5 ms·

What about Facebook? A few weeks ago I had a situation where Facebook contacted me about a job, and it appeared that Facebook may have been reading (or at the

What about Facebook? A few weeks ago I had a situation where Facebook contacted me about a job, and it appeared that Facebook may have been reading (or at the least mining) private messages related to my startup (http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3035376 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3035376). A Facebook employee replied to the thread but wouldn't provide details.

nostrademons 15y ago
(I am neither a Facebook employee nor can I speak for them.) I really think that was just coincidence. Considering how many people talk about startups over Facebook messages and how many people have been contacted by Facebook recruiters, there's bound to be at least one person who was contacted by a Facebook recruiter a day or two after talking about startups. It'll seem mighty suspicious to that person, and they'll blog about it. Congratulations, you're the lucky one. Companies that big just generally don't do things like read private e-mail, because they know it'll get out somehow - disgruntled employee, whistleblower - and the damage to their reputation is totally not worth whatever they can gain from it.
- bad_user 15y ago
  The thing people don't realize is that when contacted by a big company for a job, usually it's a bot that just sent hundreds of emails. Receiving an email from Google or Facebook is nothing special.
  - curiouskat 15y ago
    What data sources does Facebook use to trigger the email? And are emails manually approved before they go out? If so, does that mean a Facebook employee looks at the data source that triggered email, which in some cases may be the user's private messages?
    - rwolf 15y ago
      It seems to be a large leap to go from "sends lots of emails" to "automates finding people to recruit." There is a similar leap from "automates finding people to recruit" to "uses private messages as signal."

nostrademons 15y ago

(I am neither a Facebook employee nor can I speak for them.) I really think that was just coincidence. Considering how many people talk about startups over Facebook messages and how many people have been contacted by Facebook recruiters, there's bound to be at least one person who was contacted by a Facebook recruiter a day or two after talking about startups. It'll seem mighty suspicious to that person, and they'll blog about it. Congratulations, you're the lucky one. Companies that big just generally don't do things like read private e-mail, because they know it'll get out somehow - disgruntled employee, whistleblower - and the damage to their reputation is totally not worth whatever they can gain from it.

bad_user 15y ago
The thing people don't realize is that when contacted by a big company for a job, usually it's a bot that just sent hundreds of emails. Receiving an email from Google or Facebook is nothing special.
- curiouskat 15y ago
  What data sources does Facebook use to trigger the email? And are emails manually approved before they go out? If so, does that mean a Facebook employee looks at the data source that triggered email, which in some cases may be the user's private messages?
  - rwolf 15y ago
    It seems to be a large leap to go from "sends lots of emails" to "automates finding people to recruit." There is a similar leap from "automates finding people to recruit" to "uses private messages as signal."