lets pose a hypothetical moral situation

[insertnamehere]

now i know the "correct" answer to this, but im wondering who could resist the temptation...

suppose theres this person, and this person constantly interferes in your life, and you, say, loath this person. suppose you were fed lies from and about this person, and never knew the whole story, and its a story that had a great deal of effect on you. suppose finding out the entire story would put you much at ease. suppose you know that this person's correspondance with another person would shed light on the situation, and through no doing of your own one day a lightbulb went off and you knew the person's email password.

do you peek?

[jabumbo]

i told oyu to stay away from the litter box

[DandyFop]

It's not right to do, but I'm sure I would anyway.

[CrankItUp!]

you've got the gold key to the fuckin' crapper then !

[insertnamehere]

Originally Posted by jabumbo

i told oyu to stay away from the litter box

...huh?


its pretty weird how i happened to all of a sudden know this person's password. in short, it's my password. or it used to be, until i realized it was this persons, then i promptly changed it

[vickista]

its pretty weird how i happened to all of a sudden know this person's password. in short, it's my password. or it used to be, until i realized it was this persons, then i promptly changed it

well then how do you know that they didnt know it was your password and they where checking out your shit?

peek!you have every right to.

[Ace42X]

Originally Posted by vickista

peek!you have every right to.

Actually, no. Not only is the invasion of privacy immoral, unauthorised access to a computer is a crime in the UK, and probably so the world over.

Not that I would think twice about doing it.

[vickista]

Originally Posted by Ace42X

Actually, no. Not only is the invasion of privacy immoral, unauthorised access to a computer is a crime in the UK, and probably so the world over.

Not that I would think twice about doing it.

ok well legally she does not have the right, but in my opinion according to the situation she has described to us, she has the right.

[Documad]

It's wrong to spy on your mom.

[Documad]

I also think that it would be a mistake for me to find out what my friends REALLY think of me. I'm sure they make fun of me behind my back, but actually hearing them doing it would hurt my feelings.

So I might not look. Also I'd never be able to keep quiet about what I saw and this person would then find out that I'd peeked.

[Ace42X]

Damn the torpedos, full speed ahead!

It's a simple choice:
Where ignorance is bliss, 'tis folly to be wise.

So, do you want to be blissfully ignorant, or foolishly wise? I'd prefer the hurt and to know the truth, and thus maybe be able to do something about it. No-one else can make your mind up for you on that front though.

[enree erzweglle]

I've been in a similar situation and I didn't look although I wanted to. I'd like to say that I didn't look because not looking was the right thing to do, but that's not why I didn't look. So if I would have looked, then what? ...feel bad for maybe knowing the truth that I already knew and THEN what? ...confront the person and admit to doing a thing that was probably just about as silly as what I thought/knew they were doing in the first place. I chose not to do it because I didn't want to be seen as that person, you know? Not the noblest of reasons.

[enree erzweglle]

Last winter, someone I knew asked me whether/not I'd use spy software to monitor my kid if I noticed changes in him that maybe signified that something was wrong.

So this guy's daughter was like 17 and was months away from going to college and turning 18. I asked him why he would even consider doing that (spying on her) and he told me. It sounded to me that he was sort of manufacturing "problems" with her maybe in some weird way to retain control over her but I also thought that I was being too Dr. Phil. To me, what he described seemed boringly normal...like just typical sort of semi-rebellious/last few months of high-school sorts of stuff that some kids go through as they're preparing to move out. He was more wanting to stay ahead of the problem curve. So I told him that I wouldn't do that, certainly not for the things that he was describing and not for a kid of her age.

That said, it became an issue of degrees in my mind--like what she was doing was normal seeming and she was on the cusp of being 18, so there's that whole thing. But what if the behavior did seem to indicate a serious problem and what if she was, say, 13. Made me think about it, but I think I'd do a combination of other things, including taking away or restricting access to the computer than to just spy on my kid.

[Ace42X]

If you could spy on everyone, by tapping into their optic nerve using super-advanced nanite technology, say, would there be any individuals (not broad sections of the population, like criminals, for example) who'd you would, or would feel ethically justified, to spy on?

Would you spy on George Bush taking a leak, and then e-mail the footage to everyone imaginable?

[Sarky Devotchka]

if I had a kid in this crazy computer era, I'd put spyware on the computer, but tell them about it. And be like, "hey, I know everything about everything okay, so don't try to fool me, or I will kill you."

about the password business. yeah, I'd probably spy. but I don't know the whole story.

[Medellia]

Originally Posted by Ace42X

So, do you want to be blissfully ignorant, or foolishly wise? I'd prefer the hurt and to know the truth, and thus maybe be able to do something about it. No-one else can make your mind up for you on that front though.

I agree, although I wouldn't go about it by spying.

