If you think that
Facebook or email password of yours is safe in the hands of your friends, families, significant others, hermit crabs, etc. -- a recent poll on Internet Evolution suggests you may be naive.
In response to the question, "Have you ever logged into someone's email or social networking account without his or her knowledge?" here's what our sneaky readers said:
Sure. By a slim margin, the majority of nearly 300 readers who weighed in vow to never have committed such an act. But that still leaves a whopping 42 percent who readily admit to it -- and this is coming from an educated tech-readership, not a band of merry thieves (or so we thought...).
Well, so what. Maybe you just needed to see who your significant other was poking on Facebook. Or maybe you were just plain curious and bored with your own digital life. Besides, it's not like anything on the Internet is private anyway.
It seems clear that it's ethically wrong to sign into someone's account without permission (I'm certain our Internet Ethicist would concur) -- whether that person haphazardly left the password lying around on a Post-It, or entrusted it to you for some ungodly reason. But our poll suggests that, when it comes to matters of the Internet, sometimes ethics go out the window in favor of acts of ease that appear harmless.
But, you tell us: Is logging into someone else's account without permission always ethically wrong, or does it depend on the circumstance?
Regardless of your answer, you may want to consider changing that password.
Say you give your password to someone one time because you're without Internet access and need someone to check for an email, or something. People do this all the time without thinking twice about it. It's implied you only expect this trusted person to use your account for this isolated purpose, but who is to say he/she isn't going to periodically log in? You know, just out of curiosity, and just because it's that easy. In that case, you aren't necessarily expecting them to use your password more than that one time. But apparently you should be.
I agree, if you give away your password then expect someone to use it. Especially, if you are the typre of person who uses the same password for everything.
Why would someone give away their password if they didn't want you to log in? As a web consultant I've had many instances where a client has asked me to log in and look for something they couldn't find. Many of us probably have. With that all said, that is with permission. So without permission I completely disagree with logging into someone elses account. The only thing you can possibly gain from logging into someone elses account is an expressway to heartache. Finding out that someone's poking someone when they shouldn't be, or reading their Nigerian spam and wondering why you didn't get a chance at a big bank account can only lead to disappointment. If you think you are finding out something valuable, remember, you can never talk to them about it because they will know that you've been in their email. Man, you want to talk about S.N.A.D., try bringing that up at the water cooler at work. It's nice to see that internet ethics is not totally dead. Thanks Nicole
Hello Nicole!Great Post, really enjoyed reading it.I think in most of situations it is ethically wrong, but you never know...I could imagine when the parents who suspect that their child is a drug addict try to logg into the accounts to find out something.Or the same situation with cyberbullying - the parents suspect something and they need information to help their kid.
There is another situation,when something wrong has happened with account owner.
The general consensus so far appears to be that no-way, no-how, not whatsoever is it ever ethically acceptable to access someone's email account without their knowledge or permission. Most individuals consider murder to be unethical, but do those same people feel the same when it comes to self-preservation, defending one's family and home? Suddenly, there is a grey line drawn. While some will still defend that killing another human is unethical, and others will say that it is unethical but necessary, is it really unethical when a majority of your peers are in agreement that killing a human for certain reasons is acceptable? Is it really true that no one can think on one single acceptable reason that it may be required or necessary to access an email account without the knowledge or permission of the account holder? Not even when such access may have a bearing on protecting or saving the lives of others? Or is this thrown into the category of acceptably unethical just don't let us know you are doing it? Do you really find that the question of what is ethical or not is that black and white?
"So, are you saying that spouses should or should not be logging into each other's accounts?"
I'd say that depends on the ground rules set first, then what you may find ;-) I'm sure this alone is a heavy topic with wide variations as well as being the root of many issues that depends heavily on the foundation of relationships. Some may have an 'open' door established with comfort, and others..well they may feel the need to hold on to some privacy. This may very well be a scenario where likes should stick with likes and avoid the 'opposites attract' match ups.
Harmony obviously negates this issue period to moot oblivion, I say!!
