Facebook Founder Accused of Hacking Into Rivals' Email 261
An anonymous reader notes a long piece up at BusinessInsider.com accusing Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg of hacking into the email accounts of rivals and journalists. The CEO of the world's most successful social networking website was accused of at least two breaches of privacy. In a two-year investigation detailing the founding of Facebook, Nicholas Carlson, a senior editor at Silicon Alley Insider, uncovered what he claimed was evidence of the hackings in 2004. "New information uncovered by Silicon Alley Insider suggests that some of the complaints [in a court case ongong since 2007] against Mark Zuckerberg are valid. It also suggests that, on at least one occasion in 2004, Mark used private login data taken from Facebook's servers to break into Facebook members' private email accounts and read their emails — at best, a gross misuse of private information. Lastly, it suggests that Mark hacked into the competing company's systems and changed some user information with the aim of making the site less useful. ... Over the past two years, we have interviewed more than a dozen sources familiar with aspects of this story — including people involved in the founding year of the company. We have also reviewed what we believe to be some relevant IMs and emails from the period. Much of this information has never before been made public. None of it has been confirmed or authenticated by Mark or the company." The single-page view doesn't have its own URL; click on "View as one page" near the bottom.
Wow.. (Score:2, Insightful)
just wow.
Serious Allegations (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Serious Allegations (Score:4, Insightful)
What about all the e-mails, calendars, documents and what not else that people store with Google? Are they no less to be wary of?
Re:Stupid Users (Score:5, Insightful)
Actually, Facebook directly asks you for your email password so it can "Automatically connect you to others" through your ISP information (phonebook, etc.). They get quite clever with it, even using the ISP's logo, making it seem like it is an official service of the ISP.
This goes a bit beyond, "stupid." This is a confidence scam.
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Toro
Not Really Surprised (Score:5, Insightful)
Breach of privacy (Score:5, Insightful)
He'll Probably Get Off Easy (Score:5, Insightful)
A friend once made the observation that no big-time, fast-track success story in the world of IT ever makes it without doing something that gets them into serious hot water at least once. Once they do that, they offer a bunch of mea culpas, make a few donations here and there, then make bank. (The slow-track success stories don't usually fit that theory.)
This is a bit different, seeing as he's already made bank, and it's a skeleton coming out of the closet, but I still think he'll get off easy.
Remember, it's not how much justice you can get, it's how much you can afford.
That's the issue with all those 'cloudy' things (Score:3, Insightful)
The issue is my ASS: Availability, Safety, Security.
I want my apps and data to be accessible at all times. Even when I'm off-line, or they are, or somethings dies in-between.
I want my data to be safe, which means off-site, off-line backups.
I want my data to be secure, which means no hacking. For every high-visibility CEO that gets caught, how many 3rd-world subcontractors' trainees don't ?
More to come (Score:2, Insightful)
Expect a lot more of these stuff.
The people who start social networks are a different breed than those that cooked up tech startups of past decades.
Re:Different password (Score:5, Insightful)
And I had a thing, "Anyone who asks for your password is lying. Don't give it to them. And if they say they really need it, don't do business with them."
Of course, it was 1989. But the neckbeard taught me right.
Facebook users get what they deserve (Score:5, Insightful)
Web 2.0 has proven itself nothing more than a private takeover of the public infrastructure of the net. FB wants to displace everything from email to irc. If people want to commit their information to sharks who want to mnetize their personal information, they get what they deserve.
Re:Not Really Surprised (Score:5, Insightful)
Best comment on the story.
While we must note, that accusations are only accusations. I could accuse you of rape right now. Wouldn’t make it a single bit more true.
But Zuckerberg to me has no better moral standards than a criminal. You know. Like an agent of some totalitarian state. Or like someone who steals other people’s identities for a living.
I really want Facebook to die and be replaced by a version that honors privacy. Something with an ethical code.
Oh, even better: A P2P social network. Wouldn’t that be something?
Re:Serious Allegations (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Breach of privacy (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:He'll Probably Get Off Easy (Score:4, Insightful)
Yeah so many pitfalls like accidentally hacking into people's email accounts using stolen passwords.
Is that something like the woman falling on your cock and you accidentally raping her?
Re:Serious Allegations (Score:4, Insightful)
If you were paranoid about it, why bother even giving them your password in the first place?
Re:Serious Allegations (Score:1, Insightful)
Ah, so you only gave them access to all the email you had at that time.
Re:Stupid Users (Score:1, Insightful)
Or better yet use a product like 1Password to have a different strong password for every website. The best part of using password managers like this is that I don't even know what my password to a site like Facebook is except that it is 20 random letters, numbers and punctuations that is different from every other site I connect with.
The difference (Score:5, Insightful)
The heads of Google take their job seriously. Zuckerberg is just a douchebag who was at the right place at the right time.
Re:Not Really Surprised (Score:3, Insightful)
The point is to honour what the user wishes to be private. Facebook lured people in by saying everything you post is private if you wish it to be, or only available for your friends to view. But then it became obvious how much money could be made by targeted advertising if this were not the case, and suddenly the rules changed mid game.
Re:That's the issue with all those 'cloudy' things (Score:4, Insightful)
The issue is my ASS: Availability, Safety, Security.
Sensible things to want. Are you willing to pay what it takes to get them? Availability is expensive. So is Safety. And Security makes everything else more expensive and awkward (sometimes not much more expensive – ssh is very good for example – but the cost over being without security is still there, even if it is worth it).
Comment removed (Score:3, Insightful)