6 ms·

Why would someone write an anonymous blog post but then declare that they are: 1) A woman in her late 20s 2) Who used to work at Uber in Engineering workin

by harryh 10y ago

Why would someone write an anonymous blog post but then declare that they are: 1) A woman in her late 20s 2) Who used to work at Uber in Engineering working on database and networking scalability 3) Went to a top private college 4) has a Masters in Information Systems 5) previous to Uber worked as a Data Analyst in a tech company in the Midwest and left when it was acquired by a Chinese firm 6) Is 5 foot 7 Caucasian with dark hair

mjolk 10y ago
Details sell the lie. But if I'm wrong, if this article is grounded in any reality, I hope the author of this piece speaks to an attorney.
Mitchhhs 10y ago
Its one thing for the people who know her to know it was her, its another thing for the world. That is why.
- dnautics 10y ago
  in fact it's maybe even better if her colleagues know it was her since that may empower them to start taking action against uber or start taking action the next time they see this shit happen.
bermanoid 10y ago
Because it probably doesn't matter if ex-coworkers at Uber figure out who it is. She just doesn't want this story attached to her real name when people Google her. It's also possible that some of that information is slightly twisted, to throw people off.
- fullshark 10y ago
  Or maybe she wants people at Uber to know who she is, but not the general public.
alphonsegaston 10y ago
From the description of circumstances, Uber will already be able to identify the author. Assuming they go after her (as they are often wont to do), it only increases her credibility in the eyes of the public, damaging Uber further.
- late2part 10y ago
  She should hope they go after her. That ensures retaliation damages.
  - Jare 10y ago
    Most people would prefer the damage to not take place.
lvh 10y ago
Having some people know who you are is very different from having the Internet know who you are. Even if she got doxxed (let's hope shoe doesn't), it's unlikely the fallout would be similar.
deleted 10y ago
[deleted]
woodruffw 10y ago
There's anonymity in numbers. Even with Uber's relatively small female workforce, the high turnover rate and unspecified timeframe makes it likely that there are dozens of potential candidates. This sounds specific, but it's really just a lot of datapoints that already correlate heavily with the sample group (Engineering is large at Uber, elite private colleges are strongly represented at startups, average-heighted white women with dark hair are statistically average). Furthermore, any of those descriptions could be fabricated to throw someone attempting to deanonymize her off.
- x0x0 10y ago
  I'm curious if HR will out her, or if there's so many harassment complaints lodged with HR that even so doing makes you effectively anonymous. You say that's unethical and/or illegal, but it's Uber HR, brought to you by the company that jokes about paying a million dollars to dig up dirt on your critics [1], and that lied to a judge about paying investigators to dig up dirt on someone suing them [2], [3]. [1] https://pando.com/2014/11/17/the-moment-i-learned-just-how-far-uber-will-go-to-silence-journalists-and-attack-women/ https://pando.com/2014/11/17/the-moment-i-learned-just-how-f... [2] http://www.theverge.com/2016/7/15/12201134/uber-ergo-admit-lie-investigation-court-travis-kalanick http://www.theverge.com/2016/7/15/12201134/uber-ergo-admit-l... [3] http://www.theverge.com/2016/7/25/12274122/uber-ergo-investigation-lawsuit-judge-ban-kalanick http://www.theverge.com/2016/7/25/12274122/uber-ergo-investi...
  - woodruffw 10y ago
    Internally, she's almost definitely identifiable. I think the parent was talking about public identifiability, seeing how the public doesn't have access to Uber's employee records. And yes, unethicality/illegality doesn't appear to be an impediment for Uber. In fact, they seem to revel in skirting the law.
jellicle 10y ago
Seems to me the author is trying to characterize herself as boring, intelligent, hard-working, skilled and educated. A model employee. An asset to the company. As opposed to the standard MRA characterization of all women as flighty, bitchy, whiny, screechy, slutty, dumb, "cheaters" who slept their way to the top somehow using their devious womanly wiles (but won't sleep with the MRA in question because they hate men).
emrekzd 10y ago
Perhaps because her name would be indexed by the search engines as this story is shared thousands of times? Would you like the #1 search result for your name to be a sexual harassment story?
deanCommie 10y ago
Why would someone read this whole post, and the main takeway they get from it - enough to post a hackernews comment - is to question the poster's claims of interest in anonymity. (And - let's be honest - therefore trying to discredit her whole story one chip at a time). People like you are the problem.
- antisthenes 10y ago
  Not a problem at all. People should always question credibility of random things on the internet. Even though you just tried to #identity_politic someone with blind belief, I'm not going to say people like you are the problem. Just tone down your zeal a bit and approach the problem rationally.
