[mktween]

Of course they do. They just don't point out that they are Apple, Google or MS employees. And I think it is pretty obvious why. One wrong comment from a "google employee" and the media will be all over him/her with headlines like "google employee admits NSA blah blah" or even worse, titles that end with questionmarks: "Google working on Antimatter Energy?"

[jgeorge]

I can attest to knowing at least a few examples of "people on HN who work for these companies but don't say so out of abject (and not misguided) fear that the rabid 'copy and paste' tech blogs that call themselves 'journalists' would take some random quote out of context and splatter it all over the web."