[rammy1234]

At this point in time it doesn't matter if there is an apology or not. Like above mentioned, some would have got laid-off or for some their intentions of job search is revealed. This is much worst of an effect that an apology would do any good. He apologized so what. It is good but damage is done. Can anything be about it ?

[hn_1234]

I believe you are misinformed. They didn't go public yet.

[californical]

It wasn't just an apology -- they reversed the decision before it happened, preventing any damage.

I was also furious when I found out, and still am upset at how they went about this situation in the beginning. They could've handled it much better. But they did what the community asked for, and nobody was harmed in the end. I would argue that this was the system actually working.

I think we should incourage good behavior, instead of being totally unforgiving of all mistakes. Hopefully other companies can learn a lesson from Triplebyte and think twice before making this mistake at all in the future.

I'm still not sure if I'm going to keep my account with them, but I do feel better about it

[heavyset_go]

With your attitude, someone could try to something sneaky and dishonest like TripleByte did, but as long as they walk back on it eventually, it's all good.

Why wouldn't another company first try to push privacy violating changes on a Friday, when people like you are so willing to turn a blind eye to it if they get caught?

They violated trust and it's going to take a lot more than an email apology to get it back from people who care.

[colejohnson66]

Did you read his comments here (on this thread)? It was that they were rushing to have this feature done earlier, but missed the deadline.

[heavyset_go]

Yes, I read his initial comments and the ones here. Those very comments are the reason I am not as willing to turn a blind eye as others are. Those comments showed blatant intent to minimize the privacy violations and TripleByte's dishonest tactics. The follow up reads just like an excuse that sounds plausible to those with an engineering mindset. Given the audience of the blunder, and this site, I'd say that many users' capacities for forgiveness and second option bias are being taken advantage of.

Again, it will take a lot more than some words on the internet to gain back trust from people who care about the fact that they were tricked for financial gain.

[bigiain]

If someone you know gets drunk and tells you they're going home to beat their wife, and you talk them out of it - they are still a wife beater. Being drunk doesn't justify it. Getting taked out of it doesn't make it OK. They totally though beating their wife was an acceptable thing to do.

Ammon got talked out of making all his user's sensitive job seeking intent public. He is still the guy who thought that was an OK thing to do. Maybe he was drunk. Maybe he was going broke. He didn't _actually_ beat his wife. This time.

[RobertRoberts]

"...and nobody was harmed in the end"

Consider how you would feel if a credit card or a bank did this? Would you ever trust them again?

No, you would not.

[photonios]

But they didn't. They cancelled the feature in time. So no real harm was done.

[rammy1234]

I thought it went already live. Misread and misinformed.

[tikthot]

They cancelled because someone caught it and posted it here on HN. It would have been a different story if it's given no publicity

[jki275]

They emailed their entire user base and notified them of their intentions.

You make it sound like they tried to hide this and got caught - that’s absurd given the facts.

[greenyoda]

They gave their user base only one week's notice of the upcoming change[1], and according to the discussion in the original thread, had dark patterns in their UI that made it hard to opt out of the feature (it would only allow you opt out for 24 months)[2] or cancel your account.

[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23279837

[2] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23283237

[jki275]

I got the email. Your characterization is inaccurate.

[wolfgang42]

I also got the email. I think the characterization is entirely accurate. (The bit about needing to opt out was badly phrased at best, and buried in the middle of a paragraph. I skimmed the email and thought it was a neat feature, and made a note to turn it on before my next job hunt.)

[iajrz]

Since they reversed before making the information pubilc, was damage really done?

[wolfgang42]

Yes, massively, to Triplebyte’s reputation.

[mosselman]

Could you maybe describe the damage to users that has been done? It is my understanding that they cancelled the feature before it went live.

[RobertRoberts]

Broken trust, induced fear, damage is done.

And worse, who is to say they won't do this again later when no one is paying attention?

Do you have personal guarantees they won't?

[TheSpiceIsLife]

Stress, real or imagined, is stress.