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

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

#131
post #3

[flagged]

I'm not sure why this was flagged. It's moderately tangential, but within the variance I'd expect from a HN discussion. It's substantial enough to chew on.

If it's about 'his orangeness', I don't think it's realistic to expect everyone on a forum predomenantly frequented by tech workers and west-coastals to be able to say Trump's name without spitting, and outside of that it's a fairly reasonable description current circumstances.

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

#132

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…

>> They need you to hand it over. If its your personal device, you just say piss off, no you can't have it. That's not how a subpoena works if it's on the same physical device. Good luck finding a judge who understands the concept of a "software wall."

So you're saying that judge will ignore the separate profiles but it'll magically stop from depositioning all your phones that might contain work conversations?

That's a tall order.

Also, the title says that GOOGLE spied on someone - which is not a deposition, is it?

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

#133
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…

Does it flag me as an old that the last thing on earth I want to do is check work messages/docs from my phone? There's a concept of 'checking out for the day and going home' that's important to not going crazy, especially now. If something goes wrong, or there's an emergency, folks have a number they can text/call. But constantly check messages? No way.

I'm in the middle. I have developers that work whenever they feel like it, and they email me with questions at all hours. I like to be there for them when I can (but I don't feel bad when I can't).

I've set up my email client on my phone, so that it only notifies me if one of my developers emails me. I use the VIP feature of Samsung's email client, which seems to be unique to that specific client, since I haven't been able to find another with it. I can check the email (if I can), and decide to answer right away (if I can), or just snooze the notification for later.

Everyone else can KMA after hours. Or text, if it's an emergency - but they better say what the emergency is in the text, or they may not get a reply.

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

#134
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…

Does it flag me as an old that the last thing on earth I want to do is check work messages/docs from my phone? There's a concept of 'checking out for the day and going home' that's important to not going crazy, especially now. If something goes wrong, or there's an emergency, folks have a number they can text/call. But constantly check messages? No way.

This is my mentality. Sadly it means I'm only a midlevel after 8 years. Apparently I don't have enough dedication to move up the ladder since I don't have Teams on phone and don't work 9+ hours per day.

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

#135

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…

What does that have to do with accusation that Google read the messages? From the topic?

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

#136

That headline does not match the article contents. That is definitely the headline from the article, but it simply repeats the claim and doesn't even link to the complaint or provide ANY details. > Spiers was fired after she created a pop-up for Google employees visiting the IRI Consultants website. Didn't she inject code into an unrelated internal extension? That sounds like a legit security issue no matter how just…

> 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…

The point is that she took a company communication channel and used it for personal reasons.

That's inappropriate.

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

#137
post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe I'm old too. I used to keep work email and calendar on my personal phone. A few years later, I disabled the email because it distracted from life. I leave the calendar simply to let me know when I have an early meeting (my day normally begins at 9, but work with teams in India, so occasionally have earlier meetings).

I gave up a phone, 4 years ago due to the fact that I am involved in anti-child trafficking and while it is not a grave risk, the reality is there are bad people that traffic in children and the less trackable I am, the more that risk profile goes down. Anyways, that is just backstory to say, getting rid of my phone was the best thing I ever did, I have a burner with a few hundred minutes on it, in my truck for emerg…

I'd probably be fired if I didn't have a cell.

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

#138
post #3

[flagged]

I'm not sure why this was flagged. It's moderately tangential, but within the variance I'd expect from a HN discussion. It's substantial enough to chew on. If it's about 'his orangeness', I don't think it's realistic to expect everyone on a forum predomenantly frequented by tech workers and west-coastals to be able to say Trump's name without spitting, and outside of that it's a fairly reasonable description current…

I think it is entirely reasonable to expect civility. If you can't mention someone's name and remain civil, you should refrain from discussing that individual on this site.

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

#139
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…

When it's convenient to add a corp profile to a personal phone, buy a new personal phone exclusively for that, don't put your own profile on it at all. Use Swappa or similar. Used phones are not that expensive. And you can just Hotspot from your personal phone, you don't need data for it. YMMV, but that worked well for me.

Oh yea def. Used mobile devices that are most assuredly not rooted

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

#140
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…

> If your employer expects you to use a mobile device at work, have them pay for your phone and only use it for work purposes, assume that HR can view EVERYTHING on your phone, because they can, especially at a company like Google that has both deep mobile expertise and insane paranoia around things like IP protection and stopping whistleblowers.

This also goes for company-issued computers. I've run into more than a couple people that learned the hard way that they were being monitored through company equipment.

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