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Comment by cj | Hacker News Reader

> Which part of this is "IP"?

I should have said conditional customer data. (Client lists, phone numbers, email addresses - basically whatever you can export out of Salesforce)

In order to poach your old company’s customers, you’ll need confidential data from your prior employer, assuming that your employer doesn’t publish their client roster publicly.

The debate is being dragged from poaching customers to how IP protections enable monopolies. That’s too big of a leap to be relevant in this thread (sorry for saying IP rather than confidential data)

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My email is not your confidential data. My phone number is not your confidential data.

If your company can only exist by blocking other companies from competition with your customer, then your company should not exist in first place.

We’re talking about an insider who has insider knowledge about accounts and maybe also a personal relationship that they were paid to develop with a client.

Also, it’s a 100% fact that companies consider client rosters confidential. It’s fun to say no one can claim my name or phone number as confidential data… but that’s not how things work.

> Also, it’s a 100% fact that companies consider client rosters confidential. It’s fun to say no one can claim my name or phone number as confidential data… but that’s not how things work.

It is how things work legally. What you are confusing is the distinction between individual bits of information and a database: if a salesperson leaves and calls their old client, nobody reasonably expects them to forget about that relationship or be unable to look up a phone number.

If there’s an entire lead database, that might be a different story if it includes non-public data and the company can show that it’s treated as a valuable asset (limited access, confidentiality agreements, etc. ). If it’s something you could recreate with a few Google searches, you’ll have a hard time convincing a judge that there’s substantial value in its secrecy.

I claim my browsing history is confidential, the only difference is I don't have the government enforcing my wishes. On a moral level "stealing" one is the same as the other.

My list of your email is confidential data. The fact that I am talking to you is confidential. If you choose to disclose it, that’s your business, but a client list is absolutely confidential data.

Is it ok if you just memorize it and recreate it?

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