After the first week of lecture, my classmate figured out that they could share files with other
students by creating a “pub” directory in their home folder and setting its permissions to allow
anyone to access it. They also changed the permissions on their home directory so that the pub
folder could be reached. Because of this, I now notice that there are several files in their
account that I could technically open.
Even though the files are technically accessible, I think it would still be ethically wrong to look at
them without permission. Just because someone makes a folder accessible does not mean they
want all of the contents to be read by others. Some files might be personal notes, drafts, or
assignments that were not intended to be shared. Accessing these kinds of files would violate
my classmate’s privacy. This is an example of what we discussed in lecture as a “harmless
wrong”: the action might seem small or not directly harmful, but it is still ethically problematic
because it ignores someone else’s expectations.
Whether it is wrong also depends on what the files are. If they are materials meant for everyone,
like lecture slides or shared class resources, then it would be fine to look at them. But if the files
are personal or contain sensitive information, accessing them would be wrong. The way I use
the information also matters, simply viewing might already be bad, but copying, sharing, or
using it in some way would make it worse.
In short, just because a folder is open does not automatically make it okay to use the files.
Ethical behavior means thinking about the intent of the owner, the kind of files, and what I do
with the information. Respecting privacy is important, even when it seems easy to access
someone else’s files.