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cucumber3732842today at 3:14 PM5 repliesview on HN

>Identifying a criminal is ethical.

This outsourcing of one's morals to the state is excessive even by already high western white collar internet standards.

Now, make no mistake, these guys are up to no good and probably should be identified and prosecuted, but to just declare that a bad thing is now good because government is doing it is basically an abdication of one's moral compass. At best this is still a bad thing but a necessary one because all the other options are worse. Like shooting someone in self defense, or putting someone in a cage for doing sufficiently bad things.

Edit: I'll admit I played too loose with ethics vs morality here, but still the point stands.


Replies

Yokohiiitoday at 3:41 PM

Certainly, criminals also have a right to privacy. However, the limited publication of personal data of criminals by law enforcement is generally a legally legitimate measure. Doxxing, on the other hand, is generally a process that violates the fundamental right to privacy.

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wswintoday at 3:25 PM

not the state, but the law

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wat10000today at 3:16 PM

"Identifying a criminal" doesn't imply that it's done by the government, and being done by the government doesn't imply that it's done to a criminal. This comment seems like quite a leap.

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dmos62today at 3:17 PM

Innocent until proven guilty (in a court of law)?

gigatexaltoday at 3:28 PM

ethics and morality are not interchangeable are they?

anyway individuals willingly give to teh state some autonomy in return for the safety of governance... that's the social contract free people have with government

"doxxing" a Russian ransomware group is the kind thing to do. bombing them out of existence is within the remit of the range of ideas a government could resort to...

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