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    By job · 14 tips

    Programmers and tech workers

    Which code and side jobs can get you prosecuted, what you can't take with you when you leave, the rules to follow when building a product, and looking after your body and focus.

    1 What can lead to a criminal sentence

    Red lines for programmers and tech workers

    Before you act, ask whether the vendor, platform or company would report it; if you are pursued, get a criminal defense lawyer right away

    Before you act, ask whether the vendor, platform or company would report it. Server logs, payment records and group-chat records can all be pulled by the investigating authorities. If you are actually placed in criminal detention (刑事拘留), the decision on whether to arrest you comes within 37 days at most. You can hire a lawyer from the first questioning, and your lawyer can submit an opinion to the procuratorate that you should not be arrested, and can also apply for bail.

    • High value
    • Evidence C
    • Keeps you free
    Red lines for programmers and tech workers

    Don't make or sell game cheats or assist tools, including AI assists that "only read the screen and never touch memory," and don't sell modified versions that add features to software like WeChat

    Selling a cheat to 20 people, or earning 5,000 CNY, is enough for a sentence of up to 3 years, and 3 to 7 years in especially serious cases. One person made wallhack and aimbot cheats and sold more than 80,000 CNY worth in 3 months. The sentence was 1 year, suspended for 1 year, and a fine of 5,000 CNY. Another used a game server program to run a private server and took in more than 20,000,000 (2000多万) CNY in top-ups. The heaviest sentence was 4 years, with fines of up to 10,000,000 (1000万) CNY.

    • High value
    • Evidence A
    • Keeps you free
    Red lines for programmers and tech workers

    Don't run your own programs on other people's computers, servers or cameras, and don't use company machines to mine cryptocurrency

    Controlling other people's computers, servers or cameras without permission carries up to 3 years once it reaches 20 machines, and 3 to 7 years in especially serious cases. Even when it is not a crime, it brings detention of up to 5 days and a possible fine of 50,000 to 500,000 CNY. A person who has received a criminal penalty is barred for life from key posts in network security management and network operations.

    • Top value
    • Evidence A
    • Keeps you free
    Red lines for programmers and tech workers

    Don't test other people's systems without written authorization; "good intentions" and "reporting afterward" are not defenses

    Whether it is a crime depends on whether you had authorization and how much you obtained, not on your intent. Obtaining 500 sets of ordinary account passwords, or earning 5,000 CNY, or causing the other side a loss of 10,000 CNY, is enough for up to 3 years. To prove a vulnerability, people often export a user table on the side, and that alone can pass 500 sets in one go. If you already hold an account and password, using them outside the authorized scope also counts as intrusion.

    • High value
    • Evidence A
    • Keeps you free

    2 When you leave a job

    Red lines for programmers and tech workers

    Hand over all account access when you leave, and don't delete databases, leave backdoors or change passwords to lock the system, even if the company owes you money

    Account passwords were given to you by the company, which does not mean you can still use them after you leave. Illegally controlling a system carries up to 3 years when the circumstances are serious. Deleting data so the system can't run carries up to 5 years, and 5 years or more if the consequences are especially serious. A dismissed engineer used his old administrator account to delete data and logs. The loss was more than 120,000 CNY, and he got 3 years, suspended for 5 years, and a fine of 30,000 CNY.

    • High value
    • Evidence A
    • Keeps you free
    Red lines for programmers and tech workers

    Don't take source code, customer lists or technical documents when you leave, don't upload them to a personal cloud drive, and don't reuse them at your next employer

    The copyright in code you write at work generally belongs to the company, and a customer list may also count as a trade secret, so taking them means taking the company's property. An employee who left with the source code of a security-screening system for a new company was sentenced to 5 years and fined 500,000 CNY, and the new company was fined 4,000,000 (400万) CNY. Another person exploited a system flaw to download more than 33,000 design files and got 1 year 10 months. The company can also sue you separately for damages.

    • High value
    • Evidence A
    • Keeps you free
    Red lines for programmers and tech workers

    Code written during work hours or with company resources belongs to the company; do your own open-source projects on your own time and equipment, with no company code mixed in

    For software written mainly with the company's equipment, internal network or business data, and for which the company bears responsibility, the copyright belongs to the company and you keep only the right to be named as author. The same holds if your contract says so. Code written after work also may count as the company's if it used a company computer or business data. An invention made with company resources also has its patent belong to the company.

    • Moderate value
    • Evidence A
    • Saves money

    3 Building products

    Red lines for programmers and tech workers

    When you build a product with GPL or other open-source code, open your source or change the license as the license requires, and don't assume "nobody will enforce it"

    For copyright infringement, damages are set by the other side's loss or the money you made, and in intentional and serious cases they can go up to 1 to 5 times that. One company hired a competitor's former employees and built substantially similar software, and argued that the competitor's software used GPLv2 and should have been open source. The Supreme People's Court held that whether the other side opens its source does not affect its copyright, and still ordered the company to stop infringing and pay 500,000 CNY.

    • Moderate value
    • Evidence B
    • Saves money
    Red lines for programmers and tech workers

    When building an app, collect only the personal information the business needs, get a guardian's consent for children under 14, and write the privacy policy clearly

    Collect only the information the business needs, and get a guardian's consent for anyone under 14. Violators are first ordered to correct it, and the app may be taken down. For refusing to correct, the fine is up to 1,000,000 (100万) CNY, and the person in charge is fined 10,000 to 100,000 CNY. In serious cases the fine is up to 50,000,000 (5000万) CNY or 5% of the previous year's turnover, and the person in charge is fined 100,000 to 1,000,000 CNY.

    • Moderate value
    • Evidence B
    • Keeps you free
    Red lines for programmers and tech workers

    Report vulnerabilities as the rules require, and before they are fixed don't publish the details, release exploit tools or hand them to anyone abroad

    Individuals are also covered by the Provisions on the Management of Network Product Security Vulnerabilities (网络产品安全漏洞管理规定). Before the vendor has a fix, you may not make the vulnerability public, nor the details of a vulnerability in a system that is in use. You may not release programs and tools made specifically to exploit vulnerabilities, and when you do make a vulnerability public you must say at the same time how to fix it. A vulnerability that has not been made public may not be handed to any organization or individual abroad other than the vendor.

    • High value
    • Evidence A
    • Keeps you free
    Account and information security

    Don't hand your code, keys and private files to an unknown "AI relay service" (AI 中转站), especially when you let the AI run commands automatically

    A relay sits between you and the model provider, and it can see and change what you send and the answers that come back. One study tested more than 400 relays: 9 injected malicious code into the answers, and 17 used cloud-service keys that the researchers had planted on purpose. If you let the AI run commands automatically, one altered command is enough to let someone install malicious code on your computer.

    • Moderate value
    • Evidence B
    • Keeps you free

    4 Body and energy

    Don't waste your energy

    When doing work that needs continuous thought, block out even interruptions of a few seconds

    One interruption averaging 2.8 seconds doubles the chance of making an error in the steps that follow. A 4.4-second interruption triples it. A field study also found that it takes an average of 25 minutes to get back to the interrupted task, with two other things squeezed in between. Interrupted people worked faster, but their stress, frustration and effort were all higher.

    • Top value
    • Evidence B
    • Saves time
    Don't die slowly

    Don't sit for long stretches; get up and move every so often

    People who sit the most have 2.6 times the chance of dying over the same period of people who sit the least. Sitting for a long time in one stretch adds a separate risk. But with 60–75 minutes of moderate activity a day, the extra risk from sitting is mostly canceled out.

    • High value
    • Evidence A
    • Buys life

    Related

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