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
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