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> I guess that's part of Google's R&D process It wouldn't have been the first time they allegedly do it like that: https://www.reddit.com/r/SiliconValleyHBO/c

> I guess that's part of Google's R&D process It wouldn't have been the first time they allegedly do it like that: https://www.reddit.com/r/SiliconValleyHBO/comments/339sty/just_like_what_happened_to_yelp/ https://www.reddit.com/r/SiliconValleyHBO/comments/339sty/ju... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yelp#Private_company_.282009.E2.80.932011.29 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yelp#Private_company_.282009.E...

jwatte 10y ago
Yeah, that's common for large companies, intentional or not. They have a large set of stakeholders who need to sign off, and they work on different timelines, and they have whole departments of people whose job it is to develop and propose acquisitions, of which maybe one in ten actually happen. A real offer comes with a real check. Don't engage more than very high level without a letter of intent. Don't stop what you're doing until the check clears.
sleepingeights 10y ago
Rule of Thumb: Don't pass around those kind of projects, planning, ideas, etc on Google+, GMail, Facebook, Bing, hotmail, Yahoo, #Slack etc... unless you intentionally want/expect someone else to run with the idea, because if it is any good they will run with it. Use E2E encryption to coordinate, communicate, etc but don't expect those services, software, and the hardware they run on to protect you or your company and ideas in any real meaningful manner.
- OJFord 10y ago
  > Rule of Thumb: Don't pass around those kind of projects, planning, ideas, etc on Google+, GMail, Facebook, Bing, hotmail, Yahoo, #Slack etc... unless you intentionally want/expect someone else to run with the idea, because if it is any good they will run with it. What's the paranoia level of this suggestion? I mean, if you could prove that company X stole your novel idea from a conversation between you and someone not working for X on X's platform, you'd definitely come out on top right? So surely companies big enough to have a reasonable chance of such conversations going on aren't so stupid as to snoop for product ideas?
  - benevol 10y ago
    > What's the paranoia level of this suggestion? The kind of paranoia level that's reasonable to have, nowadays. If you're too young to have heard of Snowden, read up on him. If you're too old to remember Snowden, read up on him. The concept of industrial espionage is not just a concept, it's being done all the time. Now you may assume that upper management would not want to have something come to light and would therefor not engage in it. The thing is, upper management does not control what employee X does. And employee X may want to get that promotion after all. The fact that society shifts more an more of their lives onto Google, Facebook, Microsoft, etc. servers boggles my mind. And they don't even end-to-end-encrypt (assuming that encryption is currently not broken yet).
    - OJFord 10y ago
      > If you're too young to have heard of Snowden, read up on him. If you're too old to remember Snowden, read up on him. Does that apply to anyone reading HN in 2016? My asking about paranoia level was not intended to slight. Some amount is healthy in this context, as you say. I suppose my point was that although not every employee can be relied upon, surely this fact means that such companies, not wishing to get into trouble, don't allow employees access to data like that. End-to-end encryption is obviously a good idea. Though I also appreciate that not having it (and, e.g. "Snoopers' Charter") catches bad guys - for some order of 'badness' that isn't extreme enough that we can assume they're all up on encryption (as is the common argument for it being ineffective against terrorism) e.g. paedophiles rings.
      - yuhong 10y ago
        I don't believe that it has ever happened in the real world.
    - lh7 10y ago
      I did some work (non-IT) for a retired internet billionaire, who doesn't mind one bit using gmail as his private email address even though Google is a direct competitor to the company he got rich with (and they have the upper hand in their market). Likewise, one of his start-ups' (1 million unique visitors per day) entire closed-source code base is on Github. From a legal and commercial point of view, it would be devastating to Google et al. if they were found to be stealing IP like that.
- LargeCompanies 10y ago
  Hmmm it wasn't a novel idea rather that we can sync audio, video, etc..across any type of IP device is/was novel. After posting this YouTube video demonstration .. 2 weeks later they and many others came knocking/expressed interest https://youtu.be/CAnEFOr1lP4 https://youtu.be/CAnEFOr1lP4

jwatte 10y ago

Yeah, that's common for large companies, intentional or not. They have a large set of stakeholders who need to sign off, and they work on different timelines, and they have whole departments of people whose job it is to develop and propose acquisitions, of which maybe one in ten actually happen. A real offer comes with a real check. Don't engage more than very high level without a letter of intent. Don't stop what you're doing until the check clears.

sleepingeights 10y ago

Rule of Thumb: Don't pass around those kind of projects, planning, ideas, etc on Google+, GMail, Facebook, Bing, hotmail, Yahoo, #Slack etc... unless you intentionally want/expect someone else to run with the idea, because if it is any good they will run with it. Use E2E encryption to coordinate, communicate, etc but don't expect those services, software, and the hardware they run on to protect you or your company and ideas in any real meaningful manner.

OJFord 10y ago
> Rule of Thumb: Don't pass around those kind of projects, planning, ideas, etc on Google+, GMail, Facebook, Bing, hotmail, Yahoo, #Slack etc... unless you intentionally want/expect someone else to run with the idea, because if it is any good they will run with it. What's the paranoia level of this suggestion? I mean, if you could prove that company X stole your novel idea from a conversation between you and someone not working for X on X's platform, you'd definitely come out on top right? So surely companies big enough to have a reasonable chance of such conversations going on aren't so stupid as to snoop for product ideas?
- benevol 10y ago
  > What's the paranoia level of this suggestion? The kind of paranoia level that's reasonable to have, nowadays. If you're too young to have heard of Snowden, read up on him. If you're too old to remember Snowden, read up on him. The concept of industrial espionage is not just a concept, it's being done all the time. Now you may assume that upper management would not want to have something come to light and would therefor not engage in it. The thing is, upper management does not control what employee X does. And employee X may want to get that promotion after all. The fact that society shifts more an more of their lives onto Google, Facebook, Microsoft, etc. servers boggles my mind. And they don't even end-to-end-encrypt (assuming that encryption is currently not broken yet).
  - OJFord 10y ago
    > If you're too young to have heard of Snowden, read up on him. If you're too old to remember Snowden, read up on him. Does that apply to anyone reading HN in 2016? My asking about paranoia level was not intended to slight. Some amount is healthy in this context, as you say. I suppose my point was that although not every employee can be relied upon, surely this fact means that such companies, not wishing to get into trouble, don't allow employees access to data like that. End-to-end encryption is obviously a good idea. Though I also appreciate that not having it (and, e.g. "Snoopers' Charter") catches bad guys - for some order of 'badness' that isn't extreme enough that we can assume they're all up on encryption (as is the common argument for it being ineffective against terrorism) e.g. paedophiles rings.
    - yuhong 10y ago
      I don't believe that it has ever happened in the real world.
  - lh7 10y ago
    I did some work (non-IT) for a retired internet billionaire, who doesn't mind one bit using gmail as his private email address even though Google is a direct competitor to the company he got rich with (and they have the upper hand in their market). Likewise, one of his start-ups' (1 million unique visitors per day) entire closed-source code base is on Github. From a legal and commercial point of view, it would be devastating to Google et al. if they were found to be stealing IP like that.
LargeCompanies 10y ago
Hmmm it wasn't a novel idea rather that we can sync audio, video, etc..across any type of IP device is/was novel. After posting this YouTube video demonstration .. 2 weeks later they and many others came knocking/expressed interest https://youtu.be/CAnEFOr1lP4 https://youtu.be/CAnEFOr1lP4