Terms and Conditions- Is all this Necessary?

I don’t know if anyone else ever used the app ZEDGE for ringtones and wallpapers, but at one time it was my favorite app. The app when you download it you give it permission to create accounts and set passwords, use accounts on the device, and modify system settings. With ability to create accounts on your phone without you knowing it there is no telling what type of information is being shared. The fact it is able to use your existing accounts like your email allows the app to collect what you are sending, receiving, and who you are even talking to. I’m not sure at all how this can be useful to anyone. I don’t think you can consider information being collected by an app hacking because we all make the choice to lie and not read the terms and conditions. We make the decision to accept what ever is inside and download the app. You can’t really hack what is being given because someone chooses not to take the extra time to be informed. That is an individual choice. Speaking for myself, if something was to ever come out based on what I may have done with certain apps or what information was collected about me and it was clearly written in the terms and conditions, then it is my fault for not making myself aware when there was an opportunity.

Thinking about hackers is a bit different. A hacker reveals information that is being hidden whether for good or a bad reason that was purposely not made public. I feel that it kind of is your civic duty to reveal corruption that is affecting the lives of lots of people without them knowing it. I mean you can’t just stand around pretending you don’t know something when you really do. It would be like the bystander effect expecting someone else to blow the whistle when you, yourself, have just as much power to blow the whistle and reveal information as does anyone else. You can’t expect someone else to do the right thing when you can do it yourself. I think if I was put in the right situation, yes I would do it. I think that if the data can across my desk I couldn’t just turn a blind eye to it. I couldn’t forget all of the individuals that are being harmed because of something like this. I would have to do something, because the possibility is too strong that no one else will.

The Panama Papers is a difficult situation. It is easy to point fingers at the those who are now in trouble based on what the Panama Papers revealed just as it is easy to do the same thing to hackers. I don’t believe it was ethical to hack the data, but at the same time I don’t believe it was a bad thing it was done. Deciding what is and isn’t moral in a situation like this is difficult, but for me one must stand on the side of who is doing the most good for the most people. In this case, I feel the hackers did the most good. If you do something that you shouldn’t be doing and it harms or affects the lives of others in a negative manner then you should be charged, because you did something wrong knowingly.