssPrivateKeyFile(t *testing.T) {
-	path := testPrivateKeyFile(t)
-	defer os.Remove(path)
-
-	data, err := processPrivateKeyFile(path, "")
-	if err != nil {
-		t.Fatalf("err: %s", err)
-	}
-
-	if len(data) <= 0 {
-		t.Fatalf("bad: %#v", data)
-	}
-}
-
-func TestProcessPrivateKeyFile_encrypted(t *testing.T) {
-	data := []byte("what")
-	// Encrypt the file
-	b, err := x509.EncryptPEMBlock(rand.Reader,
-		"RSA PRIVATE KEY",
-		data,
-		[]byte("password"),
-		x509.PEMCipherAES128)
-	if err != nil {
-		t.Fatalf("err: %s", err)
-	}
-
-	tf, err := ioutil.TempFile("", "packer")
-	if err != nil {
-		t.Fatalf("bad: %s", err)
-	}
-	defer os.Remove(tf.Name())
-
-	err = pem.Encode(tf, b)
-	tf.Close()
-	if err != nil {
-		t.Fatalf("err: %s", err)
-	}
-
-	path := tf.Name()
-
-	// Should have an error with a bad password
-	if b, err := processPrivateKeyFile(path, "bad"); err == nil {
-		if string(b) == string(data) {
-			t.Fatal("should error & be different")
-		}
-		t.Logf(`Decrypt was successfull but the body was wrong.`)
-		// Because of deficiencies
-		// in the encrypted-PEM format, it's not always possible to detect an incorrect
-		// password. In these cases no error will be returned but the decrypted DER
-		// bytes will be random noise.
-		// https://github.com/golang/go/blob/50bd1c4d4eb4fac8ddeb5f063c099daccfb71b26/src/crypto/x509/pem_decrypt.go#L112-L114
-	}
-
-	if _, err := processPrivateKeyFile(path, "password"); err != nil {
-		t.Fatalf("bad: %s", err)
-	}
-}