4 ms·
Musks xAI pressed employees to install surveillance software on personal laptops
- pinewurst 1y agohttps://archive.ph/qUW2A https://archive.ph/qUW2A
- gammalost 1y agoWhy would they not use a company laptop in the first place? "They ran out" is no excuse
- deleted 1y ago[deleted]
- v5v3 1y agoElon Musk declared that none of his employees could work remotely. So this is an admission that he has failed to achieve this goal.
- jerrygenser 1y agoI think this is like mass data labelers, including in other countries or other low cost areas.
- alephnerd 1y ago> The company supplies some workers with company-issued Chromebooks, but many workers use their personal devices for the role This is the crux of the issue - xAI allows employees to use personal laptops for corporate work. This is a MASSIVE breach of internal security operations. Either mandate no personal laptop use or require VDI to access corporate resources. > In the lead up to the roll-out, tutors were initially told that the company had run out of Chromebooks, and it was unclear when they would be restocked, people familiar with the guidance told BI This is just pure sloppiness from their IT org, who are likely dealing with some amount of micromanagement from up the leadership chain. ----------- It really isn't that expensive to procure corporate laptops from an MSP like WWT, especially for a firm like xAI that is trying to raise a round at a $200B valuation. There's a reason Musk was managed out of PayPal fairly early. Even Peter Thiel couldn't stand him.
- waltercool 1y ago[dead]
- beng-nl 1y agoFor those who, like me, couldn’t parse “VDI,” it likely means virtual desktop infrastructure, which makes sense - security concerns of using a personal laptop are largely mitigated if Remote Desktop sessions are used for corporate work and no local software js used for corporate work and the OS has limited visibility in corporate data.
- buyucu 1y agoWho uses a Chromebook for dev work? No surprise employees want to bring in their own laptops.
- another_twist 1y ago[flagged]
- beardedmoose 1y agoI know right, flooding in Texas and we are still talking about this creep?
- nyarlathotep_ 1y ago> The company supplies some workers with company-issued Chromebooks, but many workers use their personal devices for the role How is this even a thing? Are there seriously employees at a "tech company" bringing their own hardware? This is madness
- browningstreet 1y agoPeople willing to work for Musk are probably willing to put up with more adverse conditions than is usual or standard at other orgs.
- b3ing 1y agoThey are mostly visa workers so it’s not like they have much choice, if they don’t they go back to their country
- cedws 1y agoI rarely see this talked about - that H1B inherently creates a power imbalance in favour of the employer. It enables them to stomp on workers’ rights and pay less. All according to plan I’m sure.
- beng-nl 1y agoNot disagreeing with the imbalance, but I know about it (I don’t live in USA) because I’ve seen it discussed on HN and other discussion forums quite a few times.
- rchaud 1y agoSeems to be an issue in the tech industry more so than elsewhere. H1Bs are common in investment banking, management consulting, science labs, university jobs, really any sector where foreign graduates of US universities are hired.
- cbsks 1y agoI’m surprised that a “tech company” provides a Chromebook instead of a laptop.
- angst 1y ago> The company has said it will only use the system to monitor URL and application visits during designated work hours, according to the document. According to its website, Hubstaff can also track mouse movement and keystrokes. > "This new tool serves to streamline work processes, provide clearer insights into daily tutoring activities, and ensure resources align with Human Data priorities," the company's human resources team said in a mass email to employees. > The software, which requires workers to clock in and out, would not track activity on the laptop outside of work hours, the document said. very well intended (smh)
- ETH_start 1y agoA sensationalist headline intended to get clicks from the anti-Musk zeitgeist
- deleted 1y ago[deleted]
- moonshotideas 1y agohttps://archive.is/qUW2A https://archive.is/qUW2A
- waltercool 1y ago[dead]
- deleted 1y ago[deleted]
- kotaKat 1y agoI mean, they could just choose to work elsewhere, but they chose to be morally bankrupt to work at xAI, so they can just accept the software and move on? This should be the least of their problems these days, given waves hands at Grok. The overinflated paychecks make up for the lack of ethics.
- arresin 1y agoWhy is it “morally bankrupt” to work at xAi?