The news
has been dominated by a number of things the past two weeks: Trump on the
stump; Dow Jones gyrations; and the hacking of Ashley Madison, the site that
promotes martial affairs. Though the Dow
crashing should concern all of us, as it speaks to the nation’s economy and our
ability to fund college, retirement, home buying, and life, we tend to focus on
what entertains us, so we’re left wondering how a class clown can still lead a
major party. But the Ashley Madison
story deeply concerns me.
No, my
name won’t show up on a list of online cheaters, but I’m troubled both that the
hacking reminds us that nothing we do online is safe from manipulation and
scrutiny, and that the media ends up supporting hackers by reporting on what
they try to expose.
Think
about it. Hackers break the law. Should we support such efforts by doing what
the hackers want – exposing information that was illegally obtained? On the other hand, I applaud the Edward
Snowden leaks that showed national security lies and breaches existed. Though some say his hacks exposed our
military to potential attacks, in the end it showed how the military needs to
do a better job of guarding its info and that our government was doing things
it should not have been.
The Ashley
Madison hack involves private lies of ordinary people. I don’t, as a matter of a need to know, need to be
aware that perhaps a neighbor is banging someone that is not his wife. It’s not imperative that I need to know if my
lawn guy likes to do tall blondes or if a crazy cousin likes to step out on the
Mrs. with a MILF. Sure, scandal sounds
juicy and it’s the car crash you can’t keep your eyes off of, but let’s not
forge that by rewarding these hackers we encourage further such activities from
people who will look to hack anything they find to be worthy of exposing.
Publishing
the Pentagon Papers is one thing. Airing
dirty laundry is another. Free speech encourages us to say anything without
punishment, but it doesn’t encourage us to expose information gained by illegal means, especially where there’s no legitimate national interest at stake.
If I break
into your house and steal your diary, should I be allowed to publish its
contents?
If someone
hacks into your company’s HR records, are they protected by reporting your
health issues?
If I break
into a bank’s records and report how much money everyone has, is that legal or
fair?
Obviously,
the answer is “No” to each of these.
Whether you support the existence of Ashley Madison or not is not what’s
up for examination here. It’s a legal
website that people voluntarily pay to be on.
Their info should remain confidential.
Will we
start to see a whole bunch of books that discuss and publish information that
hackers uncovered? How should the book
industry respond to such attacks? Like
the news media, doesn’t it have a legal and moral responsibility to not
participate in the publishing of illegally obtained information that has noting
to do with the nation’s public good?
What if
confessionals made to religious clergy are hacked and published? What if the notes of psychiatrists are hacked
and released? What if legal documents on
sensitive matters are hacked and published?
You cant
pick and choose the hacks you like and value.
Sure, some good comes out of these hacks. If you’re a spouse that was cheated on, you
now know the truth. Of course,
families and marriages will break apart.
Some people have even taken their lives.
I guess that’s collateral damage that hackers were prepared to have on
their consciences. But again, forget
about all of that. We simply must take a
stand: Not only must we prosecute those who hack, but those who publish and republish
hacked materials (if they knowingly published hacked materials AND where there was no
significant public right to know. If the hacked data exposes illegal
activities or something about the government that was important, that is different.
I support free speech and one of the ways to do that is to prosecute publishers of stolen information.
I support free speech and one of the ways to do that is to prosecute publishers of stolen information.
I feel ill at
ease with that last line, but we need to be real. Too many laws are being broken with the
Internet and social media, such as with copyright protection, libel, and violations of
privacy. Let’s not also accept hacked
materials for publication.
Book
publishers will say that by the time they publish information it was already
made available to the pubic – that they didn’t hack anything and that they
merely aggregate what’s been published.
I say fine or arrest them. They
can't make a profit from a crime and the crime is publishing data that’s
illegally gathered and unverifiable.
As a
writer, I hope you push the limits of free speech but also respect the laws
that are here to protect all of us against hackers. If you disagree, then go ahead and write
about the anal sex that your hairdresser enjoys and live in a world where no
one’s lives are private and no one’s data is protected. That’s not the world we
should live in.
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Brian Feinblum’s views,
opinions, and ideas expressed in this blog are his alone and not that of his
employer. You can follow him on Twitter @theprexpert and email him
at brianfeinblum@gmail.com. He feels more important when discussed in the
third-person. This is copyrighted by BookMarketingBuzzBlog © 2015
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