Machinadei.com

According to TechCrunch a hacker gained access to Twitter’s secret documents. Then the hacker gave the documents to TechCrunch… I am assuming there was a “financial transaction” to break the story and so that TechCrunch could “Lay bare Twitters Strategy to be the pulse of the world”. Which is not exactly ground breaking news and is pretty obvious from how they have positioned themselves through marketing and expansion. I have just a couple issue with this “news story”.

• Ethics – It is not investigative journalism, but theft.They literally have peoples pay, SSN numbers, and employment records outside of the business decision of the company. TechCrunch did nothing but pay for (assumption) or be the favorite tech blog for a hacker. I am assuming TechCrunch is not handing over the information of the hacker due to “confidentiality” and “journalistic ethics”. I doubt TechCrunch would be thrilled or happy if a hacker broke into their system and then a competitive blog “laid their strategy to bare”.
• The Obvious – I read through the article and I didn’t find anything really new. Gee, Twitter wants to rival Google… Ok, so does everybody. Twitter had discussions with Microsoft, Google and Facebook…. So this is shocking? Twitter is worried about Google killing them… Why would the be afraid of the “we’re not evil” company? Oh, because they crush their competition just like Microsoft did….. Twitter worries about growth… Yeah, can kind of understand that…
• Support – TechCrunch has been very “up” on Twitter and their service. I have read many glowing post on Twitter and how great of a service it is.. So why would you intentionally damage your relationship with Twitter? Beyond that why would you intentionally damage a company that you support? Twitter will be even more guarded on communications, the companies it is/was talking to will be more hesitant to work with Twitter…

I just think this is another example of the ends justify the means. The information was gained illegally. It wasn’t a plot to kill some one or some illegal scheme, just internal documents from a company that is the “flavor of the day”. I find it sad that TechCrunch decided to publish the information, I find it sad that TechCrunch is enjoying this and I find it sad that they are protecting a criminal who also has this information. That person could have also sold the information with the employees SSN and other personal information to others.