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I wonder why their legal department would PREVENT them from saving their users. What legal reason would exist for that? I thought legal would instead force th

I wonder why their legal department would PREVENT them from saving their users. What legal reason would exist for that? I thought legal would instead force them to save their users, since otherwise they would risk getting sued by all of them by all the damages caused or something.

tgsovlerkhgsel 6y ago
Successfully sweeping it under the carpet means you don't get sued for the mistakes you made. Legal isn't there to make sure the company complies with the laws. Legal is there to advise on and minimize legal risk.
- cheph 6y ago
  > Legal isn't there to make sure the company complies with the laws. Legal is there to advise on and minimize legal risk. Breaking laws is one sure way to increase legal liability.
  - hedora 6y ago
    Only if you get caught.
    - mywittyname 6y ago
      And be successfully prosecuted. I'm sure someone in legal knows someone at the AG's office who might be "considering the private sector" in the near future.
  - rStar 6y ago
    but if you get away with it 90% of the time....
  - tgsovlerkhgsel 6y ago
    Yes, but if you've broken one law already, breaking another one by sweeping it under the carpet may sound very attractive.
    - cheph 6y ago
      Maybe, not sure any laws were broken here though, would be interesting to know if there are laws covering it.
- nitrogen 6y ago
  Legal isn't there to make sure the company complies with the laws. Legal is there to advise on and minimize legal risk. "It's not like we're building bridges or something." -- any legal department when faced with engineers' ethical duty to report a hack.
lakecresva 6y ago
> a source who participated in the response to that breach alleges Ubiquiti massively downplayed a “catastrophic” incident to minimize the hit to its stock price, and that the third-party cloud provider claim was a fabrication. I'm sure their lawyers don't know anything about tech or forensics, but they know how buy shareholders time in a way that minimizes anyone's chances of going to prison or facing serious civil liability. If you ask someone in charge of hiring corporate counsel what they look for in a lawyer, they will flat out tell you "a good risk manager who understands discretion" which just means "someone who's going to tell us what we can get away with". The regulatory system in the US is sufficiently dysfunctional that there is zero incentive for corporate counsel to even consider what's in the best interest of consumers.
izacus 6y ago
> I wonder why their legal department would PREVENT them from saving their users. Good legal departments understand that the company is there to serve the users and make them happy and operate within those constraints (even trading off possibly liability when it makes the products sell better). Horrible legal departments will block anything that has even a smell of liability, even when it comes to sabotaging the product itself and hiding serious issues from users and employees. I've met way too many ones from the second group.

tgsovlerkhgsel 6y ago

Successfully sweeping it under the carpet means you don't get sued for the mistakes you made. Legal isn't there to make sure the company complies with the laws. Legal is there to advise on and minimize legal risk.

cheph 6y ago
> Legal isn't there to make sure the company complies with the laws. Legal is there to advise on and minimize legal risk. Breaking laws is one sure way to increase legal liability.
- hedora 6y ago
  Only if you get caught.
  - mywittyname 6y ago
    And be successfully prosecuted. I'm sure someone in legal knows someone at the AG's office who might be "considering the private sector" in the near future.
- rStar 6y ago
  but if you get away with it 90% of the time....
- tgsovlerkhgsel 6y ago
  Yes, but if you've broken one law already, breaking another one by sweeping it under the carpet may sound very attractive.
  - cheph 6y ago
    Maybe, not sure any laws were broken here though, would be interesting to know if there are laws covering it.
nitrogen 6y ago
Legal isn't there to make sure the company complies with the laws. Legal is there to advise on and minimize legal risk. "It's not like we're building bridges or something." -- any legal department when faced with engineers' ethical duty to report a hack.

lakecresva 6y ago

> a source who participated in the response to that breach alleges Ubiquiti massively downplayed a “catastrophic” incident to minimize the hit to its stock price, and that the third-party cloud provider claim was a fabrication. I'm sure their lawyers don't know anything about tech or forensics, but they know how buy shareholders time in a way that minimizes anyone's chances of going to prison or facing serious civil liability. If you ask someone in charge of hiring corporate counsel what they look for in a lawyer, they will flat out tell you "a good risk manager who understands discretion" which just means "someone who's going to tell us what we can get away with". The regulatory system in the US is sufficiently dysfunctional that there is zero incentive for corporate counsel to even consider what's in the best interest of consumers.

izacus 6y ago

> I wonder why their legal department would PREVENT them from saving their users. Good legal departments understand that the company is there to serve the users and make them happy and operate within those constraints (even trading off possibly liability when it makes the products sell better). Horrible legal departments will block anything that has even a smell of liability, even when it comes to sabotaging the product itself and hiding serious issues from users and employees. I've met way too many ones from the second group.