Apparently somebody thinks they're a "white knight" I just got an email from "The Team at Hint" (teamhint at hint dot io). The text is:
Hi there,
Hint wanted to let you know that your email address and password that you used to signup for Gawker (or one of its sites) were hacked. Forbes' coverage is here
In situations like this, time is of the essence, which is why we were surprised & shocked to find that Gawker Media hadn't taken the initiative to notify you of this privacy breach immediately. We HIGHLY recommend you change all of your online passwords as a precaution.
I can't see how it's unethical, unless even looking at the data is unethical, and you'll have to convince me of that. I'd be more concerned about the ramifications than the ethics. The least bad thing that could happen here is winding up on some big ISP's blacklist because enough of their users marked this unsolicited mail as spam. Once that happens, good luck communicating with your customers.
I'm sure you can imagine the worst that could happen. Courtrooms are not happy fun places.
Hi there,
Hint wanted to let you know that your email address and password that you used to signup for Gawker (or one of its sites) were hacked. Forbes' coverage is here
In situations like this, time is of the essence, which is why we were surprised & shocked to find that Gawker Media hadn't taken the initiative to notify you of this privacy breach immediately. We HIGHLY recommend you change all of your online passwords as a precaution.
-The Team at Hint
(This is a one time email)
I'm not sure how ethical this is.