5 ms·

I would rather they didn't manipulate or censor their leaks. I'm sure I'm not alone in that.

vkou 10y ago
Would you mind sharing your SSN, credit card numbers, address, and date of birth? We don't yet know if that information will be useful to the world, because we didn't really look at it, but we'd like to have it out in the public record - for completion's sake. I'm sure it'll be valuable to someone. I realize that you may not be involved in any impropriety, but you may have at one point e-mailed someone who is, or someone who works for someone who is. No more secrets, right?
- exstudent2 10y ago
  You should blame the people who made the leaks necessary, not the people doing the leak. Again, manipulating the data in anyway undermines their legitimacy.
  - zardeh 10y ago
    What makes a leak "necessary"? For better or worse, this group believes that practically anything secret should be leaked.
    - EdHominem 10y ago
      A leak is necessary when it demonstrates the government or the leaders are lying. There's zero democracy when the citizens aren't told what's going on.
      - zardeh 10y ago
        But this is not the only information that wikileaks is leaking, so they seem to ascribe to another definition.
        EdHominem 10y ago
        Not really, no. Everything Wikileaks has leaked has been something that shouldn't have been secret. In some cases we wish it would have stayed secret, but that's our fault (collectively) for breaking our own laws. For instance, had we properly investigated the behavior of our troops in Iraq there wouldn't have been a need to blow the whistle on the situation.
  - notahacker 10y ago
    I'm not sure it ever was "necessary" for Wikileaks to indiscriminately release large collections of emails sent to the Turkish government, especially if the HuffPo report is correct and it pertains largely to ordinary citizens' messages. "If you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to fear" is even less true of releasing citizens' sensitive information to the entire world (including factions in a country where people are being killed over their political actions) than it is of allowing governments to collect and share it. Just because some of the things revealed by Wikileaks are very much in the public interest doesn't make it an entirely benign actor.
    - exstudent2 10y ago
      If the data exists it may get leaked. It's up to people to protect themselves through encryption and not messaging bad actors. If someone makes malicious actions post-leak then they should be dealt with. Information wants to be free. There's no fighting it. How exactly do you plan to police Wikileaks? Twitter shaming? Thankfully they've proven to be immune to that.
  - FireBeyond 10y ago
    Who defines 'necessity'?
  - vkou 10y ago
    Supposing that the leak is necessary, what makes it necessary to release PII? I'm sure you've communicated with people who have done things, or work for people who have done things that are necessary to be leaked. Please explain why this means that your PII should be released.
unethical_ban 10y ago
The purpose of the leak is to reveal information the public should see, which is useful in analysis of the org. Seeing xxx-xx-xxxx vs an innocent persons SSN doesn't change the leak.

vkou 10y ago

Would you mind sharing your SSN, credit card numbers, address, and date of birth? We don't yet know if that information will be useful to the world, because we didn't really look at it, but we'd like to have it out in the public record - for completion's sake. I'm sure it'll be valuable to someone. I realize that you may not be involved in any impropriety, but you may have at one point e-mailed someone who is, or someone who works for someone who is. No more secrets, right?

exstudent2 10y ago
You should blame the people who made the leaks necessary, not the people doing the leak. Again, manipulating the data in anyway undermines their legitimacy.
- zardeh 10y ago
  What makes a leak "necessary"? For better or worse, this group believes that practically anything secret should be leaked.
  - EdHominem 10y ago
    A leak is necessary when it demonstrates the government or the leaders are lying. There's zero democracy when the citizens aren't told what's going on.
    - zardeh 10y ago
      But this is not the only information that wikileaks is leaking, so they seem to ascribe to another definition.
      - EdHominem 10y ago
        Not really, no. Everything Wikileaks has leaked has been something that shouldn't have been secret. In some cases we wish it would have stayed secret, but that's our fault (collectively) for breaking our own laws. For instance, had we properly investigated the behavior of our troops in Iraq there wouldn't have been a need to blow the whistle on the situation.
- notahacker 10y ago
  I'm not sure it ever was "necessary" for Wikileaks to indiscriminately release large collections of emails sent to the Turkish government, especially if the HuffPo report is correct and it pertains largely to ordinary citizens' messages. "If you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to fear" is even less true of releasing citizens' sensitive information to the entire world (including factions in a country where people are being killed over their political actions) than it is of allowing governments to collect and share it. Just because some of the things revealed by Wikileaks are very much in the public interest doesn't make it an entirely benign actor.
  - exstudent2 10y ago
    If the data exists it may get leaked. It's up to people to protect themselves through encryption and not messaging bad actors. If someone makes malicious actions post-leak then they should be dealt with. Information wants to be free. There's no fighting it. How exactly do you plan to police Wikileaks? Twitter shaming? Thankfully they've proven to be immune to that.
- FireBeyond 10y ago
  Who defines 'necessity'?
- vkou 10y ago
  Supposing that the leak is necessary, what makes it necessary to release PII? I'm sure you've communicated with people who have done things, or work for people who have done things that are necessary to be leaked. Please explain why this means that your PII should be released.

unethical_ban 10y ago

The purpose of the leak is to reveal information the public should see, which is useful in analysis of the org. Seeing xxx-xx-xxxx vs an innocent persons SSN doesn't change the leak.