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Tell HN: Interviewed with Triplebyte? Your profile is about to become public

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Re: Tell HN: Interviewed with Triplebyte? Your profile is about to become public

#41

Post by wolfgang42 »

I interviewed via Triplebyte last year, and thoroughly enjoyed the service. Before this I would have (and did) wholeheartedly recommended them to anyone; the process was great from the candidate’s perspective and I also have confidence in their ability to accurately evaluate candidates’ skills.

After this announcement, though, I’m afraid that faith has completely crumbled. Even if Ammon had showed up in this thread and immediately announced that this was a terrible idea and they were rolling it back immediately, the mere fact that they were considering doing this is a huge blow. It doesn’t help that I skimmed the email when I got it this afternoon and didn’t even realize it was an opt-out; it was only when I saw this thread that I took a closer look and realized that the email was lacking a CTA button at the bottom for a reason. That seems incredibly shady to me and instantly changed my impression of the company.

Take heed, other companies: it only takes an instant to destroy your company’s reputation, and it’s incredibly difficult to win back that confidence.

Re: Tell HN: Interviewed with Triplebyte? Your profile is about to become public

#42

Post by throwbacktictac »

csdreamer7 wrote: post #38

So I wasn't sure where to opt-out at first. I clicked privacy center, ( https://triplebyte.com/privacy-center ), couldn't find the option, but chose 'Opt out of Personal Information Sharing' because why not? After clicking the button I had to click a confirmation email to get this approved. Then it said it would happen within 30 days and I may be required to show govt ID. Why? I am already verified with my login acco…

Indeed, it does require a gov't ID to delete you profile. Triplebyte is starting to look like Keyser Soze here :)

Re: Tell HN: Interviewed with Triplebyte? Your profile is about to become public

#43

Post by ganstyles »

judge2020 wrote: post #39
ganstyles wrote: post #24

This is horrible, what a breach of trust. I used TB to stealthily interview for jobs, had a good experience. Recommended them to others. Now I see that if I hadn't seen this post, I wouldn't have known about this and those details would have been public, which had the potential to seriously undermine me at my current position. I'll opt out tomorrow, but according to others it sounds like the visibility link was somew…

> if I hadn't seen this post, I wouldn't have known about this To be fair they sent an email to everyone who had signed up; I received the same email.

My problem with this is the automatic opt in, using my profile and details for more than I intended for them to use it for (regardless of whether I technically signed something staying they _could_ do this, it is borderline unethical to use my information for this purpose), only having a week to "opt out", and not knowing what opt out even does. Sending an email to everyone doesn't cure any of these points.

Re: Tell HN: Interviewed with Triplebyte? Your profile is about to become public

#44

Post by gherig4 »

ammon wrote: post #10

Hey everyone. Happy to answer any questions about this. Basically, we think that LinkedIn profiles don't do a good job of showing engineering skill (especially for self-taught people or people from non-traditional backgrounds). I'm excited to just build better support for showing side projects and GitHub contributions. LinkedIn profiles have become the default engineering resume (despite the fact that most engineers…

Lock-in to your platform sounds even worse than LinkedIn.

How long before we all get an apology email, "Upon careful reconsideration...", 72 hours?

Re: Tell HN: Interviewed with Triplebyte? Your profile is about to become public

#45

Post by ganstyles »

wolfgang42 wrote: post #41

I interviewed via Triplebyte last year, and thoroughly enjoyed the service. Before this I would have (and did) wholeheartedly recommended them to anyone; the process was great from the candidate’s perspective and I also have confidence in their ability to accurately evaluate candidates’ skills. After this announcement, though, I’m afraid that faith has completely crumbled. Even if Ammon had showed up in this thread a…

For what it's worth, this was what happened to me. They regularly send marketing emails and updates, which I skim from time to time. It wasn't until I saw this thread that I realized that one particular email out of the (actually checks notes) 62 (!!!) unsolicited emails they've sent me in the last 12 months was this important.

