As we’ve all heard by now, Sarah Palin’s yahoo account was hacked and proof was shown on Wikileaks to highlight the unethical practices of using a personal email account for official government business.
Some may have an issue with the ethics of leaking such information and here is Wikileak’s take on it:
Where the simple act of distributing information may expose crime or embarrass a regime we recognize a right, indeed a duty, to perform that act. Such whistleblowing normally involves major personal risk. Like whistleblower protection laws in some jurisdictions, Wikileaks does much to reduce the risk.
We propose that authoritarian governments, oppressive institutions and corrupt corporations should be subject to the pressure, not merely of international diplomacy, freedom of information laws or even periodic elections, but of something far stronger – the consciences of the people within them.
Bush administration aides, including Karl Rove, have used similar tactics in the past particularly in regards to the firings of US attorneys.
Sarah Palin is also under investigation for her own scandal, known as troopergate. The interesting thing about this is that there were several emails, from those that had .gov addresses, with “DPS” in the subject line which is the acronym for the Alaska Department of Public Safety. It’s also DPS that supervises the Alaska state troopers.
The site also has this to say:
Wikileaks may release additional emails should they prove to be of political substance.
Maybe we’ll be in for an October surprise!
johnd says
If you are truly from the liberal bastion of Cambridge… how do civil libertarians there feel about members of the public accessing private citizen’s personal information? My take would be they disdain this type of “intrusion”.
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p>Does someone know if it is a crime to hack into someone’s personal data?
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p>If someone is under investigation, are they guilty of committing any crime?
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p>What sort of moral authority is Wikileaks that you would “reference” their quote?
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p>If I am wrong and all the above activities are sanctioned… does anyone out there have the means to hack into Joe Biden, Michelle Obama, BO, John Kerry or Charlie Rangel’s personal email accounts to see if there are any juicy tid bits about Hillary…
cambridge_paul says
on the hacking. I would have to know more before making a judgment. Was this a form of civil disobedience to prove the unethical use of a private email address to possibly hide governmental emails? Was there probable cause to believe that Palin was doing this that lead the person to hack her account to show proof or did he or she simply stumble upon the info after hacking? Was this an attack to steal information or somehow profit from it? Was it simply a publicity stunt? I think motive and details are extremely important which we’ll probably never know them.
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p>Either way, the information is now public on Sarah Palin’s dishonest “Rovian” tactics. She shouldn’t be using a private email account for governmental affairs. And if it were a Democrat, I would love to hear who’s doing that. It would certainly be admonished in their case as well.
johnd says
but first I’d ask… are the “excuses” you cited such as “Was there probable cause to believe that Palin was doing this that lead the person to hack her account to show proof or did he or she simply stumble upon the info after hacking?” makes me ask “Can citizens do anything they want if they have probable cause?”
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p>Your second remark… “And if it were a Democrat, I would love to hear who’s doing that. It would certainly be admonished in their case as well.” all I can say is I wouldn’t care. If I hear you right… if we found out that Joe Biden was using his private email to contact other politicians and asking questions… would I care. Nope! I know others might believe differently but I’m missing the angst about her using her private email for some work emails.
kirth says
you’re being unrealistic. I’m not an expert on the subject, but people who are experts all say that there’s no such thing as private email, unless you use encryption.
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p>Further, email is not “personal data” unless it includes the person’s SSAN, or medical history, or something of that sort. Your forwards of the latest Hillary Clinton jokes are not personal data.
johnd says
Is it illegal to hack into someone’s computer and view their files, emails or other personal data? Plain and simply, no caveats, no gotchas… Is it legal to do this?
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p>I’d prefer only “knowledgeable” answers here and not “it should be” or “it shouldn’t be”…
kirth says
Also, Yahoo email would not reside on [i]her [/i]computer – it’s on a server somewhere that Yahoo owns and maintains. The act may indeed be illegal. It may be that Palin has no legal standing, since the hacking was done on Yahoo’s server, not hers. I don’t know. Driving off in a car someone parked with the keys in it is also illegal. Expecting that either of those events will never happen is foolish.