Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Google illegally spied on workers before firing them, US labor board alleges

theverge.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

241–250 of 772 posts

Re: Google illegally spied on workers before firing them, US labor board alleges

#241

Post by black_puppydog »

renewiltord wrote: post #162
anonacct38 wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Didn't she inject code into an unrelated internal extension? Depending on your definition of code, that's probably not the case. She added an entry to a config file that contained a mapping of urls to messages. Such as: dropbox.com/upload -> Friendly reminder: please don't upload internal documents to dropbox Also, Google generally trusts engineers and it's not that unusual to have an engineer writing and deploying…

Got to be honest. If the security team is all like "Install this extension. It'll help you with security" and then it's gonna pop up all sorts of crap, I'm going to uninstall your shitty extension and after that I'm going to treat any software from this so-called 'security' team as some Bonzibuddy crap.

> Bonzibuddy crap

funny name to give to something on the grounds of an engineer in the team pushing for unionization

Re: Google illegally spied on workers before firing them, US labor board alleges

#242

Post by tareqak »

janesvilleseo wrote: post #46
ditonal wrote: post #40

One thing that happens in SV is: * Employer says "hey, we have all these convenient corporate app, wouldn't it be nice to be able to check work messages and work docs on your mobile? Just install our app to "corp-ify" your phone" * Employer now views your mobile device as containing sensitive company IP and therefore they have the right to snoop on anything on your phone. If you install corp on your phone, Google vie…

100% agree. People laugh at me why I carry two phones but this is the main reason. If my employer needs me to have a mobile phone they are paying for separate device and plan. It’s a little silly I need to carry 2 phones around but it makes my life so much more convenient. Unknown call on my work phone guess I’ll answer. If it’s on my personal then it’s spam. Leave company, no need to update or port my number. Want t…

Don't you take both phones to work though? I could totally see a zealous legal team asking for both, and that being an annoying thing to deal with. Same thing with personal hardware used at home, but the company allowing at work from home.

Re: Google illegally spied on workers before firing them, US labor board alleges

#244

Post by sandworm101 »

janesvilleseo wrote: post #46
ditonal wrote: post #40

One thing that happens in SV is: * Employer says "hey, we have all these convenient corporate app, wouldn't it be nice to be able to check work messages and work docs on your mobile? Just install our app to "corp-ify" your phone" * Employer now views your mobile device as containing sensitive company IP and therefore they have the right to snoop on anything on your phone. If you install corp on your phone, Google vie…

100% agree. People laugh at me why I carry two phones but this is the main reason. If my employer needs me to have a mobile phone they are paying for separate device and plan. It’s a little silly I need to carry 2 phones around but it makes my life so much more convenient. Unknown call on my work phone guess I’ll answer. If it’s on my personal then it’s spam. Leave company, no need to update or port my number. Want t…

>> People laugh at me why I carry two phones but this is the main reason.

I carry three. One is from work, the other is from a different department in that same work. They both insist I have a particular type of phone running particular software. But work never calls me on those phones. They always call my personal phone.

Re: Google illegally spied on workers before firing them, US labor board alleges

#245

Post by ocdtrekkie »

dheera wrote: post #237
ocdtrekkie wrote: post #212

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Fun fact: If a judge orders you to surrender your phone because it might contain evidence relating to a case, it doesn't matter how you've segregated data on your phone. Sometimes businesses literally put some services on different physical boxes in case a court sees fit to collect the entire machine. If you had a bunch of other VMs on it... shrug .

We need an OS that self-destructs all data if surrendered, and that should be a hardcoded feature of the OS. Something like a fingerprint scanner that needs to be scanned at least once every 24 hours or all data gets erased.

This still means you don't have your personal phone if you have to surrender your work one, and they live on the same hardware.

Even if you wiped the data, if the government wants to seize your crud, they're still gonna take it.

