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

Re: Tell HN: Triplebyte reverses, emails apology

#161

Post by headgasket » Mon, May 25, 2020, 7:21 PM UTC

I just deleted my account. I was unaware that I even had one. I clicked on a little puzzle that popped in my FB feed back when I was still using.(FB)

This quiz was super easy, and I got pulled into doing an interview, just for fun, and a programming test in a language I had not used in 5 years. I did not do too well, but I did not care, it was for fun!

Well I did not expect that bad score to be recorded and become public!

This economy built around private/public information quiproquo has to be reigned in. I feel for the founder. But I still think there's something going on we need to stop before we get to the Stasi.

Re: Tell HN: Triplebyte reverses, emails apology

#162

Post by vikramkr » Mon, May 25, 2020, 7:21 PM UTC

ammon wrote: post #48

sys_64738 wrote: post #25

Did this company decide to do this blindly or did they try canvasing a response from a target set of users about what they planned to do? Surely if they did canvas feedback for their plan then an overwhelming No would have prevented this unmitigated disaster.

We did user research, but not about the opt-out release, just about the features of the profile. This was part of the major screw-up.

Any chance of a post-mortem write up on how exactly things went wrong? Including some discussion on how data's going to be protected moving forward? Now that everyone knows this is a type of privacy violation that could occur, it's going to stay back of mind (a "why should we trust you with this sort of data now?" sort of deal). Potentially losing a job or having career plans stunted because a website added a new feature is a lot of power to trust a website with.

Re: Tell HN: Triplebyte reverses, emails apology

#163

Post by dangerboysteve » Mon, May 25, 2020, 7:22 PM UTC

photonios wrote: post #33

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 deser…

I disagree, the site is by developers for developers. Every developer on planet earth is well aware of privacy issues and the evil dark pattern of negative options. They knew this ahead of time, they took a gamble and shit hit the fan. The apology is not heartfelt or sincere, its just damage control.

If they want to correct this mistake, turf the product manager or make a $25K donation to the EFF as an act of penance.

Re: Tell HN: Triplebyte reverses, emails apology

#164

Post by freshbagels » Mon, May 25, 2020, 7:22 PM UTC

Can anyone explain why they'd be a LinkedIn data partner yet did this to compete with LinkedIn?

Go to their site and paste this in your console: window._linkedin_data_partner_id

Re: Tell HN: Triplebyte reverses, emails apology

#165

Post by elliekelly » Mon, May 25, 2020, 7:22 PM UTC

ammon wrote: post #78

JoeCortopassi wrote: post #31

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 t…

I'd say it was both. I wanted to move against LinkedIn profiles, I thought that opt-out was the way to get critical mass, and I screwed up and did not realize how large a privacy violation this was.

Do you have a Chief Privacy Officer? Or Chief Information Security Officer? Was the issue raised and the privacy impact miscalculated (not ideal, but mistakes happen) or were the potential privacy implications overlooked entirely?

Re: Tell HN: Triplebyte reverses, emails apology

#166

Post by RobertRoberts » Mon, May 25, 2020, 7:23 PM UTC

treis wrote: post #133

photonios wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can see how that conclusion gets drawn. Any new feature that is announced can be met with some negativity. Sometimes it just ends up working despite that. It is not surprising to me that at first, they tried to defend their plans. It probably took a while for the backslash to sink in and their own opinions to change. I wouldn't expect every company, even ones that target HN's primary audience to turn everything aro…

Nobody is mad about a "feature". They're mad because Triplebyte made sensitive private data public.

This ^. This is the issue.

Calling it only a "feature" is just downright twisting the facts.

Re: Tell HN: Triplebyte reverses, emails apology

#167

Post by lasky » Mon, May 25, 2020, 7:23 PM UTC

“oops we forgot to NOT do the plainly shady wrong thing and make your private data public, for our benefit - thank you SO much for reminding me. Shady shit will never happen again. I promise. ;)”

Re: Tell HN: Triplebyte reverses, emails apology

#168

Post by itronitron » Mon, May 25, 2020, 7:24 PM UTC

ethanbond wrote: post #104

ammon wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd say it was both. I wanted to move against LinkedIn profiles, I thought that opt-out was the way to get critical mass, and I screwed up and did not realize how large a privacy violation this was.

How about the dark patterns you employed on the opt-out?

Sadly, those patterns are just industry standard UX at this point.

Re: Tell HN: Triplebyte reverses, emails apology

#169

Post by sockr8s » Mon, May 25, 2020, 7:25 PM UTC

colejohnson66 wrote: post #151

sockr8s wrote: post #148

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"The new profiles will be launching publicly in 1 week" It means a preview was already available in a limited way.

No it doesn’t. It means they finished a feature and were making it live in a week. Nowhere in that statement implies that there’s a limited beta.

Nowhere it implies there isn't.

Re: Tell HN: Triplebyte reverses, emails apology

#170

Post by RobertRoberts » Mon, May 25, 2020, 7:25 PM UTC

californical wrote: post #120

rammy1234 wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At this point in time it doesn't matter if there is an apology or not. Like above mentioned, some would have got laid-off or for some their intentions of job search is revealed. This is much worst of an effect that an apology would do any good. He apologized so what. It is good but damage is done. Can anything be about it ?

It wasn't just an apology -- they reversed the decision before it happened, preventing any damage. I was also furious when I found out, and still am upset at how they went about this situation in the beginning. They could've handled it much better. But they did what the community asked for, and nobody was harmed in the end. I would argue that this was the system actually working. I think we should incourage good beha…

"...and nobody was harmed in the end"

Consider how you would feel if a credit card or a bank did this? Would you ever trust them again?

No, you would not.