5 ms·

YC is a proud investor in Flock, what YC Ethics thing are you talking about?

by scottydelta 8mo ago

cassonmars 8mo ago
And Cluely
- tasn 8mo ago
  Cluely is not YC.
  - fantasizr 8mo ago
    he might be thinking of chadIDE "the first brainrot ide"
- insane_dreamer 8mo ago
  the same Cluely that's on IG? I thought that was a fictional satire.
ls-a 8mo ago
[flagged]
- shrubble 8mo ago
  How would that even be legal? (Although I can't find such a startup with any kind of search engine)
  - akerl_ 8mo ago
    Why would it be illegal?
    - john_strinlai 8mo ago
      i am not sure of anywhere it is illegal. but areas i am familiar with can consider a negative reference to be defamation, thus anyone providing a negative reference should only do so if they are able to defend it (i.e. prove their statement is substantially true, or prove that the statement was honestly believed to be true and published with no malice or reckless disregard). seems risky, at least, to build a whole business around negative references that could potentially cross the line into defamation. but that type of thinking is probably why i am not rich.
      - drcongo 8mo ago
        It's definitely illegal in the UK.
        john_strinlai 8mo ago
        i dont believe that it is illegal to provide a negative reference in the UK, as long as it is honest, factual, and provided in good faith. from gov.uk: >"If you think you’ve been given an unfair or misleading reference, you may be able to claim damages in court. Your previous employer must be able to back up the reference, such as by supplying examples of warning letters. You must be able to show that: - it’s misleading or inaccurate -you ‘suffered a loss’ – for example, the withdrawal of a job offer" which means, if the reference is not misleading and not inaccurate, a negative reference is ok. other uk-based law firms (from a quick google) agree with this interpretation.
        laserlight 8mo ago
        Providing a negative reference is totally different than gathering negative references and selling them. The former could be legal while the latter could be illegal.
        john_strinlai 8mo ago
        for sure! in my comment, i was speaking more generally than i should have, and that (obviously, in hindsight) caused some confusion between the specific case of the hypothetical company, and the general case of an employer providing a negative reference. my bad -- and it is too late to edit to provide clarification.
- k33n 8mo ago
  I can't find any website for it. Are you sure it's not just some posting category on Bookface, YC's internal social network?
  - ls-a 8mo ago
    [flagged]
    - BigTTYGothGF 8mo ago
      > According to chatgpt Oh come on.
      - ls-a 8mo ago
        [flagged]
        weird-eye-issue 8mo ago
        Ask it about what it might have hallucinated to help it hallucinate more?
    - tptacek 8mo ago
      GPT: There are some mentions online of a Y Combinator startup called Bad News, but nothing official or well-documented shows up in public YC lists or press — at least as of the latest searchable sources. The only place it’s referenced is in a Hacker News thread where someone claimed there was a YC company whose product was a blacklist of employees so other startups wouldn’t hire them, and they said the name was Bad News. But people in that thread couldn’t find any evidence of it, and there aren’t real search results tying that name to an official YC company on YC’s site, their startup directory, or mainstream reports.
    - hypeatei 8mo ago
      Why are you obfuscating so much and telling people to use ChatGPT? How hard would it be to paste what they renamed to and/or the founders' names?
wslh 8mo ago
And, Gecko Security.
- nextaccountic 8mo ago
  Flock is an awful company, but what's the trouble with Gecko security? Are you talking about https://www.gecko.security/ https://www.gecko.security/ or something else?
  - wslh 8mo ago
    There are documented public disputes about Gecko Security’s conduct when it comes to claiming credit for vulnerability research. For example, FuzzingLabs publicly accused Gecko Security of copying PoCs and submitting CVE reports for vulnerabilities that FuzzingLabs had originally disclosed, and of misdating their posts to make it appear they found them first. Gecko publicly denied intentional wrongdoing, but later updated their attributions to credit the original researchers [1]. That's one example that's already reported online; I also have another related situation that isn't public yet and involves one of my companies. [1] https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/security-firms-dispute-credit-for-overlapping-cve-reports/ https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/security-firm...
otherayden 8mo ago
And that Optifye.ai demo with the sweatshop surveillance software

