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."

Comments

What an asshole!

[DaMattster]

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!?

Re:What an asshole!

[swb]

I'm inclined to agree with you, and it sounds more like "Muh business is like the government and you go to jail!".

That being said, just how bendy are the laws on corporate espionage, theft of information, etc? The problem isn't that this is basically a civil dispute between employer and employee, it's that Congress is all too willing to pass laws that criminalize these kinds of disputes and in the employer's favor.

This makes it very convenient for corporations to use the FBI as their private enforcement arm and makes threats of criminal prosecution plausible if not real, especially if the employer does a good job with keeping up with their political subscriptions, er, contributions.

Re:What an asshole!

[140Mandak262Jamuna]

What if Snap.Inc has the ability to spoof the leakers' account send bomb threats or child pornography through the leaker's personal account and finger them to the Feds?

What if the messages are actually archived and snap can rummage through the leakers communications and rat on them to the feds? Or out embarrassing personal info?

How they will end up in jail will be communicated by word of mouth on unbuggable room?

This has everything to do with Twitter

[xxxJonBoyxxx]

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

Re:This has everything to do with Twitter

[postbigbang]

Given your low ID#, I would imagine that your skin would be thick by now. A downvote can be a sign of great majesty on /. because of so many ill-advised or contrastingly, great reasons.

Let's take a look at possible rationales for a downvote:

1. You used the word "idiot" as a pejorative.
2. Twitter employees might have modded you.
3. Those sympathetic to twitter malaise in general modded you.
4. I modded you, and now the mod will be undone.
5. You were perceived as being boorish.
6. There might be empathy for Snap employees, causing a mod backlash.
7. There might be empathy for twitter employees, see #6.

Downvotes on social media are like (please excuse me, Kurt Vonnetgut) like sparrow farts. They're not important, in the slightest.

Leaking the leaker memo!

[jelwell]

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.

Great recruitment policy

[Anonymous Coward]

Snap's going to have fun filling positions. Who wants to work in that type of environment?

Channeling Steve Jobs?

[ErichTheRed]

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.

Twitter vs. Snap

[DrYak]

"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)

morale

[jsepeta]

The beatings will continue until morale improves!

Jail?

[Holi]

Since when does a company have the ability to throw someone in jail?

Re:Jail?

[SlaveToTheGrind]

I know actually reading TFA is a sign of weakness, but the memo doesn't claim that a company has the ability to throw someone in jail -- it simply points out that the government has that ability:

If you leak Snap Inc. information, you will lose your job and we will pursue any and all legal remedies against you. And that’s just the start. You can face personal financial liability even if you yourself did not benefit from the leaked information. The government, our investors, and other third parties can also seek their own remedies against you for what you disclosed. The government can even put you in jail.

Re:yes criminal

[mark-t]

The economic espionage act requires that the misappropriated trade secrets would or could reasonly be used to benefit a foreign power... the scope for which it can apply is generally limited to confidential material maintained by the government itself.

I'm confused.

[fahrbot-bot]

Won't any leaked Snap(chat) information just disappear after a short time or being viewed?