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by ddalex 1686 days ago
Can't speak for other companies, but this is covered in basic training at Google - if you're not authorized to speak on behalf of the company, you must make it clear when your writings may be mistaken or constructed to represent the company.

Basically the company has specially trained people that speak on behalf of the company, and that message should not be confounded by personal opinions of other employees. For example, on the recent FB outage, there was an employee posting inside information on reddit - media companies just took it at face value and ran around with it reporting as it was what FB itself was saying about the outage.

I'm not aware of any actual risks in the US, but then again I'm not in the US. For me this seems a minor point, and I actually enjoy separating my public persona from the company for which I work, being it Google or a small startup.
4 comments
jefftk 1686 days ago
> On the recent FB outage, there was an employee posting inside information on reddit - media companies just took it at face value and ran around with it reporting as it was what FB itself was saying about the outage.

To be fair, I think the media would have done that even with a "speaking only for myself" disclaimer.

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secondaryacct 1686 days ago
Every company says that, the obvious solution is to never name it when you speak. Why do these people need to say "Im a googler" and then immediately "but forget it, I speak on my own"... obviously there s value in the fact they re at Google and it will color their discourse which is already probably forbidden.

Dont name your company if you intend to speak for yourself.

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DnDGrognard 1686 days ago
It's the same at all large companies - its CYA boiler plate.

Though I almost got to be the official spokesperson for British Telecom responding on the alt.2600 news group about the the Met police VMB hack - press office was cool but the internal security was not.

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xcambar 1686 days ago
Would you say: "I live in [city], opinions are my own", or "I am married to [person], opinions are my own"?

If no, why are you doing this for the company you're trading skills and time against money?

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