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If Spotify fires one of their engineers for helping a third party dev on the weekend, that'd be pretty disgusting... there's plenty ways someone could help OP w

If Spotify fires one of their engineers for helping a third party dev on the weekend, that'd be pretty disgusting... there's plenty ways someone could help OP without revealing IP. If an hypothetical engineer gets fired for revealing IP, then the onus is on the engineer to not reveal IP. Not on OP for asking help. This whole idea of not asking someone a question in case they would answer and be put in some Kafkaesque corporate politics nightmare sounds insane to me. How is this scenario what comes first to your mind?

umanwizard 12y ago
It came to my mind first because I'm at a huge company (read: a high value target for corporate espionage) and it's drilled into our heads from day 1 that answering questions about our business (let alone the architecture of our code!) from outsiders is a very serious breach of policy... the mandated behavior is to reroute them to customer service. You are welcome to think my company is just dysfunctional but I think it's a reasonable enough concern to at least be worth bearing in mind -- and the OP responded to my post agreeing with that sentiment. It's a bit naive to simply say "the onus is on the engineer", as if no engineer could be tricked by social engineering into seriously breaching policy.
- dasil003 12y ago
  But he's not trying to trick anyone, he's asking an honest question. I understand the concern, but going through life holding ones tongue before every question on the possibility that a bad actor might ask similar questions is like living life in a TSA queue, no thank you.
- AYBABTME 12y ago
  If your ability to defend from corporate espionage depends on the Bad Guys not asking you questions, then you're not defending yourself from corporate espionage. The onus is certainly on the engineer to distinguish between information they can divulge and that which they would need clearance for. You can't ask the good guy to not ask questions by stating that questions are what bad guys use to trick by social engineering. Your argument is inverting the burden of responsibility. It's not OPs job to protect your IP, it's yours. You can't ask them to not ask any questions in case that a questionee was in possession of IP and susceptible to social engineering.
  - hluska 12y ago
    What do you possibly gain by being rude? The parent presented some highly reasonably food for thought based on experience within large companies. If the OP has communicated this directly with support, why not consider that maybe something else is going on? Heck, the OP even considered that possibility...

umanwizard 12y ago

It came to my mind first because I'm at a huge company (read: a high value target for corporate espionage) and it's drilled into our heads from day 1 that answering questions about our business (let alone the architecture of our code!) from outsiders is a very serious breach of policy... the mandated behavior is to reroute them to customer service. You are welcome to think my company is just dysfunctional but I think it's a reasonable enough concern to at least be worth bearing in mind -- and the OP responded to my post agreeing with that sentiment. It's a bit naive to simply say "the onus is on the engineer", as if no engineer could be tricked by social engineering into seriously breaching policy.

dasil003 12y ago
But he's not trying to trick anyone, he's asking an honest question. I understand the concern, but going through life holding ones tongue before every question on the possibility that a bad actor might ask similar questions is like living life in a TSA queue, no thank you.
AYBABTME 12y ago
If your ability to defend from corporate espionage depends on the Bad Guys not asking you questions, then you're not defending yourself from corporate espionage. The onus is certainly on the engineer to distinguish between information they can divulge and that which they would need clearance for. You can't ask the good guy to not ask questions by stating that questions are what bad guys use to trick by social engineering. Your argument is inverting the burden of responsibility. It's not OPs job to protect your IP, it's yours. You can't ask them to not ask any questions in case that a questionee was in possession of IP and susceptible to social engineering.
- hluska 12y ago
  What do you possibly gain by being rude? The parent presented some highly reasonably food for thought based on experience within large companies. If the OP has communicated this directly with support, why not consider that maybe something else is going on? Heck, the OP even considered that possibility...