[vickista]

Originally Posted by Ace42X

Would you spy on George Bush taking a leak, and then e-mail the footage to everyone imaginable?

id do that^ and then id spy on all the world leaders so that i could catch them in the act of being corrupt etc. then we would bring in a new fair and just goverment to all the countries. but i would spy on like friends and family or anything thats just creepy.

[Ace42X]

Another interesting point - if there was total transparency in all government areas - would we have a non-/less-corrupt world?

[vickista]

Originally Posted by Ace42X

Another interesting point - if there was total transparency in all government areas - would we have a non-/less-corrupt world?

well of course because they wldnt get the chance to be corrupt.

[Ace42X]

Originally Posted by vickista

well of course because they wldnt get the chance to be corrupt.

Yes, but we see corruption in the media all the time, and it seems to have no effect. Peter Mandelson is still in government, David Blunkett came back, etc etc. Colin Powell returned, Bush Junior too. Same people that sold weapons to Iran are now telling us we should bomb them.

Seems to me that people are apathetic now, and seeing more proof wouldn't change that.

[abcdefz]

Originally Posted by insertnamehere

now i know the "correct" answer to this, but im wondering who could resist the temptation...

suppose theres this person, and this person constantly interferes in your life, and you, say, loath this person. suppose you were fed lies from and about this person, and never knew the whole story, and its a story that had a great deal of effect on you. suppose finding out the entire story would put you much at ease. suppose you know that this person's correspondance with another person would shed light on the situation, and through no doing of your own one day a lightbulb went off and you knew the person's email password.

do you peek?

Nope. You should resist that.

As someone who has been a network administrator, I know that there's been more than one occasion where I really did want to look. But if you can't respect the person's privacy -- and even our "enemies" deserve to be treated with decency -- you can maybe motivate yourself by thinking how stressful it is to maintain deceit. Keep a clear conscience.

already done it.

[wanton wench]

imagine a world with no hypothetical situations

[insertnamehere]

ok, so yeah, i'm a terrible person. but now im a terrible/incredibly amused person.

the only part that's unfortunae is that i found some information that under any other circumstances, i would feel required to tell another person (i.e. she's a backstabbing whore) and i cant because then i have to tell on myself.

really though, the content of the emails, while some of it made me a little sad (stuff from like a year ago), the more recent (since octoberish or so) have brought me great relief, and a little chuckle.

oh how i wish i could tell on her...

i dont think she would have known that it was my password, but there's no tellin. i happened upon the information on accident. i wont reveal exactly what it was, but it's from a song, an obscure song, which i chose because i was required to choose a password that had letter and numbers, and this had both. so i used it for a good long while, and my friend, the "another person" i mentioned, he gave me his password to log in to his computer, and I was like hey thats my password! so then he gave me a hard time for awhile about stealing his password (even though i chose it not knowing it was his password). one time it came up again, and he was like "man EVERYBODY is stealing my password". i knew immediatly what "everybody" meant.

come to think of it, maybe i dont need to tell him she's a backstabbing whore after all.....

hahaha

i almost feel inclined to send her an email from herself to change her password.

[sab0tage]

I had 2 friends who were a couple, and another guy who was good friends with both of them.

When they split up the girl (who got dumped) knew her ex's password and saw an email from their mutual friend talking about her and making fun of her dyslexia.

She was obviously enraged but didn't know how to broach the subject as she would have to admit reading the email.
It ended in weeks of awkwardness and a mighty row.

A couple of years down the line they are all friends (just about) but I believe if she hadn't read the email things would have been much better (and she did take the email more seriously than it was meant, he was just trying to cheer the guy up)

[sab0tage]

.................oh yeah, and I would have looked

[insertnamehere]

i really hope he's looked in her stuff too. as bad as that sounds. cause he knows its her password, but i dont know if he'd do it or not. basically she was all "i love only you i want to marry you and blah blah blah" and tried to own him and threw fits when he hung out with girls, and she's got two different guys sendin her emails with pictures of themselves saying how she was a little hottie and her telling them how good they looked and their first impressions of each other and suchlike. she just turned 18 and one of the guys is like 21.

i wish i could read her sent emails, none of those are saved, i can only see if someone replies and leaves her origional message in the email.

i also kinda wish i could tell her not to trust that 21 year old guy too, but meh, whatever, her life

[burbboi]

Originally Posted by Ace42X

If you could spy on everyone, by tapping into their optic nerve using super-advanced nanite technology, say, would there be any individuals (not broad sections of the population, like criminals, for example) who'd you would, or would feel ethically justified, to spy on?

Would you spy on George Bush taking a leak, and then e-mail the footage to everyone imaginable?

Interesting...if I get what you're saying, to spread the ability to spy on people to the masses one would need 'spyware' of sorts to infiltrate a persons optic nerve right? Spyware is one thing...being able to escape the confines of a computer and spread from human to human. That's really fucking scary to me.

I can see it corrupting people a la Kevin Bacon in Hollow Man. I can say with certainty I wouldn't do it. Try 'infecting' people that is.

**nervously looks around a few times and runs from the room**