The mainstream media representation of hackers, online activists and whistleblowers as a whole appears to generally have negative connotations. Although as a generation we are becoming more educated and sceptical about mainstream media in general, this is still often our primary source for receiving information regarding events and issues globally. When you think of hacking, do you think of people trawling through your personal information to steal your money or identity? Or do you think of people trying to explore and make sense of the information withheld from us, mainstream society. Although we, as digital communication students may consider both, I think often people would jump to the first conclusion when discussing hacking. To me, it appears our generation has come to value and even expect a level of transparency, and when we are shown evidence that this is not the case (for example, the ‘Collateral Murder’ video) we feel somewhat betrayed by whoever is concealing the information; whether it be governments, corporations or even our parents, we expect to know what is going on.
WikiLeaks can be considered an organisation of hackers, whistleblowers and online activists, attempting to reveal hidden information to society to make a point. Ethics and values of the group can be seen as rights to access, lack of secrets and authority, and a freedom of code and information. Through decoding encrypted information and leaking it to the public, Assange and his team of hackers (mostly volunteers) seek to change society through empowering the public with knowledge. WikiLeaks is currently being blocked by many of the banks in America, stopping people from donating and hence funding the organisation. Consistent attempts to stop the organisation from running have been undertaken, from governments, the army and through litigation, however so far none have been effective.
It is interesting to note within the Khatchadourian article (2010), Aftergood states;
‘The overclassification of information is a problem of increasing scale—one that harms not only citizens, who should be able to have access to government records, but the system of classification itself. When too many secrets are kept, it becomes difficult to know which ones are important’.
In the information economy that is today, this raises questions of both the organisations in question and the amount of information they are withholding. Khatchadourian reasons in regard to this; ‘Unlike authoritarian regimes, democratic governments hold secrets largely because citizens agree that they should, in order to protect legitimate policy.’
So I will leave you with this thought; do you think we (general democratic society) are part of the problem? Do you think if we, as a whole, argued for greater transparency we would be effective in generating change? Do you believe hacking can be for the greater good, or secrets are secrets to protect us? I’d love to hear your thoughts.
Khatchadourian, R 2010, 'No Secrets: Julian Assange's mission for total transparency, The New Yorker, June 7
I think everything is situational. Like, there are some things that it's probably best that the masses don't know, but then again, we should probably have the right to know what our governments are doing.
ReplyDeleteThat being said, I am a person who values honesty and integrity above other traits, so I think governments/companies should have greater transparency, and maybe hacktivism can help us, the citizens, achieve this. As long as it is being done by the right people, for the right reasons.
So conclusively, I think if it affects us, then we should be told, and if we have to hack to find this, then it's totally morally okay (maybe not legally... but anyway).
When considering total transparency, it's always best to put yourself in their shoes first. Would you like total transparency in life? For all your secrets to be out in the world?
ReplyDeletePersonally I wouldn't however, if I knew that all my actions would be tapped into and secrets revealed, I would change the way I acted and would behave a lot better, this is why I think hacking is beneficial for the greater good of information. Not only does it reveal secrets and hidden information, but it also puts dodgy organisations in check because they have the option to either clean up their act or increase their security. Increasing security is a sign of them having more to hide and therefore becoming more important to hack. I know this comment is wordy but it makes sense in my head.
To sum up, I think hacking is good.
Haha @Lauren, not too wordy but I did definitely enjoying the summary at the end. I totally agree with you in that it is hard to imagine your life with total transparency. However, as individuals we are not (generally) a large corporation such as a government that may impact on millions of lives. I agree with Ben in that I think that whether to hack or not morally is situational and a lot about context, however in the context of Wikileaks I believe what they are doing is a positive thing.
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