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A comment on In a Leaked Memo, Apple Warns Employees to Stop Leaking Information. Parent comment

Re:In a Leaked Memo, Apple Warns Employees to Stop Leaking I... by greedo on Friday April 13, 2018 @03:02PM (#16832983)
People leak/gossip/whistleblow for a variety of reasons:

1. Immediate Financial - They either have a direct quid-pro-quo with the leak recipient, or stand to benefit directly from the leak.

2. Disagreement with the direction/decision-making - They want Apple to do something different, and internal (legitimate) attempts to influence this decision have failed; usually because the leaker doesn't have the political capital.

3. Vanity/Ego - More of a contributing factor to #2, but they want a feeling of power that comes from leaking.

4. Trolling - A subset of #3 really. Some people just want to watch the world burn.

5. Revenge - Feeling screwed out of a promotion, or otherwise neglected? Leak!

6. Low self-esteem - If you're approached by a reporter or blogger, having something of value is a way to boost yourself.

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Re:In a Leaked Memo, Apple Warns Employees to Stop Leaking I... by alexandercrohde on Friday April 13, 2018 @03:09PM (#16833036)
Can we not group whistleblowing, a usually-legal heroic action of reporting immoral/illegal behavior (to the extent that you can be awarded millions of dollars by the government for whistelblowing) with leaking trivial product details?
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Re:In a Leaked Memo, Apple Warns Employees to Stop Leaking I... by greedo on Friday April 13, 2018 @03:56PM (#16833402)
If you think the motives of whistleblowers are as pure as the driven snow, we'll just have to agree to disagree. #2 covers their actions, but not all whistleblowers are related to Mother Teresa.
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Re:In a Leaked Memo, Apple Warns Employees to Stop Leaking I... by alexandercrohde on Friday April 13, 2018 @05:04PM (#16833901)
You're making a strawman argument. I'm not arguing "all whistleblowers are good people," I'm citing the definition of whisteblowing is "a person who informs on a person or organization engaged in an illicit activity."

Reporting a CEO embezzling is whistleblowing. Announcing apple is working on a new gizmo is not. Don't conflate them.

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Re:In a Leaked Memo, Apple Warns Employees to Stop Leaking I... by greedo on Friday April 13, 2018 @05:31PM (#16834063)
You're conflating leakers and gossipers as bad. If they're operating under #2 in my list, their motives wouldn't be considered bad, though perhaps misguided.

I think your definition is of a whistleblower is too narrow, and I prefer the fuller definition from wikipedia:

"A whistleblower (also written as whistle-blower or whistle blower)[1] is a person who exposes any kind of information or activity that is deemed illegal, unethical, or not correct within an organization that is either private or public."

"not correct within an organization" clearly applies to the #2 in my list.

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Re:In a Leaked Memo, Apple Warns Employees to Stop Leaking I... by LoSboccacc on Friday April 13, 2018 @04:32PM (#16833667)
> not all whistleblowers are related to Mother Teresa

so some of them are good?

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Re:In a Leaked Memo, Apple Warns Employees to Stop Leaking I... by dang on Friday April 13, 2018 @07:12PM (#16834727)
Please don't do this here.
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Re:In a Leaked Memo, Apple Warns Employees to Stop Leaking I... by mistercleo on Saturday April 14, 2018 @05:43AM (#16836647)
It doesn’t really matter much to the point, does it?

Personally, I’d be interested if someone leaked the CIA’s research into online trolls. Something tells me you wouldn’t consider that person a saint ;)

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