I worked on growth at a company that matches contractors with people looking for a car ride. Our job was to onboard as many contractors as fast as possible. I implemented a code on our website to bring up the number pad when a driver enters their SSN on a mobile device by tricking the website into thinking the SSN was a phone number. It helped improve on boarding numbers and growth so we were happy.
Unfortunately later we learned it meant the company was sharing those social security numbers to Facebook because of a “pixel” the advertising team placed on our website. This made me sick to my stomach. I never meant for my code to leak drivers private information. I said we should notify advertising and repeal the code. Leadership discussed it and said no. It would hurt driver growth and hurt markting.
But I left the company a year later for a better job. Met up with a friend a while back and asked him if anything more ever happened with the SSN leak because it’s still on my mind. You’re not going to believe this. Facebook later discovered the leak and made them plug it. Imagine that. Facebook being the company to do the ethical thing.
Even then, neither I or my friend ever heard of them notifying drivers their information was shred without their consent.
Recalling my time with the company I believe it was trying to be better and do right. But it got it wrong here.