Internet harassment in the modern age

[cellio]

When I was in college, some people thought it was a right fun prank to sign other people up for wildly-inappropriate catalogues and suchlike. These days they use the Internet for that. Any site that blithely accepts an email address without sending confirmation email to that address is contributing to the problem, big-time.

I know that already, but reading this article about a victim of the Ashley Madison breach -- spoiler alert: not an actual user -- reminded me how problematic this still is. Definitely worth five minutes of your time.

I want to ask you, Internet, to please stop taking all of this [supposed evidence] at face value. Please stop taking things like lists of names stolen from a company as a reason to abuse others — online or offline. When you see a story about someone doing something you think is either wrong or even just lame, it’s not a reason for you to abuse, stalk or attack someone you don’t know.

A friend whom I trust quite a bit not to be using their services is also on that list. So if you don't believe a random person on the Internet, there's that.

Comments

[dagonell.livejournal.com]

I actually liked the one where someone pointed out that a reporter for a major newspaper was on the list. The reporter responded by saying it was research for his article about Online Dating, gave the link to the article in the archives and finished by saying he admitted in the article that he had signed up for all the boards mentioned in the article so if the purpose was to out him to his readers, they were four years too late!

[amaebi.livejournal.com]

Oh, yowza. :(

[indigodove.livejournal.com]

I absolutely agree. Honestly, I wondered if Josh Duggar had been added by malicious people...even though I know very little about him and his family and am not impressed with the facts I do know.

That said, years ago my friend Kevin used to sign people up for wildly inappropriate mailings. Like, I got mail for years about motorcycle repair home study courses. It was funny, but I feel like even snail mail marketing wasn't so...pernicious as it is now.
Maybe pernicious is too strong a word, but given the BAGS of junk mail that I send to the recycler, I think it fits.