The user in question sells alt data. If they’re remotely competent at doing so, they have zero need to work at a startup much less a YC-funded one.

What's alt data? I've never heard that term before.

Some tangible examples are: credit card transaction data, individual geolocation or foot-traffic data from mobile phone sdks or carriers themselves, receipts scraped/exfiltrated from email inboxes, individual browsing history, or highly targeted web scraped data.

All "anonymized" of course.

"What Is Alternative Data and Why Is It Changing Finance?"

https://builtin.com/fintech/alternative-data

TL;DR: Info gleaned from just about any source other than company statements and market data, used to guide investment choices. This includes stuff like satellite imagery, which has been used for a long time for these sorts of purposes, but also e.g. social media trends. I guess the news is that there's more of it happening now, because the practice itself isn't new.

Fascinating.

Yes, because everyone is absolutely jumping in their boots to work at a company where HR ignores the law, either through ignorance or malice the same.

Good way to filter out candidates that are either ignorant of the requirements and/or do not "buck" the system. Realistically, it's either a company that doesn't think this will be enforced, doesn't think the punishment would outweigh the benefits, or circumvents the requirements legally such as posting a single announcement in their lobby (public place) that does list the salary range.

There are polite ways of accomplishing that.