5 ms·

The standard practice for Wikileaks was once to publish everything no matter what. I'm happy they have changed.

problems 10y ago
Not really... the biggest example of this was probably the leak that happened from Manning - but it in large part wasn't really WikiLeaks fault, they gave an AES 'insurance' key to a journalist who released it without really understanding the consequences. WikiLeaks generally tries their best to release responsibly, but it's a challenge when you get governments unwilling to accept leakers and journalists who don't know how to handle leaks.
- cmac2992 10y ago
  Wikileaks has a terrible record on vetting releases and be "truly transparent". See the timing of the dnc and podesta emails... There were social security #'s in those releases. They try and play both sides of the fence: -we dont "editorialize", redact or make decisions on what is and isn't released -release specific info with sensational headlines timed for optimal impact
  - problems 10y ago
    What's wrong with that? They simply optimized for impact. If they were to dump all the releases months before the election no one would have remembered them, no matter how significant. They've done partial releases and released over time with many other leaks too. I don't see how that conflicts with transparency or impartiality. Put yourself in their shoes - how would you have solved it differently? > There were social security #'s in those releases. When you're working with data in the volumes that they are and you have limited review staff, sometimes mistakes happen. If you'd like to help prevent it, I believe they do accept reviewers if you've got appropriate credentials.
    - sarmstr5 10y ago
      Software already exists to indentify common PII like credit card numbers and social security numbers (need it for HIPAA requirements) and besides probably any freshman programmer could build a simple regex to find simple PII. So the most likely excuses are either complete incompetence or utter apathy to protect that info, not lack of manpower.
      - problems 10y ago
        We're not talking credit card numbers, SIN numbers are just a series of a few numbers which may match many, many unrelated things. I'd have to see the specific case to really say yes or no to that one. Many of the leaks they get are not in text format at all, they're in PDF images, OCR can sometimes do the job, but not always with high accuracy. If you'd like to volunteer that skill, they may be open to accepting it. It's entirely possible they just don't have developers with such abilities in their arsenal. You might try their IRC channels and such if you'd consider it.
    - cmac2992 10y ago
      I have no problem with them optimizing for impact. But they refuse to admit that is what they are doing. It disingenuous at the very least. It's not "mistake" if PII is revealed in every single release. It is incompetence or they are acting in bad faith. There are dozens of other organizations that have strong records on this. wikileaks is not one of them.
      - problems 10y ago
        > I have no problem with them optimizing for impact. But they refuse to admit that is what they are doing. It disingenuous at the very least. They've stated that's exactly what they're doing in several pieces. > It's not "mistake" if PII is revealed in every single release. There are dozens of other organizations that have strong records on this. wikileaks is not one of them. Likely because those "dozens of other organizations" don't publish many leaks and especially not in anything approaching raw form - every single leak I've seen in a major paper has been heavily filtered down and distilled into a specific narrative. WikiLeaks just publishes with minimal editing - any narrative from them is completely separated from the leaks. That rawness is what makes them better than other approaches for getting real information out, but it's also what makes them worse at censoring that information.
Iv 10y ago
I see many people here who accept this as generic wisdom but I don't remember them releasing non-redacted documents (outside the cablegate shitstorm). Are there precedents? Are there sources where they say this is their philosophy?

Not really... the biggest example of this was probably the leak that happened from Manning - but it in large part wasn't really WikiLeaks fault, they gave an AES 'insurance' key to a journalist who released it without really understanding the consequences. WikiLeaks generally tries their best to release responsibly, but it's a challenge when you get governments unwilling to accept leakers and journalists who don't know how to handle leaks.

cmac2992 10y ago
Wikileaks has a terrible record on vetting releases and be "truly transparent". See the timing of the dnc and podesta emails... There were social security #'s in those releases. They try and play both sides of the fence: -we dont "editorialize", redact or make decisions on what is and isn't released -release specific info with sensational headlines timed for optimal impact
- problems 10y ago
  What's wrong with that? They simply optimized for impact. If they were to dump all the releases months before the election no one would have remembered them, no matter how significant. They've done partial releases and released over time with many other leaks too. I don't see how that conflicts with transparency or impartiality. Put yourself in their shoes - how would you have solved it differently? > There were social security #'s in those releases. When you're working with data in the volumes that they are and you have limited review staff, sometimes mistakes happen. If you'd like to help prevent it, I believe they do accept reviewers if you've got appropriate credentials.
  - sarmstr5 10y ago
    Software already exists to indentify common PII like credit card numbers and social security numbers (need it for HIPAA requirements) and besides probably any freshman programmer could build a simple regex to find simple PII. So the most likely excuses are either complete incompetence or utter apathy to protect that info, not lack of manpower.
    - problems 10y ago
      We're not talking credit card numbers, SIN numbers are just a series of a few numbers which may match many, many unrelated things. I'd have to see the specific case to really say yes or no to that one. Many of the leaks they get are not in text format at all, they're in PDF images, OCR can sometimes do the job, but not always with high accuracy. If you'd like to volunteer that skill, they may be open to accepting it. It's entirely possible they just don't have developers with such abilities in their arsenal. You might try their IRC channels and such if you'd consider it.
  - cmac2992 10y ago
    I have no problem with them optimizing for impact. But they refuse to admit that is what they are doing. It disingenuous at the very least. It's not "mistake" if PII is revealed in every single release. It is incompetence or they are acting in bad faith. There are dozens of other organizations that have strong records on this. wikileaks is not one of them.
    - problems 10y ago
      > I have no problem with them optimizing for impact. But they refuse to admit that is what they are doing. It disingenuous at the very least. They've stated that's exactly what they're doing in several pieces. > It's not "mistake" if PII is revealed in every single release. There are dozens of other organizations that have strong records on this. wikileaks is not one of them. Likely because those "dozens of other organizations" don't publish many leaks and especially not in anything approaching raw form - every single leak I've seen in a major paper has been heavily filtered down and distilled into a specific narrative. WikiLeaks just publishes with minimal editing - any narrative from them is completely separated from the leaks. That rawness is what makes them better than other approaches for getting real information out, but it's also what makes them worse at censoring that information.

Iv 10y ago

I see many people here who accept this as generic wisdom but I don't remember them releasing non-redacted documents (outside the cablegate shitstorm). Are there precedents? Are there sources where they say this is their philosophy?