If you want a harmless target that they’re actually trying to prevent, try to get it to tell you how to make drugs or bombs. If you succeed, all you’ll get will be a worse, less reliable version of information that you can easily find with a normal Internet search, but it still makes your point.
On edit: Just to be clear, it is NOT illegal in most places to seek or have that information. The only counterexample I know of in “the West” is the UK, but even they make an exception if you have a legitimate reason other than actual bomb making. The US tried to do something about publishing some such information, but it required intent that the information be abused as an element of the offense, I’m not sure how far it got, and it’s constitutionally, um, questionable.
Good point. (I do use that that target sometimes, forgot to include in the post.)
I am noticing that I find the bombs&drugs target somewhat suboptimal on the “embarrassing to the company” axis. Probably precisely because the company has the (valid) excuse that this information is already out there. This makes me wonder where being embarrassing to the company (or otherwise serving as an incentive for safety work) might be fundamentally connected to being genuinely harmful :/ . (Though the elephant example shows that this shouldn’t be the case literally always.)
If you want a harmless target that they’re actually trying to prevent, try to get it to tell you how to make drugs or bombs. If you succeed, all you’ll get will be a worse, less reliable version of information that you can easily find with a normal Internet search, but it still makes your point.
On edit: Just to be clear, it is NOT illegal in most places to seek or have that information. The only counterexample I know of in “the West” is the UK, but even they make an exception if you have a legitimate reason other than actual bomb making. The US tried to do something about publishing some such information, but it required intent that the information be abused as an element of the offense, I’m not sure how far it got, and it’s constitutionally, um, questionable.
Good point. (I do use that that target sometimes, forgot to include in the post.)
I am noticing that I find the bombs&drugs target somewhat suboptimal on the “embarrassing to the company” axis. Probably precisely because the company has the (valid) excuse that this information is already out there. This makes me wonder where being embarrassing to the company (or otherwise serving as an incentive for safety work) might be fundamentally connected to being genuinely harmful :/ . (Though the elephant example shows that this shouldn’t be the case literally always.)