You probably remember the old Ojos Inc scandal, where I reposted originally a job posting of theirs and an engineer called me at home to tell me to take it down. Well, Ojos Inc is now Riya, and the saga continues. I wouldn’t bring this up myself, but a reader just emailed me to ask:

I’ve been absolutely amused by your sleuthing work on Ojos. Did you ever get to the bottom of it, e.g. the answer to why they were so concerned about removing most information of their needs from the web? Its been an interesting story to follow, especially as someone who does know the CEO and the great publicity he’s generated basically through episodes like this. I wonder if it was a calculated attempt to build mystique at the best computer science programs to make their recruiting efforts easier.

I’d love to know how this ended up. It has definitely taken a life of its own in the blog world, consistent with the other “PR” efforts of the firm!

My take on the issue is not really that they wanted to generate good (or bad) PR, but probably that they really were in stealth mode and didn’t want information about their jobs out on the web. Unfortunately, as any new firm should know, once facts are in the hands of the public, they will stay that way. Any attempt to stifle speech will only hurt your startup’s name and reputation.

Bloggers are unforgiving. Give them facts, not delete orders.