Last summer, members of eBay’s private security team sent live roaches and a bloody pig mask to the home of a suburban Boston couple who published a niche e-commerce newsletter. The lurid, 51-page indictment, describing how the employees of a multibillion-dollar company were loosed in what authorities described as an unhinged and illegal effort to intimidate critics, drew national attention to the stunning lengths some tech companies will go when responding to their critics. Silicon Valley companies have stacked what they often call their “trust and safety” teams with former police officers and national intelligence analysts. More often than not, their work is well within the law: protecting executives and intellectual property, fending off blackmail attempts and spotting theft. They conduct background checks on companies that could be acquisition targets and they ensure employees aren’t doing anything illegal.

Source: New York Times June 27, 2020 09:00 UTC