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

theverge.com

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

#41

Post by ocdtrekkie »

JPKab wrote: post #3

[flagged]

I think the liberal establishment is starting to sour on their relationship with Google and other tech companies. They blame tech for Trump getting elected in the first place, and now that they see Google and Facebook have the ability to pick election winners and losers, they view them much more as a threat than they did during the Obama years.

It definitely remains to be seen if Biden will start hiring up a bunch of Google employees into senior positions like Obama did or not, but I suspect Google will be nowhere near as welcome as it was under Obama.

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

#42

Post by acituan »

remus wrote: post #29
sumeno wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Googlers have the right to participate in protected concerted activities" is not a personal political opinion, it is the law.

I think the point here is "...used internal security tools...", Not the particulars of the message she was pushing.

That is the stated reason but we all know that is not the real reason. If they added an ascii art of a dinosaur or a message on another topic to that internal security tool, they wouldn't have been fired, probably not even a slap on the wrist, at most an annoyed "take that off" request.

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

#43

Post by [deleted] »

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…

[deleted]

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

#44

Post by tsdlts »

sumeno wrote: post #8
macspoofing wrote: post #6

>Spiers was fired after she created a pop-up for Google employees visiting the IRI Consultants website. “Googlers have the right to participate in protected concerted activities,” the notification read I remember that case. Yeah - she deserved to be fired. She used an internal security tool to push her personal political views. How could that not be a fire-able offense?

"Googlers have the right to participate in protected concerted activities" is not a personal political opinion, it is the law.

So if she instead put "Nobody has the right to enter this country illegally" it would be fine because she's just restating the law?

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

#45

Post by pmiller2 »

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…

This is exactly why I don't even have my work email on my personal phone.

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

#46

Post by janesvilleseo »

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 to go on vacation and still have my phone but not be bothered by company emails and calls. Leave my work phone at home.

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

#47

Post by giantg2 »

corpMaverick wrote: post #33
giantg2 wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think it's fine to criticize constructively . Calling people names is not likely to lead to constructive conversations and can be dehumanizing.

You are talking about a person whose mode of operation is to insult people.

And that makes it ok to do the same? If so, then that justifies others to insult you.

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

#48

Post by Rebelgecko »

chickenpotpie wrote: post #18
Yajirobe wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> His Orangeness Please refrain from insults. Nearly half of the voters voted for him. There are plenty of his supporters here and this is offensive to them.

What? Are you suggesting we cannot criticize politicians on this website because it might be insulting to their supporters?

There's a big difference between criticizing someone based on their policy or behaviors vs making fun of their physical appearance. The latter is normally frowned upon on HN

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

#49

Post by manfredo »

JeremyBanks wrote: post #4
vorpalhex wrote: post #2

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…

If she had injected a BitCoin miner, for personal profit, that would have been an entirely different situation, wouldn't it?

Abusing your position as a developer and turning your software into a political soapbox is not much better. People are trying to spin this as some sort of union busting move. I don't see it, this behavior is unacceptable regardless of what message is being spread.

Would it have been fine if she added a message to say "Affirmative Action is racist" when people browsed information about Proposition 16 on the 2020 California ballot? Sure, she definitely has the right to spread that message on her own time. But adding this message is definitely breaching expectations of professionalism, and abusing her developer role to spread a personal political message. And given that Google/Alphabet is widely suspected of political bias, I it's fair to let go of employees who cannot refrain from modify software to advance their political views.

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

#50

Post by muglug »

tsdlts wrote: post #44
sumeno wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Googlers have the right to participate in protected concerted activities" is not a personal political opinion, it is the law.

So if she instead put "Nobody has the right to enter this country illegally" it would be fine because she's just restating the law?

That would be appropriate (in this analogy) if the website was advising employees on how to jump over border walls.
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