  - deanCommie 10y ago
    Branding someone's concern for the well being and liberty of others as "identity politics" (or in other context "political correctness") suggests an interpretation of the world where the only reason anyone would empathise with others is to win credibility and acceptance from peers. It's a very cynical worldview.
    - ismail-khan 10y ago
      That's not remotely close to what the parent comment was saying...
- kennywinker 10y ago
  Being genuinely puzzled by someone's actions is not by definition an attempt to discredit them. I was also puzzled by her detailed description of herself. It wasn't clear to me wether she believes that it isn't enough detail for uber to identify her, or if she doesn't care if uber is able to identify her she just wants to be anonymous to the public. Neither of those cases undermine her story even slightly.
- wingless 10y ago
  Because SJWs are notorious for making up abuse stories.
antisthenes 10y ago
This reads like #SJW #cismale_hate porn. I'm inclined to believe the entire blog is complete fiction, and with changed names, it might as well be. It does nothing but cater to confirmation bias of those already inclined to hate Uber culture (with or without good reason. I'm not an insider, so the original allegations may be 100% correct, but that is completely orthogonal to this blog). Fiction like this is incredibly harmful to those who have legitimate concerns about company culture and have actually been harassed without consequence, because it drowns their voices in pandering fanfic that reads like it was written by a teenager with a savior complex.
- etjossem 10y ago
  You sound sensitive and principled. /s
soheil 10y ago
Did a search of all current/past Uber employees based on public data mainly from LI, found only 6 people with those degrees and none were female. Did another search for people who worked as Data Analyst and worked at Uber came up with 6 different people again all male. As other answers suggest the information could be twisted, but definitely not "slightly".
- deleted 10y ago
  [deleted]
- cyberpunk 10y ago
  What was your motivation for doing this? As soon as someone doesn't want to be associated with a story critical of anything, the salt is implicit isn't it? Considering the last few stories that have come out about how women are being treated in tech, what I've observed (and been enraged by) I'm pretty sure this happened/is happening still. Are you just trying to verify the legitimacy of the post? If someone finds the courage to speak out, why would you then try to out them for doing so? Does it even matter if it's faked if most of us could totally believe it's not? There are bigger problems being highlighted here than this individual incident... But what do I know... Do you work there? Is someone trying to fsck with uber's valuation or something?
  - soheil 10y ago
    I am trying to verify its legitimacy, how can you silently accept such a critical post on face-value, no I don't work there. Giving voice to false claims intensifies their illegitimate power and in societies that this prevails that same power can be used by propagandists to advance their goal, so it's not about Uber it's about giving homage to truth, as every person's responsibility should be.
    - cyberpunk 10y ago
      I've not accepted it as genuine at all; I'm saying that regardless of if it's real or not, the point here is that if it was it wouldn't surprise us.. I'd really really like it if we could get to the point where if stories like this came out for any company, we would be more surprised by them.. As for the illegitimate power (I'm not even sure what that is...) and propagandists comments; I don't really see how this fits into twist of those.. It's a story about some bad behaviour at a big tech company.. Is it a big deal? Individually; nah. As a general trend in tech that I've certainly experienced; yeah. Is it part of a propagandists plot to turn your country into a communist superstate and increase their "illegitimate power" -- I doubt it..
memmcgee 10y ago
Because any woman who speaks up under their real name is bound to get harassment from gamergate types and other misogynistic asses who have nothing better to do. Fowler is already getting harassed online. Additionally, assuming that Uber isn't stupid enough to coordinate a smear campaign of their own (although it happened to Ellen Pao)[1], she's safe. And if someone does doxx her, it means either: (a) Uber decided to doxx her or (b) one of the Uber employees that participated in her harassment decided to doxx her. Either way, it looks even worse for Uber and could set them up for a lawsuit. [1]: https://www.reddit.com/r/Feminism/comments/594rad/exreddit_ceo_the_firm_ellen_pao_had_sued_was_very/ https://www.reddit.com/r/Feminism/comments/594rad/exreddit_c...
nommm-nommm 10y ago
She put enough information so that the parties relevant would be able to identify all the actors but the parties not involved can't. That's not strange - she wants to tell her story and have it attached to her by identity but not name.

by harryh 10y ago

mjolk 10y ago

Details sell the lie. But if I'm wrong, if this article is grounded in any reality, I hope the author of this piece speaks to an attorney.

