Before I begin this post, I want to put up a disclaimer: By my own beliefs and arguments and logic, it is wrong for someone's private pictures to be hacked, then mass distributed. It is morally wrong and in no way is this subject of these pictures (or e-mails, or texts, or videos, or whatever medium is at hand) giving consent. This is important to realize: I DO NOT think they gave consent.
What I am doing is asking questions, and we must ask all questions- not only the ones that give answers we want to hear. The question came up of whether one should be careful and perhaps not take these kind of photos.
It is here that I want to make an important distinction: between what's RIGHT and what IS. I also want to bring in a principle, and then apply these things to the case from class.
What's RIGHT is a goal; it is something we strive towards and a concept of how things SHOULD be in the world. What's right is what policies should reflect and what changes should be made based off of, in hopes of coming closer to having reality reflect what is right.
What IS is just that; it's how the world IS. It's the reality of a situation; it's what we see every day. This is not necessarily the same as what is RIGHT. These are two different things, and we hope for them to align, but more often than not it seems they don't.
In making decisions, there is a smart decision here. That smart decision is to base our decisions (decisions for actions that have no bearing on any change and will not matter past the cause and effect pairing they have) off of what IS. To act and react (in this way that the actions will have no effect on progress or change- this is important) based on what is RIGHT is to often act and react to a imaginary world. It's to act on principles- which is fine when we are making a statement or trying to make a change- but in everyday life is naive. Acting on what IS is just the best way to ensure the most desirable outcomes for yourself in the real world.
Applying this to the case discussed in class, it is not RIGHT for hackers to take these pictures distribute them tall over the internet. The hacker is to blame, but whether people should take these pictures or not? Well, maybe not. The reality of what IS is that hackers are looking to take information- especially from famous or highly desired people- and spread them. The reality of what IS is that if I am a celebrity, my information is much more targeted than anyone else's. So then the reality of what IS is that if I put naked pictures of myself somewhere where hackers can get them, the risk is much higher of those pictures being leaked than anyone else's. So then the reality of what IS is that it is the smart decision to NOT send those pictures.
Again, I want to make the distinction that it should not be the case that the smart decision is to not take those pictures; one should be free to take those pictures and share them with whomever they trust without consequence (setting the questionable morality of this action aside). However is is the case that the smart decision is to not take those pictures and share them where hackers can get to them.
Another example: I do not use Google Drive, nor do I use iCloud. I purposely do not use these things because I do not trust them, and I do not trust them because they are HIGHLY susceptible to being (and have already been) hacked. I do not put any of my information there because I do not want any of my information being taken. Similarly, I do not save passwords for things like my bank accounts or anything in which I will ever put in Credit Card or personal information- even on my own computer because they can be hacked. Should I have to worry about this? No. Do I have to worry about this? Yes. And because I do have to worry about it, that worry is important to consider in decision making. To act as if it shouldn't would be to ignore the realities and consciously increase the risk of information I want kept private being shared publicly.
The point of all this is there is a smart decision to be made, and that is based on what is. that Regardless of what is right, the smart decision is to not take these pictures.
Yes, this is something I was thinking about in class as well. It's a case of normative vs. descriptive ethics, in a sense.
ReplyDeleteBut theory aside, think about it intuitively. Take the case of the mugger announcing to the city that if you go into a certain alleyway, you will get mugged. If you choose to go there and undertake that risk, did you give consent and right to the mugger to mug you? You can say no. But we still *feel* like by choosing to undertake this risky action, you bear some responsibility, because you are fully aware of what might happen, and did so anyway. Of course, the scale of responsibility and blame for the mugger can be argued to be (much) greater than your own.
Maybe not a true analogy, but interesting to think about: an engineer wants to use a cutting-edge technology to build a bridge. The new technology has a 90% chance to reduce material and energy consumption by 50%, but there's a 5% chance that the bridge will collapse. The bridge collapses. Does the engineer bear any responsibility? He analyzed the risks and rewards and made his decision. He did not expect the bridge to fail, for it was unlikely. He did not mean for the bridge to fail or believe that it would be okay or acceptable if it did.
Is the engineer responsible, and to what extent? Personally, I think that would depend on many factors, like the exact risk and the consequences. For example, if it were only a 5% reduction in energy and a 90% chance to fail, then you can say he/she was reckless. Take the nude pictures case, if they knew that there was a 99% chance it would be leaked, and they took it anyway, I find it difficult to believe they bore NO responsibility whatsoever.
The *degree* of responsibility would vary based on the circumstances, but I think morally, if not practically, there is still responsibility. The *reason* for the responsibility would then also vary based on the ethical theory/theories, ex: Kantian ethics (not respecting your own life), utilitarianism (beforehand knowledge it will result in negative utility), virtue ethics (recklessness is a vice).