Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Kickstarter Leaves Project Ideas Exposed

Posted by Soulskill on from the i-just-had-70,000-great-ideas dept.

netbuzz writes "Crowd-funding startup Kickstarter is taking a public-relations hit today after it was reported that some 70,000 not-yet-public project ideas were left exposed on the company's Web site for more than two weeks. Kickstarter insists that no financial information was compromised and that only a few dozen of the projects were actually accessed. 'Obviously our users' data is incredibly important to us, the company said in a blog post. 'Even though limited information was made accessible through this bug, it is completely unacceptable.'"

11 of 56 comments (clear)

  1. "Exposed" defined: by Bananatree3 · · Score: 5, Informative
    TFA reads:

    This bug allowed some data from unlaunched projects to be made accessible via the API. It was immediately fixed upon discovering the error. No account or financial data of any kind was made accessible. The bug was introduced when we launched the API in conjunction with our new homepage on April 24, and was live until it was discovered and fixed on Friday, May 11, at 1:42pm. The bug made accessible the project description, goal, duration, rewards, video, image, location, category, and user name for unlaunched projects.

    1. Re:"Exposed" defined: by poetmatt · · Score: 4, Insightful

      So basically as TFA says, the hype is courtesy of the WSJ and vested interests that don't like independent businesses and new startups? Say it ain't so.

  2. I so meta... by x1r8a3k · · Score: 5, Funny

    Maybe they can setup a kickstarter to fund the software improvements.

    1. Re:I so meta... by CastrTroy · · Score: 4, Informative

      Obligatory XKCD.

      --

      Anthropic principle: We see the universe the way it is because if it were different we would not be here to see it.
  3. So many ideas... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Wow, that's like... $7 worth of ideas!

  4. Revelation by MetalliQaZ · · Score: 4, Insightful

    As I read this I tried to analyze my feelings about this news. I have found that I am completely indifferent. Did someone get to take a look at unpublished, in-progress kickstarter ideas? May be. Does it matter? Not really.

    I suppose that means I should expect the buzz around kickstarter to fade away until it settles into its niche. Sorta like eBay.

    I'm sure one of those 7000 will flip out and try to sue somebody, but it would be meaningless.

    --
    "Here Lies Philip J. Fry, named for his uncle, to carry on his spirit"
    1. Re:Revelation by arth1 · · Score: 4, Insightful

      As I read this I tried to analyze my feelings about this news. I have found that I am completely indifferent. Did someone get to take a look at unpublished, in-progress kickstarter ideas? May be. Does it matter? Not really.

      Bear in mind that the US just switched to a "first to file" patent system, and since these projects hadn't hit the open stage yet, they were unpublished and thus not "prior art" unless published elsewhere.

      "Only" dozens were accessed...

    2. Re:Revelation by MetalliQaZ · · Score: 3, Insightful

      This is kickstarter. It is meant for projects, not patents. If they were planning patenting something, they shouldn't have been pumping the details into website that is essentially public. Also, lets face it. If the innovations were so good, they could get funding through traditional channels. (saving up, selling car, mortgaging home, begging friends and family, venture capital firms, private venture capital investments. In that order.)

      -d

      --
      "Here Lies Philip J. Fry, named for his uncle, to carry on his spirit"
  5. At least Kickstarter don't make a living from it.. by dryriver · · Score: 4, Interesting

    When Facebook exposes the private data of tens of millions of its users to the Internet, nothing happens. Nothing gets investigated. Nobody is held responsible. Nobody goes to jail, or somesuch. In fact, the market value of Facebook only goes up as a result of it exposing more and more data to its commercial partners and the internet at large. ----- Kickstarter accidentally leave a few WIP funding projects exposed to API users? Ooooh, that's so terrible! Ooooh, that's so wrong! ------- In the age of Facebook, which Julian Assange quite accurately called "the most abominable spying machine created in human history", a little slip-up like this shouldn't even make the news. -------- Kickstarter is a genuinely useful website. I hope it stays that way.

    --
    Why did the chicken cross the road? Because Elon Musk put an AI chip in its head.
  6. Re:At least Kickstarter don't make a living from i by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Until someone pulls off the imminent millionaire scam and flees to Aruba, beyond the reach of any legal system.

    But then we start a Kickstarter project to fund a trip to go after them.

  7. Ideas are a Dime a Dozen - Issue fixed by pubwvj · · Score: 3, Interesting

    1. Kickstarter fixed it. Good for them.

    2. Nobody was harmed in the making of this joke.

    3. Ideas are freely available on Kickstarter. They do make that point. If you can't stand your ideas being known don't Kickstart them.

    We are building a nano-scale on-farm USDA meat processing facility for our farm. We're using Kickstarter to fund it in part (see http://smf.me/ for details - tomorrows the last day May 15th). I'm open sourcing it. Go see my blog and see the floor plan, read about all the neat things we've developed to make it more energy efficient, smaller, lower cost and useful. If you want to do the same thing then more power to you. Share ideas.

    -Walter Jeffries
    Sugar Mountain Farm
    http://sugarmtnfarm.com/