From the press release:
Today, 16 April 2015, WikiLeaks publishes an analysis and search system for The Sony Archives: 30,287 documents from Sony Pictures Entertainment (SPE) and 173,132 emails, to and from more than 2,200 SPE email addresses. SPE is a US subsidiary of the Japanese multinational technology and media corporation Sony, handling their film and TV production and distribution operations. It is a multi-billion dollar US business running many popular networks, TV shows and film franchises such as Spider-Man, Men in Black and Resident Evil.
In November 2014 the White House alleged that North Korea’s intelligence services had obtained and distributed a version of the archive in revenge for SPE’s pending release of The Interview, a film depicting a future overthrow of the North Korean government and the assassination of its leader, Kim Jong-un. Whilst some stories came out at the time, the original archives, which were not searchable, were removed before the public and journalists were able to do more than scratch the surface.
Now published in a fully searchable format The Sony Archives offer a rare insight into the inner workings of a large, secretive multinational corporation. The work publicly known from Sony is to produce entertainment; however, The Sony Archives show that behind the scenes this is an influential corporation, with ties to the White House (there are almost 100 US government email addresses in the archive), with an ability to impact laws and policies, and with connections to the US military-industrial complex.
WikiLeaks editor-in-chief Julian Assange said: “This archive shows the inner workings of an influential multinational corporation. It is newsworthy and at the centre of a geo-political conflict. It belongs in the public domain. WikiLeaks will ensure it stays there.”
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Lee Munson writes in WikiLeaks publishes massive searchable archive of hacked Sony documents,
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According to the Guardian, former senator Chris Dodd, chairman of the MPAA, wrote how the republication of this information signifies a further attack on the privacy of those involved:This information was stolen from Sony Pictures as part of an illegal and unprecedented cyberattack. Wikileaks is not performing a public service by making this information easily searchable. Instead, with this despicable act, Wikileaks is further violating the privacy of every person involved.
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Hacked Sony documents soon began appearing online and were available for download from a number of different sites but interested parties had to wade through vast volumes of data to find what they were looking for.
WikiLeaks’ new searchable archive will, sadly, make it far easier to discover the information they require.
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I don’t see anything sad about the posting of the Sony documents in searchable form by Wikileaks.
If anything, I regret there aren’t more leaks, breaches, etc., of both corporate and governmental document archives. Leaks and breaches that should be posted “as is” with no deletions by Wikileaks, the Guardian or anyone else.
Chris Dodd’s privacy concerns aren’t your privacy concerns. Not even close.
Your privacy concerns (some of them):
- personal finances
- medical records
- phone calls (sorry, already SOL on that one)
- personal history and relationships
- more normal sort of stuff
The MPAA, Sony and such, have much different privacy concerns:
- concealment of meetings with and donations to members of government
- concealment of hiring practices and work conditions
- concealment of agreements with other businesses
- concealment of offenses against the public
- concealment of the exercise of privilege
Not really the same are they?
Your privacy centers on you, the MPAA/Sony privacy centers on what they have done to others.
New terms? You have a privacy interest, MPAA/Sony has an interest in concealing information.
That sets a better tone for the discussion.