Mitchhhs 10y ago

Its one thing for the people who know her to know it was her, its another thing for the world. That is why.

dnautics 10y ago
in fact it's maybe even better if her colleagues know it was her since that may empower them to start taking action against uber or start taking action the next time they see this shit happen.

bermanoid 10y ago

Because it probably doesn't matter if ex-coworkers at Uber figure out who it is. She just doesn't want this story attached to her real name when people Google her. It's also possible that some of that information is slightly twisted, to throw people off.

fullshark 10y ago
Or maybe she wants people at Uber to know who she is, but not the general public.

alphonsegaston 10y ago

From the description of circumstances, Uber will already be able to identify the author. Assuming they go after her (as they are often wont to do), it only increases her credibility in the eyes of the public, damaging Uber further.

late2part 10y ago
She should hope they go after her. That ensures retaliation damages.
- Jare 10y ago
  Most people would prefer the damage to not take place.

lvh 10y ago

Having some people know who you are is very different from having the Internet know who you are. Even if she got doxxed (let's hope shoe doesn't), it's unlikely the fallout would be similar.

deleted 10y ago

[deleted]

woodruffw 10y ago

There's anonymity in numbers. Even with Uber's relatively small female workforce, the high turnover rate and unspecified timeframe makes it likely that there are dozens of potential candidates. This sounds specific, but it's really just a lot of datapoints that already correlate heavily with the sample group (Engineering is large at Uber, elite private colleges are strongly represented at startups, average-heighted white women with dark hair are statistically average). Furthermore, any of those descriptions could be fabricated to throw someone attempting to deanonymize her off.

x0x0 10y ago
I'm curious if HR will out her, or if there's so many harassment complaints lodged with HR that even so doing makes you effectively anonymous. You say that's unethical and/or illegal, but it's Uber HR, brought to you by the company that jokes about paying a million dollars to dig up dirt on your critics [1], and that lied to a judge about paying investigators to dig up dirt on someone suing them [2], [3]. [1] https://pando.com/2014/11/17/the-moment-i-learned-just-how-far-uber-will-go-to-silence-journalists-and-attack-women/ https://pando.com/2014/11/17/the-moment-i-learned-just-how-f... [2] http://www.theverge.com/2016/7/15/12201134/uber-ergo-admit-lie-investigation-court-travis-kalanick http://www.theverge.com/2016/7/15/12201134/uber-ergo-admit-l... [3] http://www.theverge.com/2016/7/25/12274122/uber-ergo-investigation-lawsuit-judge-ban-kalanick http://www.theverge.com/2016/7/25/12274122/uber-ergo-investi...
- woodruffw 10y ago
  Internally, she's almost definitely identifiable. I think the parent was talking about public identifiability, seeing how the public doesn't have access to Uber's employee records. And yes, unethicality/illegality doesn't appear to be an impediment for Uber. In fact, they seem to revel in skirting the law.

jellicle 10y ago

Seems to me the author is trying to characterize herself as boring, intelligent, hard-working, skilled and educated. A model employee. An asset to the company. As opposed to the standard MRA characterization of all women as flighty, bitchy, whiny, screechy, slutty, dumb, "cheaters" who slept their way to the top somehow using their devious womanly wiles (but won't sleep with the MRA in question because they hate men).

emrekzd 10y ago

Perhaps because her name would be indexed by the search engines as this story is shared thousands of times? Would you like the #1 search result for your name to be a sexual harassment story?

deanCommie 10y ago

Why would someone read this whole post, and the main takeway they get from it - enough to post a hackernews comment - is to question the poster's claims of interest in anonymity. (And - let's be honest - therefore trying to discredit her whole story one chip at a time). People like you are the problem.

