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My friend worked in ops at Google, and they had super strict rules about accessing customer data (basically you never could) and strict monitoring around access

My friend worked in ops at Google, and they had super strict rules about accessing customer data (basically you never could) and strict monitoring around access. Even if someone gave you permission you still couldn't do it. You couldn't even access your own data with the internal tools. I had a similar experience with AWS when I worked at Netflix. We were trying to diagnose a really strange problem and I asked the engineer to look at our data from their tools to help me find it. They told me they couldn't access that data, that the tools blocked them. Then I tried to give them an SSH key for one of our instances and they told me they would get fired for doing that and could not under any circumstance log into our box. I assume MS has similar controls.

skohan 4y ago
But what I mean is you wouldn't even need to look at customer data. Just knowing how much traffic is going to which services would tell you a lot about a business. I don't know if they somehow obfuscate that as well.
aaaaaaaaaaab 4y ago
Sure, the average employee doesn’t have access to this information. But do you seriously believe there isn’t a way for the inner circle (VPs and above) to do this kind of data mining covertly? Sheryl Sandberg was using her power to silence reporting on her partner’s sexual harrasment charges. Ebay execs were terrorizing a random couple. But no, they would never look into customer data! Pinky promise! Such a naïve way of thinking…
- jjav 4y ago
  > Sure, the average employee doesn’t have access to this information. Exactly. There will be strict controls for nearly all employees, but the rules don't really apply to top executives. Anyone in IT or Infosec who has to try to enforce policies on top execs has encountered this in their career. If there is a substantial business advantage in seeing some data the company has, you can bet the execs are seeing that data.
- deleted 4y ago
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skohan 4y ago

But what I mean is you wouldn't even need to look at customer data. Just knowing how much traffic is going to which services would tell you a lot about a business. I don't know if they somehow obfuscate that as well.

aaaaaaaaaaab 4y ago

Sure, the average employee doesn’t have access to this information. But do you seriously believe there isn’t a way for the inner circle (VPs and above) to do this kind of data mining covertly? Sheryl Sandberg was using her power to silence reporting on her partner’s sexual harrasment charges. Ebay execs were terrorizing a random couple. But no, they would never look into customer data! Pinky promise! Such a naïve way of thinking…

jjav 4y ago
> Sure, the average employee doesn’t have access to this information. Exactly. There will be strict controls for nearly all employees, but the rules don't really apply to top executives. Anyone in IT or Infosec who has to try to enforce policies on top execs has encountered this in their career. If there is a substantial business advantage in seeing some data the company has, you can bet the execs are seeing that data.
deleted 4y ago
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