Re: Tell HN: Interviewed with Triplebyte? Your profile is about to become public

#46

Post by remote_phone »

ammon wrote: post #10

Hey everyone. Happy to answer any questions about this. Basically, we think that LinkedIn profiles don't do a good job of showing engineering skill (especially for self-taught people or people from non-traditional backgrounds). I'm excited to just build better support for showing side projects and GitHub contributions. LinkedIn profiles have become the default engineering resume (despite the fact that most engineers…

What a foolish decision to make. Knowing what you know about HN users, did you expect that this would go well? You can pretty much assume that Triplebyte will be persona non grata henceforth, especially as word spreads that you are publicly exposing people and only giving 1 week to opt out.

Extremely foolish and really shines a bad light on your decision making capabilities. Why would I put my trust in a company that is so shady?

You will change this bad decision and apologize, but you have betrayed the trust of all the people who have used you. Even if you change your policy now, we know you will change it back in the near future. No one will use your services again, because of this betrayal. You just killed your entire company in one fell swoop.

I’m shocked that someone associated with YC could make such a demonstrably poor decision.

Re: Tell HN: Interviewed with Triplebyte? Your profile is about to become public

#47

Post by wolfgang42 »

ganstyles wrote: post #43
judge2020 wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> if I hadn't seen this post, I wouldn't have known about this To be fair they sent an email to everyone who had signed up; I received the same email.

My problem with this is the automatic opt in, using my profile and details for more than I intended for them to use it for (regardless of whether I technically signed something staying they _could_ do this, it is borderline unethical to use my information for this purpose), only having a week to "opt out", and not knowing what opt out even does. Sending an email to everyone doesn't cure any of these points.

Not to mention that the only reference to needing to opt-out is a veiled mention buried in the second paragraph. I skimmed the email briefly, said “oh that’s neat, what a great idea” and filed it under “things for the next job hunt” thinking I’d turn on my profile then.

Re: Tell HN: Interviewed with Triplebyte? Your profile is about to become public

#48

Post by akiselev »

judge2020 wrote: post #39
ganstyles wrote: post #24

This is horrible, what a breach of trust. I used TB to stealthily interview for jobs, had a good experience. Recommended them to others. Now I see that if I hadn't seen this post, I wouldn't have known about this and those details would have been public, which had the potential to seriously undermine me at my current position. I'll opt out tomorrow, but according to others it sounds like the visibility link was somew…

> if I hadn't seen this post, I wouldn't have known about this To be fair they sent an email to everyone who had signed up; I received the same email.

If we're going to be fair, we have to acknowledge the history of email over the last thirty years: spam, spam filters, and the "Mark as Spam" button.

Email is what I use to notify my customers of a 25% sale, not to tell them that I'm going to plaster their data all over the internet in violation of the spirit of the service I'm providing. I use regular mail for that.

Re: Tell HN: Interviewed with Triplebyte? Your profile is about to become public

#49

Post by domador »

ammon wrote: post #10

Hey everyone. Happy to answer any questions about this. Basically, we think that LinkedIn profiles don't do a good job of showing engineering skill (especially for self-taught people or people from non-traditional backgrounds). I'm excited to just build better support for showing side projects and GitHub contributions. LinkedIn profiles have become the default engineering resume (despite the fact that most engineers…

I'm interested in knowing whether you surveyed at least some of your users (random ones, who aren't coworkers or acquaintances) what they thought about the change you just announced. I can understand that as a company you may wish for secrecy before you make a strategic move such as this one, but this sounds like the kind of change that'd be good to ask users about before doing it. Or maybe this didn't seem like a controversial move to you guys? (If so, bummer, but I hope you can still prevent or fix a potentially serious mistake.)

FWIW, I hadn't heard of TripleByte before, but this is not a good way of hearing about it, nor would it encourage me to become a user, if people's fears match what you're actually planning to do. If they're correct, it sounds like you're about to intentionally or accidentally implement a dark pattern. I hope that's not the case.

Re: Tell HN: Interviewed with Triplebyte? Your profile is about to become public

#50

Post by kemonocode »

kylebarron wrote: post #6

Hard to find the opt-out button. You have to sign in, go to your "profile builder" [0], and then click the very low contrast "Visibility settings" button just below the top of your profile. [0]: https://triplebyte.com/candidates/profile_builder

Wow, it's like it's following every dark pattern in the book. Wouldn't have found it out myself.
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