YC is a proud investor in Flock, what YC Ethics thing are you talking about?

cassonmars 8mo ago

And Cluely

tasn 8mo ago
Cluely is not YC.
- fantasizr 8mo ago
  he might be thinking of chadIDE "the first brainrot ide"
insane_dreamer 8mo ago
the same Cluely that's on IG? I thought that was a fictional satire.

ls-a 8mo ago

[flagged]

shrubble 8mo ago
How would that even be legal? (Although I can't find such a startup with any kind of search engine)
- akerl_ 8mo ago
  Why would it be illegal?
  - john_strinlai 8mo ago
    i am not sure of anywhere it is illegal. but areas i am familiar with can consider a negative reference to be defamation, thus anyone providing a negative reference should only do so if they are able to defend it (i.e. prove their statement is substantially true, or prove that the statement was honestly believed to be true and published with no malice or reckless disregard). seems risky, at least, to build a whole business around negative references that could potentially cross the line into defamation. but that type of thinking is probably why i am not rich.
    - drcongo 8mo ago
      It's definitely illegal in the UK.
      - john_strinlai 8mo ago
        i dont believe that it is illegal to provide a negative reference in the UK, as long as it is honest, factual, and provided in good faith. from gov.uk: >"If you think you’ve been given an unfair or misleading reference, you may be able to claim damages in court. Your previous employer must be able to back up the reference, such as by supplying examples of warning letters. You must be able to show that: - it’s misleading or inaccurate -you ‘suffered a loss’ – for example, the withdrawal of a job offer" which means, if the reference is not misleading and not inaccurate, a negative reference is ok. other uk-based law firms (from a quick google) agree with this interpretation.
        laserlight 8mo ago
        Providing a negative reference is totally different than gathering negative references and selling them. The former could be legal while the latter could be illegal.
        john_strinlai 8mo ago
        for sure! in my comment, i was speaking more generally than i should have, and that (obviously, in hindsight) caused some confusion between the specific case of the hypothetical company, and the general case of an employer providing a negative reference. my bad -- and it is too late to edit to provide clarification.
k33n 8mo ago
I can't find any website for it. Are you sure it's not just some posting category on Bookface, YC's internal social network?
- ls-a 8mo ago
  [flagged]
  - BigTTYGothGF 8mo ago
    > According to chatgpt Oh come on.
    - ls-a 8mo ago
      [flagged]
      - weird-eye-issue 8mo ago
        Ask it about what it might have hallucinated to help it hallucinate more?
  - tptacek 8mo ago
    GPT: There are some mentions online of a Y Combinator startup called Bad News, but nothing official or well-documented shows up in public YC lists or press — at least as of the latest searchable sources. The only place it’s referenced is in a Hacker News thread where someone claimed there was a YC company whose product was a blacklist of employees so other startups wouldn’t hire them, and they said the name was Bad News. But people in that thread couldn’t find any evidence of it, and there aren’t real search results tying that name to an official YC company on YC’s site, their startup directory, or mainstream reports.
  - hypeatei 8mo ago
    Why are you obfuscating so much and telling people to use ChatGPT? How hard would it be to paste what they renamed to and/or the founders' names?

wslh 8mo ago

And, Gecko Security.

nextaccountic 8mo ago
Flock is an awful company, but what's the trouble with Gecko security? Are you talking about https://www.gecko.security/ https://www.gecko.security/ or something else?
- wslh 8mo ago
  There are documented public disputes about Gecko Security’s conduct when it comes to claiming credit for vulnerability research. For example, FuzzingLabs publicly accused Gecko Security of copying PoCs and submitting CVE reports for vulnerabilities that FuzzingLabs had originally disclosed, and of misdating their posts to make it appear they found them first. Gecko publicly denied intentional wrongdoing, but later updated their attributions to credit the original researchers [1]. That's one example that's already reported online; I also have another related situation that isn't public yet and involves one of my companies. [1] https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/security-firms-dispute-credit-for-overlapping-cve-reports/ https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/security-firm...

otherayden 8mo ago

And that Optifye.ai demo with the sweatshop surveillance software