Re:The Ashley Madison Database Was Leaked
by gizmo686 on Wednesday August 19, 2015 @04:27AM
(#10084253)
One could consider leaking info about the NSA to be ethical, however leaking leaking the NSA's database of our private email addresses to be unethical.
More generally, when you leak something ethically, you should take care to redect the portions of the leak that will cause undue harm relative to their value (or, as many leaker due, give the full leak to a trustworthy third party (ie. a journalist), and trust them to redect responsibly). In this case, the hackers could have leaked AM's unethical behaviour without leaking their user's informaion.
Re:The Ashley Madison Database Was Leaked
by lentil_soup on Wednesday August 19, 2015 @04:24AM
(#10084246)
They are way different. Leaking stuff from A.M. is a personal matter. The NSA (and equivalents in other countries) is a public entity.
If you think leaking info about one organisation "doing bad stuff" (AM) is unethical, how can you then make the case that leaking info about NSA can be ethical? (I don't know if you do, but I certainly do.)
Btw, I don't think hacking should be the crime it is today. At least not as long as the state agencies can do it. We should put more emphasis on computer security, not on persecution of Aaron Swartzes and such people.