So we couldn’t help following the string of TechCrunch stories over the past couple days releasing confidential Twitter company information and strategy on their blog. TechCrunch was e-mailed the info by a hacker who managed to answer the password safety questions of one of the Twitter founder’s gmail account. Yikes.
TechCrunch’s actions are highly controversial, and everyone is up in arms about whether or not posting the stolen info is wrong. TechCrunch didn’t do any stealing themselves, but many people still contend that chosing to act on the news tip was unethical.
To be honest, right now we are completely undecided. We see arguments for both sides.
We want to know what you think?
Why the title is “TechCrunch is leaking confidential Twitter info?” Twitter people where careless enough to leave all this information on public email servers. Hacker swiped info and did a “public service” of making it public. You are reading it the same way you are reading stories about Hollywood celebs. If the only readers would be Twitter competitors then TC wouldn’t bother with this. So why is the moral outrage?
Mike, you are right the title was not very well chosen by saying TC is ‘leaking’ information. I’ve changed it to ‘publishing’. On our end there really is no ‘moral outrage’, we just had a discussion at the office and didn’t get to an unanimous ‘agreement in the end. So we where simply interested in getting ‘numbers’ on what other people think.
I know this is nit-picky, but “leak” is actually the technical term for what TechCrunch did. Wikipedia defines the journalism term “leak” as the “unsanctioned release of confidential information.” So, yeah, TechCrunch leaked Twitter data. I myself actually lean towards saying that TC’s “publishing” of Twitter stuff was an acceptable and understandable course of action, but lets call a spade a spade. Its “leaking,” not just “publishing” in this case.
I think it’s totally wrong, but for other reasons, imagine the time Twitter has to invest in damage control because of this leak, it will only delay future projects and affect us twitter users.
i have no qualms about tc posting this stuff, considering they are not going to post anything that endangers the twitter staff. if they were that lax to be sending their information over goodgle, yahoo and other email servers, i just have to say that they just met an unfortunate end, with this kid who was haking them. it’s all good though because now they can work to fix it. i mean how this carried on for months, is kind of befuddeling to me. it’s up to each and every source the hacker sent all this information to, to decide what to do with the information they recieved. i like reading things like this about businesses, models, idea, what’s going on, so i just find all of this interesting. i don’t have a loyalty to something/someone so i’m not feeling any pain over this or any betraying. i mean if anything people need to wake up and make sure their email services are secure.
Completely out of line.
If someone breaks into Arrington’s home a steals his personal property, it’s not okay for me to show the world if they give it to me. It’s receiving stolen property, industrial espionage and several other crimes.
All I know of Arrington is his crossing people and whining about his life being in danger at several points in his career. Now I know why he has had that honest fear. He ought to start getting that fear right about now. (I am in no way advocating anyone harm him, or suggesting such a thing.)
Again, I haven’t followed him at all, but I am getting the understanding that he is the Perez Hilton of the Tech world? A loser with no intergrity who is popular for the sole reason that he is a douchebag.
I take great solace in knowing I am not such a person. I couldn’t live with that.
I definitely take your point, James. The problem with this case is that the hacker’s motivations were highly voyeuristic – that is, he desired some tangible repercussions from his actions. I don’t doubt that he would have pursued another news outlet with his stolen info had TC not decided to act on it. I found this recent TC post to shed fresh perspective on the debate, regarding how the hacker got a hold of the information in the first place, and what his intentions were sending it to TC (see link below). With that said, I agree with you that in the end the info that TC published was not theirs for the publishing, which raises questions of what someone else might do if they got their hands on any TC data in the future. I doubt there would be a question.
http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/07/19/the-anatomy-of-the-twitter-attack/
While it’s very interesting to see the inner workings and strategy of Twitter (in fact, I didn’t read it), I feel it was not right to publish the information. TechCrunch should ask themselves how they would feel in the same position. We all make mistakes, get careeless, etc. We should be looking out for eachother, not exploiting opportunities, no matter how tempting. It’s basically the Golden Rule…do unto others as you would have them do unto you.