I worked with a security analyst and he had this phrase on his desk, framed for all to see:
Passwords are like underwear. Change them ofter, don't share them and don't leave them out for everyone to see.
This works...to a point, until you see that in the 90's music scene, underwear was an outside clothing option.
In the capacity of administrator of my family's email server and domain, there are times when I need access to a mailbox in order to troubleshoot. I have never logged onto an account just to read the mail. But, I know that there are unscrupulous people out there...in one place I worked, an admin set up a fake route on the company's internal network and intercepted all email that was sent to the director of the department and read it and even acted upon it...this is wrong. but to access a mail box to fix a problem, sure, as long as the email you're reading is the one you sent in order to facilitate the troubleshooting.
Re: "Ethics in password protection differ btw spouses and everything else.
Trust is a big factor between spouses and it has it's own layers of
complexity and clarity of violation in my opinion."
So, are you saying that spouses should or should not be logging into each other's accounts?
Also, regarding hindsatya's comment... signing out of an account is the easiest thing in the world, but so many people don't do it out of sheer laziness. My brother frequently uses my laptop and doesn't sign out of his Facebook account, so every time I go to Facebook after he uses my computer, his page is up there. I also have friends whose relationships have ended because their significant other's Facebook page was left open on their computer, allowing them to scroll around and find some unsavory messages and exchanges.
I still find the user id and password every now and then displayed within the url parameter on some sites. Very similar to leaving your userid and pw on a post it stuck to your monitor...or worse because it was not intended to be written on a post-it so it may have greater relation with your most coveted login/passwords.
Ethics in password protection differ btw spouses and everything else. Trust is a big factor between spouses and it has it's own layers of complexity and clarity of violation in my opinion.
Be careful about your privacy. Think Passwords as sensitive . It is not wise to pen it down anywhere.
But there are certain other issues other than the hacking part using all sorts of softwares and hardwares.
I have come across certain issues do check it:
When you are about to close a mail account just do not close it directly but first log out. Unknowingly , some do that. I myself has seen most of the time, when I log in to the machine and make my homepage as yahoo or gmail whatever , I directly came across with the mailbox of the last person logged in! Does it not sound amazing. But sometimes it doesn't happen.I don't know the reason. there are sessions while you login and the safer part is you have to give in your password after the session has expired then why it doesn't work the other time. so beware , first logout then close.
Secondly, if you opt out to remember your password the next time you logs in can also lead to problem. The other person needs only your id to login. generally we do it on our personal machines, but sometimes if mistake you do it on others then --obviously you will land up in trouble
The ThinkerNet does not reflect the views of TechWeb. The ThinkerNet is an informal means of communication to members and visitors of the Internet Evolution site. Individual authors are chosen by Internet Evolution to blog. Neither Internet Evolution nor TechWeb assume responsibility for comments, claims, or opinions made by authors and ThinkerNet bloggers. They are no substitute for your own research and should not be relied upon for trading or any other purpose.
Ahh, the holiday season is upon us: People have begun bargain hunting, department stores are donning premature decorations, turkeys are being shot to death, and email inboxes everywhere are being graced with season-appropriate promotional materials so absurd, one might think they were actually written by the clinically insane.
Considering President Obama went and took the Nobel Peace Prize this year (attention hog, much?), Internet Evolution had to settle for a nomination for the second best prize in the world: a MIN Editorial & Design award. And we're happy to say that we won. Big time.
NEW YORK -- Web 2.0 Expo -- Here at the Javits Center in New York City, several industry innovators have come out to take the stage at the Web 2.0 Expo. But some are having a hard time keeping the audience's attention. The culprit? What else? Twitter.
The debate over whether Google is fairly aggregating newspaper content online has been going on for a while, with Rupert Murdoch and News Corp. leading the discourse. Typically it's followed a consistent pattern: Murdoch complains about Google stealing its content to no real benefit to his company, someone suggests hiding the content from Google, and things get quiet on the News Corp. side of the room.
