Despite a number of very high-profile projects and products at Tesla, it’s rare that we get significant leaks from the Texas-based company. Now, a deep dive into Musk’s methodology behind limiting leaks might provide insight as to why.
The Intercept recently highlighted the many different ways that Elon Musk attempts to limit leaks at his companies. All the way back in 2008, Tesla caught a leaker through what Musk says was a slightly different email sent to each recipient.
According to a 2015 biography on the polarizing CEO, he found the whistleblower not by carefully crafting different emails but by reprinting the file. Once he did that he was able to go back through the printer logs to find a similarly sized document that lead to the leaker. Both scenarios are plausible but they’re not the only ones that Musk can use to find those who leak sensitive information about Tesla, SpaceX, or Twitter.
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Digital ‘watermarking’ as it’s called is a normal practice among companies that are worried about info being leaked. What seems to be getting people upset is just how aggressive Elon Musk appears to be in his quest to keep leaks from the media.
According to another journalist on Twitter, Musk has recently threatened employees at the social media company with legal action should they be caught leaking information that could damage the company. There’s no telling if he’s sent something similar to Tesla employees in the past.
The article over at The Intercept goes deep into how different types of ‘watermarking’ can be used to track leakers. Suffice it to say, whatever Musk and the team over at Tesla are doing to keep us from hearing about the potential for a Roadster release in 2023 or beyond, it’s working.