antisthenes 10y ago
Not a problem at all. People should always question credibility of random things on the internet. Even though you just tried to #identity_politic someone with blind belief, I'm not going to say people like you are the problem. Just tone down your zeal a bit and approach the problem rationally.
- deanCommie 10y ago
  Branding someone's concern for the well being and liberty of others as "identity politics" (or in other context "political correctness") suggests an interpretation of the world where the only reason anyone would empathise with others is to win credibility and acceptance from peers. It's a very cynical worldview.
  - ismail-khan 10y ago
    That's not remotely close to what the parent comment was saying...
kennywinker 10y ago
Being genuinely puzzled by someone's actions is not by definition an attempt to discredit them. I was also puzzled by her detailed description of herself. It wasn't clear to me wether she believes that it isn't enough detail for uber to identify her, or if she doesn't care if uber is able to identify her she just wants to be anonymous to the public. Neither of those cases undermine her story even slightly.
wingless 10y ago
Because SJWs are notorious for making up abuse stories.

antisthenes 10y ago

This reads like #SJW #cismale_hate porn. I'm inclined to believe the entire blog is complete fiction, and with changed names, it might as well be. It does nothing but cater to confirmation bias of those already inclined to hate Uber culture (with or without good reason. I'm not an insider, so the original allegations may be 100% correct, but that is completely orthogonal to this blog). Fiction like this is incredibly harmful to those who have legitimate concerns about company culture and have actually been harassed without consequence, because it drowns their voices in pandering fanfic that reads like it was written by a teenager with a savior complex.

etjossem 10y ago
You sound sensitive and principled. /s

soheil 10y ago

Did a search of all current/past Uber employees based on public data mainly from LI, found only 6 people with those degrees and none were female. Did another search for people who worked as Data Analyst and worked at Uber came up with 6 different people again all male. As other answers suggest the information could be twisted, but definitely not "slightly".

deleted 10y ago
[deleted]
cyberpunk 10y ago
What was your motivation for doing this? As soon as someone doesn't want to be associated with a story critical of anything, the salt is implicit isn't it? Considering the last few stories that have come out about how women are being treated in tech, what I've observed (and been enraged by) I'm pretty sure this happened/is happening still. Are you just trying to verify the legitimacy of the post? If someone finds the courage to speak out, why would you then try to out them for doing so? Does it even matter if it's faked if most of us could totally believe it's not? There are bigger problems being highlighted here than this individual incident... But what do I know... Do you work there? Is someone trying to fsck with uber's valuation or something?
- soheil 10y ago
  I am trying to verify its legitimacy, how can you silently accept such a critical post on face-value, no I don't work there. Giving voice to false claims intensifies their illegitimate power and in societies that this prevails that same power can be used by propagandists to advance their goal, so it's not about Uber it's about giving homage to truth, as every person's responsibility should be.
  - cyberpunk 10y ago
    I've not accepted it as genuine at all; I'm saying that regardless of if it's real or not, the point here is that if it was it wouldn't surprise us.. I'd really really like it if we could get to the point where if stories like this came out for any company, we would be more surprised by them.. As for the illegitimate power (I'm not even sure what that is...) and propagandists comments; I don't really see how this fits into twist of those.. It's a story about some bad behaviour at a big tech company.. Is it a big deal? Individually; nah. As a general trend in tech that I've certainly experienced; yeah. Is it part of a propagandists plot to turn your country into a communist superstate and increase their "illegitimate power" -- I doubt it..

memmcgee 10y ago

Because any woman who speaks up under their real name is bound to get harassment from gamergate types and other misogynistic asses who have nothing better to do. Fowler is already getting harassed online. Additionally, assuming that Uber isn't stupid enough to coordinate a smear campaign of their own (although it happened to Ellen Pao)[1], she's safe. And if someone does doxx her, it means either: (a) Uber decided to doxx her or (b) one of the Uber employees that participated in her harassment decided to doxx her. Either way, it looks even worse for Uber and could set them up for a lawsuit. [1]: https://www.reddit.com/r/Feminism/comments/594rad/exreddit_ceo_the_firm_ellen_pao_had_sued_was_very/ https://www.reddit.com/r/Feminism/comments/594rad/exreddit_c...

nommm-nommm 10y ago

She put enough information so that the parties relevant would be able to identify all the actors but the parties not involved can't. That's not strange - she wants to tell her story and have it attached to her by identity but not name.