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This is akin to ruling that there's no reasonable expectation of privacy in a home because windows aren't fully secure against burglars.
by s_q_b 10y ago
This is akin to ruling that there's no reasonable expectation of privacy in a home because windows aren't fully secure against burglars.
- plandis 10y agoWhile somewhat true, analogies make for poor logical arguments. grellas' argument is much more succinct.
- s_q_b 10y agoPith is often a useful tool to expose absurdity.
- MichaelBurge 10y agoThat's actually true though. Not burglars exactly, but the police absolutely can peer through gaps that you accidentally leave in your windows, even if you expect to be private inside. The court ruling even refers to this example. Sometimes people on HN complain when security researchers are threatened with prosecution under the CFAA. Well, which is it - is exploiting vulnerabilities more akin to peering through someone's window blinds with unintended gaps, or burglary?
- s_q_b 10y agoThis depends highly on context. The Jones intrusion/trespassing test and the Katz reasonable expectation of privacy test are generally used to determine whether police observations from the curtilage (the area surrounding the house) constitute a search. For example, a Florida appeals court recently ruled that peaking through "a gap accidentally left in a window" was violative of the Fourth Amendment. There's a whole series of window peaking, gate crossing, fielding entering, etc. cases. They tend to turn on the very specific facts of the case, such as whether the police intruded on a private space to look through the window, or whether the occupant sufficiently indicated that the space was private.
- tajen 10y agoPeople have been found guilty of changing a URL by incrementing the client number. Then when the police infects a computer with a targetted worm, we're told it's "peering through open windows"...
- jdc 10y agoWho was convicted in the former case?
- beardog 10y agoWeev https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weev https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weev
- daveloyall 10y agoSeriously? I have taught people to do that. Not to access information they aren't authorized to have, simply because it's faster than filling out the web form...
- lawnchair_larry 10y agoIt was eventually overturned on appeal, but not after a year or two in prison and great financial ruin.
- beardog 10y agoThe issue was mainly that he didn't responsibly disclose the exploit.
- s_q_b 10y agoWeev's conviction was overturned based on venue, if I recall.
- extra88 10y agoWasn't something that basic what Weev was convicted for doing to AT&T?
- frostymarvelous 10y agoIn this case, they installed malware which is akin to breaking in. It isn't simply like the Silk Road case where a misconfigured server leaked an ip. Which is akin to peering in through the cracks.