[HacktionLab] The ethics of tech activism - a question to this list

[mark]

Dear all,

I've been having some very interesting conversations with people
recently about the ethical issues around our tech activism.

One topic that's come up is whether it's right to warn people about
on-line services that record data about their users (even if they deny it).

I can think of many examples in the workshops we've run and the book we
wrote, in which we've clearly set out our collective belief that it's a
bad thing for on-line services to secretly gather data about users, and
we've put a lot of effort into educating ourselves and others about how
to avoid services that do these naughty things and protect our privacy.

Looking back through the archives, I can see several postings by
different members of this list helpfully warning about threats to
privacy. It seems to me that this is a good thing to use this list for
(amongst other things), and that if our privacy is being jeopardised,
people on this list need to know about it.

Do people agree with me that if one of us on this list knows that our
on-line privacy is being jeopardised, we should let the rest of the
group know? And if a statement is to be made, should it be a simple
warning or should it be backed up with technical information?

Awaiting your responses with interest,
Mark