Whenever Michael Arrington posts anything on TechCrunch with a theme of "Ethics 101," you know you're in for some unintentional high comedy. Such was the case today when someone calling himself "Hacker Croll" dumped a carton of internal Twitter documents on TechCrunch's doorstep.
Apparently Twitter keeps all its corporate docs in a Google cloud, and some hacker with a lot of time on his hands was able to use Google's password recovery tools to gain access to the goods. But Croll didn't just grab official Twitter memos; he (she?) managed to hack Twitter founder Evan Williams' PayPal, Amazon, Apple, and AT&T accounts, as well personal information for other Twitter employees and the names of people who've interviewed for jobs there.
[ This isn't the first time Cringely and the 'Crunch have tangled. See the earlier post: "Conversation? What conversation?" | Stay up to date on Robert X. Cringely's musings and observations with InfoWorld's Notes from the Underground newsletter. ]
In a blog post, Captain Crunch publicly debated whether to post some of the documents, many of which were of a highly personal nature. Then he decided to publish some of them anyway (though he says he would not publish overtly personal information).
The funny thing is, lots of TechCrunch readers -- most of whom are loyal to Arrington in a way unmatched by anybody this side of Rush Limbaugh fans -- didn't want him to publish any of it. The Guardian's Charles Arthur puts it nicely:
His readers were less impressed - and if TechCrunch's readers aren't impressed, you can bet that what has been done is really unimpressive.
In a Twitpoll (yes, there really is such a thing) posted by Felipe Coimbra, roughly 54 percent of Twitter responders said publishing the docs would be unethical. Only a third supported putting the docs online.
Yet did that deter the Arringtard? Not a bit. In a response to the responses, he wrote:
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Download now »I had to admit I registered with Infoworld only to submit a comment, as this is really outrageous.
First: thanks for serving the public with this post. This is the kind of news I would expect from a sound person. I might not always agree with your comments, but I have not yet seen an instance where you hadn't applied your lithmus test of serving the public.
Second: Michael Arrington's comments justifying his acts are a disgrace to journalism (since when newspaper magnates define journalism ethics?). After his corrupted view admission I had to reclassify his writings from the "useful information" to the "tabloid news" category to avoid taken for granted some unresearched topic he might have published in the past. This is similar to when a CSI is shown to be corrupt: all previous cases are nullified as the evidence can't be trusted.
Now I wish I had a mental "search and reclassify" to find all bits of information I got from him....
And this is the Company which wants to own your next Operating System! HAH!! I think I'd better check my Yahoo Account now, and see who's pwning it today.
Frankly, nude photos wouldn't dent the daily Internet din. It would be the 'action' in the photos that would create interest. If they were 'artsy fartsy', what would be the point? If he was molesting a 15 year-old, it would be porn and probably the authorities would investigate. If he were performing some bizarre act, it would cause comment and questions. So the example wasn't all that great. Now if you came into possession of his bank records and published them (removing his SSN and bank numbers) - well, then you have a story and an ethical debate!
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