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Tell HN: AngelList told my employer that I'd updated my profile

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Re: Tell HN: AngelList told my employer that I'd updated my profile

#141

Post by noxToken »

DonHopkins wrote: post #21
Negative1 wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Insulting, bordering on abusive hyperbole. You seem to have a major chip on your shoulder. Did Angel List eat your baby or something? Also, if you hate them so much but seem to have some sort of reliance on their service, why not take yourself off the site and make a competing product?

I don't make a competing product because I don't have 10 minutes to watch a Ruby on Rails screencast.

The whole, "If it sucks, make a better one," is a terrible argument. I don't want to make something better - I want to use this. It is totally reasonable to expect the people who built this tool/software to deliver with core working functionality.

Re: Tell HN: AngelList told my employer that I'd updated my profile

#144

Post by DiNovi »

dzohrob wrote: post #140

Hi there, I’m Dave and I work at AngelList on our Talent platform. Please accept our sincere apologies for what happened here. Sending an email without giving you a heads-up or control over its content was wrong. Here’s what we’re doing to fix it: * We’ve made it clearer that tagging a company on a project may notify them by email. * We’ve revised the project tagging email to clarify that it’s automatically generated…

Of course, updating your profile after months of inactivity will probably tip them off. IMO any response that isn't "we have turned off this feature and will re-evaluate" is no bueno.

Re: Tell HN: AngelList told my employer that I'd updated my profile

#146

Post by andlarry »

When our CEO added me to our angel list account, I recieved this email from them:

  Hi [My Name],

  I'm building an AngelList profile for [our company] and need your help.

  Can you do me a favor and confirm that you're a team member by clicking here:

  https://angel.co/l/[shortlink]
  To prove that you're the real [My Name] you will be asked to create an account if you don't already have one.

  This is important to us; confirming that you're a team member will help us build our profile.

  Thanks,
  [CEO's Name]

  P.S. If you would like to visit our profile first, go here: https://angel.co/[our company]
They're really aggressive about impersonating folks, my CEO didn't write that and was very suprised by the content of the email.

Re: Tell HN: AngelList told my employer that I'd updated my profile

#147

Post by gragas »

andlarry wrote: post #146

When our CEO added me to our angel list account, I recieved this email from them: Hi [My Name], I'm building an AngelList profile for [our company] and need your help. Can you do me a favor and confirm that you're a team member by clicking here: https://angel.co/l/[shortlink] To prove that you're the real [My Name] you will be asked to create an account if you don't already have one. This is important to us; confirmi…

I know almost nothing about law, but that has to be illegal in some way, right?

Re: Tell HN: AngelList told my employer that I'd updated my profile

#148

Post by JupiterMoon »

oldmanjay wrote: post #124
JupiterMoon wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No! If an offence is criminal it can't be magically made OK by a contract. I am not a lawyer. This is not legal advice.

What is it about not being a lawyer (psychiatrist, economist, whatever) that makes people feel their contributions, though unqualified and generally incorrect, are still valuable? Is there a magical state of not-being that I've never picked up?

I include that I am not a lawyer partly to provide a warning that I am probably wrong and that what I am saying is not particularly valuable. I welcome someone that is an expert jumping in and correcting me...

Re: Tell HN: AngelList told my employer that I'd updated my profile

#149

Post by SilasX »

notalaser wrote: post #94
dchest wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In this case, every giving would be stealing. If I gave you something, you didn't steal it from me. Likewise, if I gave you the right to impersonate me in particular circumstances, it's not a criminal offense if you do.

It depends on where you are in the world, but in most places in the civilized world, criminal law does not work that way. If something is illegal, we cannot sign a contract that says it's ok between you and me, and magically make it legal. E.g. if I kill someone, the state will prosecute me for murder, regardless of whether or not that guy and I signed a contract that said it was fine. If impersonating someone is a c…

The parent's point was that obviously some rights (even on criminal matters) are obviously waivable in this manner.

Normally, I can't take your stuff or enter your property, but if you make a contract granting me the right to take (specific things among) your stuff or enter your property in specific cases, that's enforceable.

Can you similarly sign away your right not to be murdered similarly? To be impersonated? Maybe not, but it depends on the circumstances, and isn't simply a matter of "that's illegal so you can't sign it away".

Re: Tell HN: AngelList told my employer that I'd updated my profile

#150

Post by greggarious »

dzohrob wrote: post #140

Hi there, I’m Dave and I work at AngelList on our Talent platform. Please accept our sincere apologies for what happened here. Sending an email without giving you a heads-up or control over its content was wrong. Here’s what we’re doing to fix it: * We’ve made it clearer that tagging a company on a project may notify them by email. * We’ve revised the project tagging email to clarify that it’s automatically generated…

Our of curiosity, does AngelList have a chief privacy officer, or even a privacy manager or subject matter expert embedded with the engineers? (Until this moment I wasn't familiar with the service - I mostly get jobs through friends and former coworkers.)

I understand some companies are not large enough to have a dedicated privacy professional, but as someone who knows quite a bit about it, it's really frustrating when the response to something like this is "whoops! here are the steps we are taking to correct this".

Don't get me wrong Dave: This is a great response and you sound like you truly want to avoid incidents in the futures. Kudos for that - many companies would simply quote their privacy policy and offer up a feeble "Sorry you're sorry."

But this is more than a one time bug to be quashed. IMHO all companies (even small startups) should endeavor to move beyond reactive solutions like this, and put processes and controls in place so that these incidents never happen to begin with.

If you or anyone reading this is on the fence, think of it as marketing. Marketing in the sense of providing a quality product that fulfills a need, and makes other people want to buy your product because it's solid and good.

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