(Don’t know if this is correct forum; please change if necessary)
I recently learned of the existence of a site called bugmenot.com
Through the site you can gain entry to sites you would otherwise have to register for. You use a username and password they have already set up for that site, so you don’t have to give any info of your own.
My question - is this ethical?
When I run into a random registration page on a small newspaper, I usually don’t bother signing up just to read the article. Me using bugmenot gets tham a page view they wouldn’t have gotten otherwise.
When I run into a random registration page on a large newspaper, I fill it out with junk. Sharing an id with bugmenot allows the newspaper to easily see the fake entries that shouldn’t be included in their demographics.
The larger issue is whether it is unethical to lie on a registration form. This isn’t really specific to bugmenot, it is just a way of making it easier to lie.
That, of course, leads to the even larger issue of requiring registration and what the operators of the site intend to do with the info. That’s about privacy, and goes into GD territory.
And that itself leads into the huge debate on whether or not Al Gore created the internet.
Then that leads directly to who won the Florida election.
IMO it’s bit unethical to provide false info (via Bugmenot or otherwise). Seems like a fair exchange, to provide an article for no money, only a little info.
no money? What do you think they are going to ask for when they sell that information?