Hacking government emails: It’s illegal but is it immoral?

By Todd Herman

I’ve got to be careful here because I don’t want to advocate crime. But as time goes on, I think it becomes more and more justifiable to hack into the email accounts of government officials. Again, I don’t advocate this — because it’s illegal.

But is it immoral? With each passing day it becomes less so. Because it’s becoming clearer every day that our government doesn’t care about us and refuses to disclose what is our information.

Related: Washington Gov. Jay Inslee’s work habits leave much to be desired

You should be able to email Sound Transit and get the operating budget for Bertha. Or better yet, you should be able to log onto the cloud and look at the budget for Bertha. It’s your money and your city. And it’s your information that belongs to you.

Why does the state legislature get a magic waiver to not reply to public document requests? 

But it’s not only here in Washington state. It’s happening at the national level. Unless it affects national security, all government documents and emails should be on the internet. And it should be accessible to everyone.

With every passing day that our government views “we the people” as an obstacle to their goals, I will stand with political candidates that stand for actual transparency. Their documents and emails are ours, and we should have the right to look at them whenever we want.