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

Re: Tell HN: Triplebyte reverses, emails apology

#181

Post by heavyset_go » Mon, May 25, 2020, 7:32 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…

With your attitude, someone could try to something sneaky and dishonest like TripleByte did, but as long as they walk back on it eventually, it's all good.

Why wouldn't another company first try to push privacy violating changes on a Friday, when people like you are so willing to turn a blind eye to it if they get caught?

They violated trust and it's going to take a lot more than an email apology to get it back from people who care.

Re: Tell HN: Triplebyte reverses, emails apology

#182

Post by milin » Mon, May 25, 2020, 7:32 PM UTC

tersers wrote: post #5

Yeah, no. I already deleted my account and I'm not going back. I realise the type of candidate they cater towards would find jobs at companies I wouldn't really want to work at anyway. I'm ashamed that younger me fell for this in the first place.

URL to delete your profile, if anyone is thinking to do the same: https://triplebyte.com/privacy-center

Re: Tell HN: Triplebyte reverses, emails apology

#183

Post by sngz » Mon, May 25, 2020, 7:33 PM UTC

great apology, but doesn't justify the incompetence and initial justifications.

You're telling me that no one on your team has brought up the issue throughout the whole process? That leaves three possibilities.

1. someone brought it up but you ignored it and pushed through anyways 2. Nobody brought it up due to incompetence 3. Both happened just 2 happened late in the process.

Why would anyone trust their data with leadership that incompetent?

Re: Tell HN: Triplebyte reverses, emails apology

#184

Post by paulcole » Mon, May 25, 2020, 7:33 PM UTC

mosselman wrote: post #140

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…

> This e-mail (which I also got) seems like a heartfelt apology. Even if it is heartfelt, I'd argue that if no alarm bells went off internally when they were discussing this feature, they are not the group of people to entrust with information such as this.

There was a study about surgical fuckups. In almost every case, multiple people in the OR admitted they recognized the problem but were too scared to speak up because the surgeon said things were going fine.

Re: Tell HN: Triplebyte reverses, emails apology

#185

Post by ammon » Mon, May 25, 2020, 7:34 PM UTC

vikramkr wrote: post #162

ammon wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 fea…

We're working on a post-mortem internally right now. The thing I want to do externally is make a more clear/binding commitment to user privacy. The idea is still a bit inchoate, but I want to do something that makes this not just about trusting us.

Re: Tell HN: Triplebyte reverses, emails apology

#186

Post by milin » Mon, May 25, 2020, 7:34 PM UTC

ammon wrote: post #86

imheretolearn wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To be precise this the email they send you when you request them to delete your account. "We're processing your request and should be done within 30 days. We will verify your request using the information associated with your account. Government identification may be required and we may ask you for more information in order to verify your identify. Any questions? Email us at privacy@triplebyte.com" They didn't need "…

Yikes! Was this today? We pushed a fix for this yesterday, but if it's not fixed I need to look into it.

Yes. Can confirm this is the case as of 5 mins ago.

Re: Tell HN: Triplebyte reverses, emails apology

#187

Post by Silhouette » Mon, May 25, 2020, 7:35 PM UTC

itronitron wrote: post #168

ethanbond wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

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

No, they really aren't. Some of the reported patterns probably aren't even legal in large parts of the world today.

Not that it would matter if they were. Other people doing nasty things is no excuse for doing them yourself as well.

Re: Tell HN: Triplebyte reverses, emails apology

#188

Post by aditya_1723 » Mon, May 25, 2020, 7:36 PM UTC

it seems like heartfelt apology

Re: Tell HN: Triplebyte reverses, emails apology

#189

Post by wyck » Mon, May 25, 2020, 7:37 PM UTC

photonios wrote: post #61

tikthot wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Some comments around here are extremely negative of the whole situation. More negative than I think they deserve People would have gotten laid-off to this. The dark patterns are just cherry on top. The negativity is well deserved.

The negativity towards to original announcement of making profiles public was deserved. For me, the negativity towards the CEO's apology and cancelling the feature is not. Everyone makes mistakes and if nobody would be willing to look past that, then we'd never get anywhere.

This isn't just a whoopsy mistake, this is a drastically stupid decision that brings the whole business into question. This wasn't really a technical mistake, this is bad leadership mixed with bad procedures. When you drive you boat into the ground because your "not thinking" as the captain, it doesn't remove the fact that you drove a boat into the ground. Irresponsible would be an under statement, it would be more appropriate to call this moronic.

Re: Tell HN: Triplebyte reverses, emails apology

#190

Post by ALittleLight » Mon, May 25, 2020, 7:37 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.

Hey, I was complaining at you in the previous thread, so I feel obliged to say thanks for the apology and the reversal. I think the feature, IFF opt-in, is a good idea.

Thanks!