Two Way Mirror

I was sitting outside my favourite hotspot the other night. I didn't actually know who owned the wireless connection – just they never bothered putting on a password. Some cafes do it, I rationalised, as a favour to their customers. I made a mental note to have a coffee at all of them over the next week or so.

Well, up popped three shared folders from someone's computers. Curiosity, and all that, I opened them one by one to see who my anonymous benefactor was.

...A computer shop - and there before me were files containing stock inventory, personnel information and other shit I shouldn't be party to. Most of the stuff didn't interest me and I passed on. One computer had tons of music so I checked it out.

Now, I know my playlists when I see them. I'm fussy, a completist when I can, and I have a system of categorising my music collection. There, amid sundry 'top 100s' and 'music to drink beer by', was my entire Evanescance collection from a couple of years ago. Once, when I'd taken my old Windows machine in for servicing, the tech evidently helped himself to my music files.

I wonder how often that happens? It never occurred to me before, but, there must be millions of computer technicians the world over cunningly downloading customer's music collections onto their own computers. What other stuff are they helping themselves to, though? Curiously, I'm a little pissed and a little worried.

Pissed, because the guy never asked to download my music. Like most people, I buy the cd and back it up on the computer. The guy's getting it for nothing.

But, then, his company is presumably paying for the bandwidth I'm using. In retrospect, I considered it a fair trade and don't feel so guilty.

But, it shouldn't be that easy to break into a company's personnel records. Do they realise how wide open they are? They have a duty of care, under privacy regulations, to safeguard information they hold on people. A computer shop, for Christ's sake, ought to be computer savvy and lock up their files behind some kind of security system. All I had to do was turn the MacBook on outside the shop and I was into their files without having to do anything else. It was scaringly simple.

And it's not illegal, so I'm told by the Police. I didn't steal passwords – I didn't have to – I didn't sabotage their system – although I could have – and I didn't steal information. If I find a folder of personal information lying in the street, I have an ethical duty to turn it over to the owner or the Police, but not a legal one.

What I can't do is use the information I might come across without the permission of the owner. The same as finding someone's credit card – to try and use it, knowing it's not mine, is theft. To take reasonable steps to find the owner or, failing that, to turn it into the police, is morally right and part of being a good citizen, but I can't be locked up for not doing it.

Should I plant a message on their computer telling them how insecure they are? I know folks who have done this – there's no legal question involved. But did that technician seek my permission to download files off my computer for his own use? There's irony involved here, and I haven't solved the ethical dilemma.

Don