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Instant Messaging Company Snap Threatens Jail Time for Leakers (cheddar.com)
An anonymous reader shares a report: Snap has a simple message to its employees: leak information and you could be sued or even jailed. The chief lawyer and general counsel of Snapchat's parent company, Michael O'Sullivan, sent a threatening memo to all employees last week just before The Daily Beast published an explosive story with confidential user metrics about how certain Snapchat features are used. "We have a zero-tolerance policy for those who leak Snap Inc. confidential information," O'Sullivan said in the memo, a copy of which was obtained by Cheddar. "This applies to outright leaks and any informal 'off the record' conversations with reporters, as well as any confidential information you let slip to people who are not authorized to know that information."
The leaking of information, at most, is a tort. It is not a crime and there will be no jail! Michael O'Sullivan is nothing more than a bully and how is this memo not work placement harassment!?
This has everything to do with Snap not wanting to be "the next Twitter", where their idiot employees spout off on camera about their magic privacy-violating powers.
e.g., https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rgyPpsX2B0g&t=3s
What a perfect response, leak the memo threatening leakers. This is not going to end well for SNAP!
A great company would simply remind employees that it's in their best interest not to leak information. This sounds like the flailings of a dying company.
Joseph Elwell.
Snap's going to have fun filling positions. Who wants to work in that type of environment?
If you can't trust your employees, you are not paying them enough.
I'm surprised the CEO isn't appearing on stage in black turtlenecks and jeans.
This just sounds like a paranoid, in-over-his-head dotcom era CEO running the place like his own personal empire. He's just trying to mimic the Steve Jobs personality...intense secrecy on products, over-the-top asshole personality, etc... So many people I've dealt with in executive positions are like this -- it's like they read a book in the airport bookstore telling them they need to act exactly like this CEO or that CEO, and just latch onto it for dear life, trying as hard as possible to pull it off.
People here keep saying that theft of trade secrets is only a tort, but that's not correct. Short answer: U.S.C. 1831, 15 years in prison.
Theft (or "misappropriation") of trade secrets is indeed a tort. We have The Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, which only allows for civil actions, and only for actual damages that can be proved. (Loss of revenue or unfair competition are not recoverable.) California also has a law after the model Uniform Trade Secrets Act, which also makes misappropriation of secrets a tort (no computer needed). Finally, there is federal level Economic Espionage Act of 1996, and that one DOES come with a potential prison term of up to 15 years.
What a way to build company moral, threaten to have people thrown in jail.
"the next Twitter", where their idiot employees spout off on camera about their magic privacy-violating powers.
On the other hand, Twitter's entire goal is to broadcast you short message to everybody (micro-blogging), with direct messages being only a after-though bolted-on minor feature.
There shouldn't be much expected privacy to begin with (the whole point of twitter is to not be private, but shout out loud).
In short : Twitter is not the expected platform to send your dick pic, unless your goal *is* the whole planet to be subjected to it all the way to leaders in North Korea. (But please be aware that doing so might be an offense under your local jurisdiction)
Whereas Snap has always tried to present it self as a "your ephemeral message are guaranteed to remain private and un-seen" type of company (with varying degrees of actually managing to put it into practice - remember the "pics actually remain in the temp folder" scandal).
In short: Snap is (supposed to be) the platform where you can do all your sexting and expect that even the Mossad won't be aware of your and your s.o.'s intimate anatomies.
Employee announcing to abuse their all-seeing privileges can have different implication on both platforms.
And might be the ground on which the current assho^H... dictat^H... boss is trying to threaten with jail time:
- if the specific leaks they are revealing is about all-seeing abuses, they might be implied to have access illegal-to-them content
(e.g.: 2 european 15yo teens sexting with each other. Depending on the country it can be actually entirely legal. An employee bragging about tools to spy users' private messages could be suspected of having access nude pictures of said teens which is entirely illegal and a jailable offense in the US)
"Sufficiently advanced satire is indistinguishable from reality." - [Tips: 1DrYakQDKCQ6y52z6QbnkxHXAocMZJE61o ]
The beatings will continue until morale improves!
Remember kids, if you're not paying for the service, YOU ARE THE PRODUCT THAT IS BEING SOLD.
Since when does a company have the ability to throw someone in jail?
Sorry, teleporters just kill you and then make a copy. A perfect, soul-less copy.
Have them executed
I don' t think these are military secrets. But, hey, you signed up.
Free pingpong tables and lunches but even your silent but deadly farts, or 'careless whispers' in the company elevator, can get blown out of proportion.
WARNING: Smartphones have side effects--most of them undocumented.
Where do I apply? I haven't treated like shit in a long time, so this sounds like the perfect place to satisfy my quota for quite some time!
Of course, such an NDA would not apply to anything which might have broken any actual laws... but that situation had never come up.in my experience.
Other than spouting an empty threat about people who break their NDA going to jail, there's nothing new here. The guy should be cuffed upside the head for saying shit he clearly knows nothing about, but beyond that... no real news.
File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'
There has never been, and never will be, an explosive story about Snap. Mr. O'Sullivan is apparently suffering from delusions of grandeur.
My first reaction upon reading such a threat would be immediate resignation with no notice. My resignation letter would detail not wanting to be prosecuted for telling my wife what I did today (an "unauthorized person"). It's not worth it to work for an employer that threatens all their employees with prosecution and jailing.
Snapchat isn't the freaking CIA. It sounds like this company is headed for the shitter right quick. Good riddance.
Won't any leaked Snap(chat) information just disappear after a short time or being viewed?
It must have been something you assimilated. . . .
Is it not a crime for a civilian to threaten jail? Are they not impersonating the police and courts? It is up to the authorities to make the determinarion to charge, prosecute, and try.
You can lead a man with reason but you can't make him think.
They have their own judges on staff?
Requiem for the American Dream