While Google introduces its new Chrome OS (which I'm hearing will be widely available in one year? Did I mishear that?), IBM announced 10 new products today to help companies using IBM System z mainframe technology.
Smarter Collaboration: How to Thrive in a Challenging Business Environment Market conditions are changing faster than ever, and organizations need to improve their agility and adaptability in order to provide better service and improve processes. The ability to work with customers, business partners, and employees as effectively as possible - while at the same time holding down costs - is a key to success. READ THIS eBOOK
your weekly update of news, analysis, and
opinion from Internet Evolution - FREE! REGISTER HERE
Wanted! Site Moderators Internet Evolution is looking for a handful of readers to help moderate the message boards on our site – as well as engaging in high-IQ conversation with the industry mavens on our thinkerNet blogosphere. The job comes with various perks, bags of kudos, and GIANT bragging rights. Interested?
To save this item to your list of favorite Internet Evolution content so you can find it later in your Profile page, click the "Save It" button next to the item.
What can users today do to protect their online privacy? The simplest and most obvious option is to not use the Internet – at all. However, once all digital information is consolidated over the Internet, trying to protect digital identity by simply unplugging from the Internet becomes impossible – a fact that has manifest implications for civil liberties, Saunders says.
By 2011 the number of Internet-connected sensors will exceed 1 trillion, making your chances of doing anything or going anywhere unnoticed pretty much zero. Saunders talks about how the 'sensortization' of the Internet is eliminating the traditional divide between online and offline populations.
The 20th Century Internet was characterized by the ability to interact with other people and information on the Internet largely without anyone knowing who you were. The Internet of this century, conversely, will be defined by identity. Saunders explains how Internet users are unwittingly contributing to the demise of the anonymous Internet.
More companies are trolling social networks to find and vet potential job candidates. Beware the pitfalls of blurring the line between personal and professional lives.
It is 20 years since the invention of the World Wide Web, and the Internet has changed beyond recognition since then. Steve Saunders peers into the future to predict what the Web will look like in another 20 years time – and he doesn’t like what he sees.
As enterprises leap into the Web 2.0 world of blogging, commenting, and social networking, just 'being there' won't deliver ROI. You may want a 'Web Evangelist' to systematically harvest the feedback in order to polish your product or service.
In the final episode of this series about the death of Internet anonymity, Saunders describes how the Internet of the future will start to attain a level of intelligence that requires no human intervention. Scary.
Steve Saunders talks about the risks inherent in uncontrolled, widespread profiling of Internet users, and how one day this practice could form the basis of a new industry, the Outernet, which in economic terms will have outgrown the commercial value of the Internet itself.
Search companies and social networks are collecting incredibly detailed information about their users, says Steve Saunders, who predicts that these 'profiles' could one day become commodities to be bought and sold by companies on 'profile markets' or 'identity exchanges’ – the digital DNA equivalents of the financial and commodities exchanges on which stocks, oil, and gold are traded.
Industry initiatives and government stimulus funds are giving enterprise software vendors a great opportunity to help build out and manage smart grid technologies.
The problem with telepresence is that it's not universally accepted, because video calling isn't. While we can all do video calling, we also apparently worry too much about how we look. If we want HD telepresence in our future, we have to dress down, mess up our hair, and dive into our online life.
The US loses about $20 billion a year on pirated software, movies, and music. But public policy can help stem the tide of digital theft. For example, France has recently passed a 'three strikes and you’re out' law, whereby if after two warning letters an individual continues to download pirated software then his Internet access will be cut off. US policy makers should consider adopting similar policies.
Financial management planning does not need to include Voodoo economics, but it does help to tap into the knowledge base of your team through some sort of real-time system. We explore your options.
When Reiter gets incensed over incompetent Verizon FiOS order-taking and support, he broadcasts it via Twitter. Did it do any good? How should your company offer Twitter support? Watch this for all the answers.
The successor to the BlackBerry Bold 9000 – the Bold 9700 – will be available soon in the US. Is it worth upgrading? Reiter's got one, and offers advice.
Digg
Del.icio.us
Reddit
Email This
TWEET THIS
