Dive Brief:
- A former Snapchat employee has filed a lawsuit in the Los Angeles County Superior Court, alleging that the social media app gave incorrect information about its financial status and attempted to make him share trade secrets about Facebook during the recruitment process, The Seattle Times reports.
- The employee, who was fired just three weeks into his job, now says the experience tarnished his reputation and has harmed his employment prospects. The lawsuit goes on to allege that Snapchat tried to convince him to inflate the value of the company in advance of its pending IPO. A Snapchat spokesperson said the employee's claims are unmerited, adding that he is simply a disgruntled ex-employee.
- Currently, Snapchat generates around $400 million in advertising revenue, and the app hosts 150 million users earning 10 billion daily views. The company has 10 days to respond to the lawsuit.
Dive Insight:
This situation drives home the need for greater transparency in recruitment policies, but at the same time there need to be limits on the types of information provided to candidates and new hires.
As a rule, the only information that candidates should be privy to is salary and benefit data, along with job-specific information. Now, Snapchat has to answer to the courts as to what information was accurately represented to this ex-employee. The question of whether Snapchat employees did try to influence him to share trade secrets is its own can of worms.
The lawsuit doesn't indicate if the ex-employee breached any Facebook confidentiality agreements during his time with Snapchat. Recruiters must be mindful that if things go wrong with a new hire, they could be held liable under federal law for any protected trade information they disclose to an individual.
