Tell HN: Triplebyte reverses, emails apology • Hacker News Board

Re: Tell HN: Triplebyte reverses, emails apology

#31

Post by JoeCortopassi » Mon, May 25, 2020, 6:18 PM UTC

One of two things happened:

1. Triplebyte attempted a big move against LinkedIn, tried to ease the blow to users by dumping on a Friday before memorial day weekend

2. Triplebyte, the company built around helping people find jobs, truthfully didn't understand that people might have concerns about their current companies knowing they are job-hunting

It's pretty obvious it's #1, and that opt-out rather than opt-in was the only way it would gain the critical mass needed. The outcry hit critical mass and now they need to walk it back, until they have a different strategy for re-segmenting LinkedIn's market

Re: Tell HN: Triplebyte reverses, emails apology

#32

Post by cbanek » Mon, May 25, 2020, 6:19 PM UTC

Didn't get the apology email which may mean that they actually deleted my account as asked with no further nonsense or asking for identification. Which is honestly good on them. With this reversal, in the future, if I'm looking for a job, I _may_ look at Triplebyte again, but I'm certainly not giving them any info before then. Good luck, Triplebyte.

Edit: Nevermind, I just got the email. Still no response to my request to delete my account.

Re: Tell HN: Triplebyte reverses, emails apology

#33

Post by photonios » Mon, May 25, 2020, 6:20 PM UTC

I am not an active Triplebyte user, but I have an account and followed the thread(s).

This e-mail (which I also got) seems like a heartfelt apology. They fucked up, realized it and turned the ship around. They listened and that's what counts for me. They listened to the negative feedback and responded to it.

Some comments around here are extremely negative of the whole situation. More negative than I think they deserve. They could've pushed through and ignored all the feedback they got. They didn't, and that's enough for to show the company and its CEO isn't utterly rotten.

@ammon Thanks for listening and participating in the discussions on HN. You made a mistake, but the fact that you responded is enough for me to put my trust in Triplebyte in the future if the need arises.

Re: Tell HN: Triplebyte reverses, emails apology

#34

Post by jorblumesea » Mon, May 25, 2020, 6:20 PM UTC

Just makes you wonder what else is going on there from a product standpoint. How many similar "good ideas" have they launched? Selling data? Employers access to your profile?

Hiring is their business and such a complete misunderstanding of the system and subsequent tone deaf responses (up until today) really make you question the entire thing. Or their grasp of hiring in general. Even with the best intentions, does make you worry.

Re: Tell HN: Triplebyte reverses, emails apology

#35

Post by GordonS » Mon, May 25, 2020, 6:21 PM UTC

ammon wrote: post #19

GordonS wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And why was the CEO on HN arguing for the feature, implying people complaining were the ones with the problem? I don't buy it, and I'll be steering clear.

My head was still in the place it was when we were developing the feature. I thought it was a communication problem (if I could only communicate how this feature could help a lot of people everyone would understand). Perhaps I'm just slow. But it took some time and repetition for the magnitude of my error to sink in and me to really hear what people were saying.

> if I could only communicate how this feature could help a lot of people everyone would understand

I don't mean to flog a dead horse, but you seem to be intent on digging a deeper and deeper hole.

It's not for you or anyone else to make someone's data public without their consent, because you think it helps them.

> and me to really hear what people were saying

Nobody should need to tell you any of this. If it truely did, then you clearly don't care a jot about privacy, and simply aren't responsible enough to manage other people's data.

A companies ethos and values cascade down from the top, so your attitude towards privacy is especially concerning.

Re: Tell HN: Triplebyte reverses, emails apology

#36

Post by skinkestek » Mon, May 25, 2020, 6:23 PM UTC

weaksauce wrote: post #26

eitland wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I read their answers in the discussion here and it felt a lot like: I'm sorry that you... That might have been another bad day at work but whatever it was it really doesn't inspire confidence

Yeah it’s hard to reconcile that discussion and this apology. That is unless they were hemorrhaging users after that email hit and reversed course because of that. I like the idea of triplebyte but I’m a bit hesitant now. Perhaps this is the blindness that people in privileged positions in life can’t see... similar to the real name policy on google that caused a problem for the people that didn’t want their identitie…

> Perhaps this is the blindness that people in privileged positions in life can’t see...

Yep, and that privilege may take many forms.

- Secure, well paid job.

- Friends in high places.

- Correct opinions for your area.

etc

Re: Tell HN: Triplebyte reverses, emails apology

#37

Post by rebotfc » Mon, May 25, 2020, 6:23 PM UTC

ammon wrote: post #19

GordonS wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And why was the CEO on HN arguing for the feature, implying people complaining were the ones with the problem? I don't buy it, and I'll be steering clear.

My head was still in the place it was when we were developing the feature. I thought it was a communication problem (if I could only communicate how this feature could help a lot of people everyone would understand). Perhaps I'm just slow. But it took some time and repetition for the magnitude of my error to sink in and me to really hear what people were saying.

You do realise that if you have any European users you have majorly contravened GDPR regulations and data protection rules.

I'm talking 20 million euros in fines

Re: Tell HN: Triplebyte reverses, emails apology

#38

Post by mlazos » Mon, May 25, 2020, 6:23 PM UTC

MattGaiser wrote: post #12

Why not just make it opt-in? Lots of people would have done it right away and others would do it as they started to want new opportunities and/or got laid off. Candidates who didn’t opt in probably wouldn’t be open to being contacted out of the blue anyway in a public manner. They burned a lot of goodwill for nothing.

New features are almost never opt-in. It’s way more tempting to show a high user number in a status meeting than care about user privacy.

Re: Tell HN: Triplebyte reverses, emails apology

#39

Post by gbear605 » Mon, May 25, 2020, 6:24 PM UTC

EGreg wrote: post #23

Oh boy. Where do I begin? Rather than safeguarding the fact that you are or were job searching, we threatened exposure. Current employers might retaliate if they saw that you were job searching. You did not expect that any personal information you’d given us, in the context of a private, secure job search, would be used publicly without your explicit consent. I sincerely apologize. It was my failure. How about we sto…

TripleByte is literally the perfect example of a company that should be centralized. They work because they have a reputation that companies can trust. Trying to make it decentralized takes away any value that TripleByte provides.

Re: Tell HN: Triplebyte reverses, emails apology

#40

Post by weaksauce » Mon, May 25, 2020, 6:24 PM UTC

ammon wrote: post #24

MattGaiser wrote: post #12

Why not just make it opt-in? Lots of people would have done it right away and others would do it as they started to want new opportunities and/or got laid off. Candidates who didn’t opt in probably wouldn’t be open to being contacted out of the blue anyway in a public manner. They burned a lot of goodwill for nothing.

Yeah... that's a much better idea. I can tell you what was going through my head on Friday (I'm not at all trying to defend this now). Basically, it was that for a credential to carry weight with recruiters, it needs scale. There's a bootstrapping problem. But that's not an excuse for violating people's privacy. Opt-in would have been a far better idea.

In the future it’s worth noting that it’s a terrible idea to take something away from someone when you promised them something else. This is privacy in this case. On others it’s offering something for free and then charging for it.

Even if you wanted to make this an opt out feature the only sensible way to go about it is grandfathering in the old accounts into an opt in feature. Just like many companies grandfather in free customers while they charge new ones.

This is the foundation of trust.