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42% of Web Users Sneak Onto Others' Online Accounts

Posted by samzenpus on from the what-are-you-doing-there dept.

An anonymous reader writes "In an online survey, 42 percent of Internet users admitted to logging into other people's email and social networking accounts without their knowledge. The poll doesn't ask if passwords were found, granted, or stolen — which would make for further interesting results. The write-up summarizing the results defines the respondents as part of an "educated tech-readership" and questions the ethics of logging onto someone else's account, and whether those differ depending on the person and relationship."

18 of 313 comments (clear)

  1. (no subject) by woodchip · · Score: 5, Insightful

    or "auto-saved" in their web browser.

  2. Stolen AC's password... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    but it did take me some time so this is not Frist Post.

    1. Re:Stolen AC's password... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      Damn it. And I worked so hard building up a solid reputation for honesty and rational thought.

  3. And it works, too by Das+Modell · · Score: 5, Funny

    I'm actually the one who posted this story.

    1. Re:And it works, too by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      Hahahaha! Disregard that, I suck cocks.
      -Das Modell

      reference in case people think I'm trolling.

  4. That's so true! by wwrmn · · Score: 5, Informative

    wwrmn molests kittens and has been known to punch puppies.

    --
    until ( $win ) { &cheat }
  5. Sharing passwords by geekgirlandrea · · Score: 5, Insightful

    It just seems bizarre to me how many people think it's normal to give out their password to family/friends/partners/whatever. I've never revealed a password to anyone in my life and never will, and my really important ones get changed regularly. Is that really so terribly unusual?

    1. Re:Sharing passwords by geekgirlandrea · · Score: 5, Funny

      Well, I suppose I shouldn't be assuming which sex is the correct one for you, but from the implication of scarcity I'll go ahead and assume you're a straight male.

      Anyway, we *do* exist. Including myself, I know of at least two women who know how to use a packet sniffer. Now, we're both gay, so that doesn't help you very much, but I'm sure there have to be straight geeky women out there.

    2. Re:Sharing passwords by Dragonslicer · · Score: 5, Funny

      Now, we're both gay

      <obligatory>Pics or it didn't happen!</obligatory>

    3. Re:Sharing passwords by Profane+MuthaFucka · · Score: 5, Funny

      Confucius say "A gay girl with packet sniffer? Hmmm, something fishy here."

      --
      Fascism trolls keeping me up every night. When I starts a preachin', he HITS ME WITH HIS REICH!
    4. Re:Sharing passwords by unitron · · Score: 5, Funny

      Especially if you're a cunning linguist.

      --

      I see even classic Slashdot is now pretty much unusable on dial up anymore.

    5. Re:Sharing passwords by Eivind · · Score: 5, Insightful

      There's also the possibility that you actually trust someone. My wife knows the passwords for some of my stuff, simply out of convenience. It -does- happen that she needs some stuff (say pictures) from my laptop and I'm out. The home-partition is encrypted, she knows the password.

      I don't see the big deal. I didn't encrypt it to protect it from HER. I encrypted it so that stuff on there stays private even if say a burglar steals the laptop.

      Yeah, this means if she likes she can dig around in my firefox-history or whatever. So what ? I trust her. Certainly, it's possible that she'll betray that trust at some point. That's always a risk when trusting people. If that happens though, the privacy of my emails will be the least of my worries.

      "Lost my wife, and my gmail-password" -- somehow I don't think the gmail-password is going to be the biggest deal in that context.

  6. Insane girlfriends by Butisol · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I knew this chick who got her boyfriend's password by looking over his shoulder. She used it well after their relationship ended, out of some mix of jealousy, spite, and hope that they'd be together again. She would make letters from other girls disappear, know when to make inconvenient calls/appearances, and whatever else it is that a manipulative, batshit insane, ex-girlfriend does. It was pretty funny. Point is, I suspect most breaches of passwords are of this sort of nature rather than really sensitive commercial stuff, so it's all lulz and it's all good.

  7. Complete nonsense by e2d2 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I'm calling bullshit on this one. 42%? yeah right. Maybe parents checking up on their kid's habits but even then I can't see almost _half_ of the world's internet users using another person's account.

    But that's the thing, the poll doesn't infer that it's all web users, just people that visit that website. The write up is incorrect.

    This is so lame I'm having a hard time not laughing. Is this the best we can get? How does this tripe pass the test to be posted on slashdot, and not in the idle section?

  8. Bugmenot by gringer · · Score: 5, Interesting

    does bugmenot count?

    --
    Ask me about repetitive DNA
  9. What were the survey questions? by Dan+B. · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Like all surveys that want to portray a 'shocking' result, it all comes down to the wording of the questions. It is very easy to get a respondent to tick yes on a question that asks "do you log in to other people's accounts" by first baiting them with a whole bunch of rubbish like "do you help others with their IT issues" and so on.

    Without the actual survey, the results are, in my opinion, just as good as made up.

    --
    Dan. -- So what if it's spelt wrong, nobody's perfect
  10. Did it to nuke a MySpace account by AaronW · · Score: 5, Funny

    I once had to do this. Some idiot on MySpace set their account to use one of my email addresses. Repeated requests to Myspace went unanswered, so I just used the password recovery tool to change it and promptly deleted his account. Problem solved.

    --
    This post is encrypted twice with ROT-13. Documenting or attempting to crack this encryption is illegal.
  11. Ok, fess up. by PPH · · Score: 5, Funny

    Which one of you got hold of CmdrTaco's password and posted all these lame stories?

    --
    Have gnu, will travel.