[deniszgonjanin]

America has always been a land where you could fail, then pick yourself up. You could move west in search of a new beginning and a new identity. You could go bankrupt, then start over, and eventually fail your way to success and a better life. There is no longer a place to hide or run away to. There is no way to re-invent yourself and start over. The foolish crimes of our youths are now a permanent part of who we are. For the rest of our lives and likely eternity.

This is the sad side of the products we are helping to create as engineers at Facebook, Google, Twitter, etc...

[GFKjunior]

I think there is a clear distinction between failing and lying then being exposed.

Join a start up and it fails horribly? Turn around and join a big corp, no cares if you didn't make a dime during that time.

Lying blatantly about everything to everyone until they find out is not in the same league as checking 4chan during work. Which is hardly a fireable offense imo.

[kristianc]

I'm not sure what point you're making. If it's that Facebook, Google, Twitter are making it harder for confidence tricksters to move on and repeat their lies when they've been rumbled - I'm not sure that's a bad thing.

[jeffool]

I think the point isn't that it's harder for grifters, but that it's harder for everyone. Even people who genuinely think they're playing the game, and have made statements too far, lies, or even genuine mistakes. Before, they could say "Wow, I guess I was wrong. I've learned my lesson." and try to be better. Now, they're branded, and must suffer, forever.

It's a point I personally know all too well. I was fired from a journalism job a year ago; my boss accused me of looking at pornography at work. (I argue that "looked at porn" and "looked at 4chan", are vastly different, and intent is an important factor. I didn't think I was doing anything wrong.) I'm 31, and in this market, as someone who worked my way into a "producer" role without a degree? It's an employer's market. Even after a year of job hunting, people hear that story, and the conversation goes silent. There's plenty of people they can choose from with no discernable "problems" in their past.

It seems my choices are "go into marketing, despite how you feel about hocking clients you hate", or "work two mediocre jobs of low wage". One drove me crazy, two isn't great.

And I'm not trying to make a sob story out of this; I went to a website my employer didn't like. I'm not going to lie about that, I learned a lesson is all. I'm just trying to drive the point home. If you make a single "mistake," that may be all it takes.

[snowwrestler]

Picking yourself up in America has never been about hiding your past. Think no one remembers the past of G Gordon Liddy? Ollie North? Jack Abramoff? Robert Downie Jr.?

Bankruptcy laws don't hide your bankruptcy. In fact it becomes public information indefinitely. They just let you reset financially.

This woman has every opportunity in the world to pick herself up and make a new career, or even keep going in the career she's in now. All she has to do is reset herself to reality. If she's been lying about her connections, she needs to stop lying and work her way up through the industry the right way--with work and dedication. Someone will give her a chance but she needs to learn from this shaming.

edit to fix bad phrasing

[pnathan]

If you don't like the surveillance culture, don't work at a place that accelerates it.

There are a ton of companies that do good work unrelated to scraping big data for personal information.