4 ms·

When I was working at Uber, we had a case of a guy stalking his ex-girlfriend's every movement through the backend. They eventually found out, fired him, and st

When I was working at Uber, we had a case of a guy stalking his ex-girlfriend's every movement through the backend. They eventually found out, fired him, and stepped up auditing.

jimt1234 4y ago
Didn't this happen at Google a few years ago? I recall something about a guy that was accessing his ex's Google data, like email, chats, contacts, and so on.
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
- lucidrains 4y ago
  Yikes, didn't know this was an issue at Google as well. That is scary
  - sidibe 4y ago
    These days pretty sure things are much more regulated and locked down for the giants. It would take a conspiracy with multiple employees in the right groups to access that type of data and there'd be a trail that gets detected fast.
    - choppaface 4y ago
      You mean like when some eBay execs banded together to harass a user? https://www.npr.org/2022/09/30/1126078948/live-spiders-and-cockroaches-ex-ebay-executives-get-prison-time-in-harassment-pl https://www.npr.org/2022/09/30/1126078948/live-spiders-and-c...
      - jimt1234 4y ago
        Wow! Never heard about that. The narrative is usually: Some rando, low-level employee went rogue. As soon as BigCorp was made aware of the situation, the rando was terminated and law enforcement was notified. BigCorp conducted an internal audit and found no other data was accessed. Nothing to see here. Thank God for "state-affiliated media" (https://www.npr.org/2023/04/05/1168158549/twitter-npr-state-affiliated-media https://www.npr.org/2023/04/05/1168158549/twitter-npr-state-...)
      - tzs 4y ago
        That may not be a good example because it is not clear if it involved those eBay execs actually improperly accessing information that eBay had. It seems to be a campaign by eBay execs who were physically harassing a couple that published a newsletter the execs did not like. That would only require finding out where they live. I just found that out in a few minutes from information on their website and a guess that they probably live not too far away from where their company is, followed by a public records search based on that guess which verified that the guess was right and gave me their address.
- speedgoose 4y ago
  I remember hearing that the Gmail team could use a real random gmail account during testing.
- advisedwang 4y ago
  Yep: https://www.gawker.com/5637234/gcreep-google-engineer-stalked-teens-spied-on-chats https://www.gawker.com/5637234/gcreep-google-engineer-stalke...
NelsonMinar 4y ago
Uber had many instances of this over the years, including one of the top executives stalking a journalist. https://www.theverge.com/2014/11/19/7245447/uber-allegedly-tracked-journalist-with-internal-tool-called-god-view https://www.theverge.com/2014/11/19/7245447/uber-allegedly-t... You might say the problem was in the founding DNA: https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-40352868 https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-40352868
diebeforei485 4y ago
Should've sued him.

When I was working at Uber, we had a case of a guy stalking his ex-girlfriend's every movement through the backend. They eventually found out, fired him, and stepped up auditing.

jimt1234 4y ago

Didn't this happen at Google a few years ago? I recall something about a guy that was accessing his ex's Google data, like email, chats, contacts, and so on.

deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
lucidrains 4y ago
Yikes, didn't know this was an issue at Google as well. That is scary
- sidibe 4y ago
  These days pretty sure things are much more regulated and locked down for the giants. It would take a conspiracy with multiple employees in the right groups to access that type of data and there'd be a trail that gets detected fast.
  - choppaface 4y ago
    You mean like when some eBay execs banded together to harass a user? https://www.npr.org/2022/09/30/1126078948/live-spiders-and-cockroaches-ex-ebay-executives-get-prison-time-in-harassment-pl https://www.npr.org/2022/09/30/1126078948/live-spiders-and-c...
    - jimt1234 4y ago
      Wow! Never heard about that. The narrative is usually: Some rando, low-level employee went rogue. As soon as BigCorp was made aware of the situation, the rando was terminated and law enforcement was notified. BigCorp conducted an internal audit and found no other data was accessed. Nothing to see here. Thank God for "state-affiliated media" (https://www.npr.org/2023/04/05/1168158549/twitter-npr-state-affiliated-media https://www.npr.org/2023/04/05/1168158549/twitter-npr-state-...)
    - tzs 4y ago
      That may not be a good example because it is not clear if it involved those eBay execs actually improperly accessing information that eBay had. It seems to be a campaign by eBay execs who were physically harassing a couple that published a newsletter the execs did not like. That would only require finding out where they live. I just found that out in a few minutes from information on their website and a guess that they probably live not too far away from where their company is, followed by a public records search based on that guess which verified that the guess was right and gave me their address.
speedgoose 4y ago
I remember hearing that the Gmail team could use a real random gmail account during testing.
advisedwang 4y ago
Yep: https://www.gawker.com/5637234/gcreep-google-engineer-stalked-teens-spied-on-chats https://www.gawker.com/5637234/gcreep-google-engineer-stalke...

NelsonMinar 4y ago

Uber had many instances of this over the years, including one of the top executives stalking a journalist. https://www.theverge.com/2014/11/19/7245447/uber-allegedly-tracked-journalist-with-internal-tool-called-god-view https://www.theverge.com/2014/11/19/7245447/uber-allegedly-t... You might say the problem was in the founding DNA: https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-40352868 https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-40352868

diebeforei485 4y ago

Should've sued him.