Hacker News Reader

Comment by lacy_tinpot | Hacker News Reader

secrets can't be kept in any large corporation therefore this is a conspiracy theory

of course secrets can be kept in large organizations, but it's funny how often that get repeated.

I worked at Yelp in 2018, and the allegations were there, I would be extremely surprised that a secret like this could be kept if it were true. It was generally a pretty open culture which lots internal open cynicism. There was just 0 evidence or even rumors internally this is true. I believe it's way more likely that the system is large enough to generate outliers that believe they're being targeted.

However, hyper aggressive sales reps were there and while I don't have specific details, I know their methods were the cause of at least some people not comfortable staying there. They however would not have access to things like reviews.

Is it possible that sales reps were using the publication of negative reviews by others as a tip-off of which businesses would then be more likely to purchase the service by which negative reviews could be removed? If so, the timing of those sales pitches along with negative reviews could make it seem like this is what was happening.

I could only speculate about that.

I mean, this isn’t the CIA here. It’s a tech company people are probably filing in and out of in about two years. And the salesmen are all meant to be in on it?

Yeah, if pay incentives are there, and we're talking sales... They're not necessarily people of the highest esteem. And if the hiring party puts a little pressure on the candidate, I could definitely imagine a tight ship.

A scrupulous person wouldn't join the Gestapo, y'know?

Most tech companies leak like sieves and the incentive isn’t there after you’re no longer being paid. It seems hard to believe it could be that airtight to me.

I dunno, man. I've seen lots of FRA, OSHA, MSHA, corporate, and food safety violations over the years - but they benefit me and my peers because they're shortcuts to the metric target. It's a win-win and everybody keeps it quiet, and everyone is on to it. And these are businesses that aren't selecting for privity.

ITT: people who have never heard of NDAs

IANAL, but can an NDA legally bar someone from reporting a suspected crime to law-enforcement?

No, But do you want to fight that out in court?

I dunno. Guess it depends on how pissed off I was.

I don't think Yelp's practices constitute a crime in the USA. The crime of a hypothetical Mafia is when they threaten violence for not paying. Yelp just changes what their site says about your business, which isn't a crime unless you can prove slander (very difficult).

In print, it's "Libel", not slander.

Spreading falsehoods is libel. Pretending they can't know the truth doesn't shield them from culpability. Especially when their entire business depends on suppressing negative reviews.

Federal law protects whistleblowers who confidentially disclose trade secrets to law enforcement: https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/1833

NDAs have nothing to do with this. Employees leak all kinds of stuff from tech companies all the time despite NDAs.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com