I recently got a call from someone who's working on an unannounced project. I can't talk about the details, but there's a lesson in what I didn't learn when I looked her up online. It's a reminder that online sources aren't always complete, even when they're accurate.
As usual, I looked up this person before our call, but what I found was actually misleading. We met through LinkedIn, but her profile still lists her previous employer as current. If you combined (a) her work history with (b) her new employer, you might piece together the subject of our NDA. Keeping the new job quiet goes a long way toward preserving the confidentiality of the initiative.
New hires outside of a company's existing business suggest questions: "What could Microsoft want with a chip guy?"
Our online culture of self-promotion leads to lots of disclosure. I wonder how many secrets have been pieced together as a result of an innocent job change announcement?
Photo by Marcin Wichary.