Re: Google illegally spied on workers before firing them, US labor board alleges

#246

Post by dheera »

colejohnson66 wrote: post #121
playcache wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The ony way that would be possible is by them physically taking the device off you and asking for all your pin codes / passwords. The 'work profile' feature uses app-sandbox which in effects means every app runs as a Linux type isolated UID (not to differnt to a container), there is no breach around that unless some zero day attack comes to light, which would bw patched way before acme corps IT department picks it up…

US centric, but courtrooms don’t have time to hear about the technicalities that show something isn’t possible. They only care that they think it’s possible. Judges aren’t programmers and the law isn’t black and white like code. Also, you can’t just not respond to a deposition or refuse to hand over your phone as evidence in a crime. That’s obstruction of justice and possibly contempt of court. Basically, you can sit…

Make phones that self-destruct all data if the device is handed over. It should be hardcoded to do so and that should not be an editable setting by the user.

The primary reason for this would be against thieves, but it would work against courts as well, and the user wouldn't have a choice.

Re: Google illegally spied on workers before firing them, US labor board alleges

#247

Post by MaximumYComb »

willcipriano wrote: post #211
MereInterest wrote: post #203

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Isn't it great when even something as huge and life-changing as a job is subject to a contract of adhesion with no negotiation allowed? I'm sure glad to live in such a free country with great worker rights. (Sarcasm intended.)

I have no idea how those contracts are enforceable. Quit your job, move across the country and then on your first day here are nine contracts to sign, no you can't take them home we need them now. If you don't sign you are unemployed and we want that relocation money back. I used to ask potential employers when I got deep into interviews with them. "Is there any way I can see all the contracts I would need to sign on…

It sounds legally like coercian. There are some porn producers who are going to jail for a very long time (their whole life) over this. Recruit girls for a photoshoot, tell them a couple days out that it's a porn shoot but it's for private collections, etc. When the girls arrive they're railroaded into signing documents, in a strange city with no money in their pocket, etc.

Re: Google illegally spied on workers before firing them, US labor board alleges

#248

Post by sneak »

MereInterest wrote: post #203
jedberg wrote: post #196

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not. Legal doesn't want to deal with everyone having a different employment contract. Google has always leaned towards being ok with a ton of false negatives to avoid false positives. They'd rather give up 10 good hires than make one bad one. This is just an extension of that. They don't want any exceptions and they aren't willing to make any.

Isn't it great when even something as huge and life-changing as a job is subject to a contract of adhesion with no negotiation allowed? I'm sure glad to live in such a free country with great worker rights. (Sarcasm intended.)

If you don't like the way Google does business, you are free to not do business with them, either as an employee or customer. I don't understand your snark.

Re: Google illegally spied on workers before firing them, US labor board alleges

#249

Post by dheera »

ocdtrekkie wrote: post #245
dheera wrote: post #237

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We need an OS that self-destructs all data if surrendered, and that should be a hardcoded feature of the OS. Something like a fingerprint scanner that needs to be scanned at least once every 24 hours or all data gets erased.

This still means you don't have your personal phone if you have to surrender your work one, and they live on the same hardware. Even if you wiped the data, if the government wants to seize your crud, they're still gonna take it.

You just buy a new personal phone in that case. At least the data is wiped the moment they seized it.

Imagine a hypothetical phone that is covered in fingerprint sensors where if it senses foreign hands touching it, it auto-deletes everything. That might not be the most feasible hardware implementation but I'm sure we can think of something to that effect.

Re: Google illegally spied on workers before firing them, US labor board alleges

#250

Post by qmarchi »

dheera wrote: post #236
e40 wrote: post #232

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Does this mean you are required to have an Android phone? What if you have an iPhone? Rootkit required there, too?

Google probably has their corporate app for iOS too. Just have a phone with an obscure OS and escape all compatibility with their corporate crap. They should provide you with a phone if they want you to install their corporate app.

So, as a Google employee, they do. If you don't want to run corp software, you can easily just request a corporate phone and that's that.
Post reply on HN