Originally Posted by
eyancy
The creation of an account to be used for “screen scrapping” or other methods of automated data collection using the GetThere booking tool is strictly forbidden. Any entity that has created an account for this purpose should stop doing so immediately.
Eric Yancy,
Information Security Officer, GetThere
A most interesting post, Eric! While I'm sure most of us who have been following the way KVS attempts to get users to piggyback on accounts they're not authorized to be using, I'm wondering if you have any information you can give us regarding the legality of this? Of course laws vary from one jurisdiction to another, but perhaps if you're familiar with the laws in let's say the U.S., how are users there potentially legally liable for unauthorized access to your data? And also KVS itself. I know KVS has denied in the past that they directly code access to these types of accounts into their software, but based on reports of the program at times accessing websites and using credentials that were never expressly provided by the user, my guess would be that KVS, even if being technically correct, could easily be doing it indirectly. For example, if their software just did some accessing of a webpage where credential information was shown, pull up that data and store it into a file, then they'd be technically correct that their software doesn't store those credentials internally. BUT it would have a specific mechanism in the software for obtaining that and using that even without the express approval by the user of supplying those credentials. Given KVS's secrecy and avoiding answering questions directly, I wouldn't at all be surprised if they don't or haven't in the past used something similar.
Well, if the access of the GetThere data is at all illegal in certain jurisdictions, then that begs the question of the owners/moderators here on FlyerTalk as to whether the promotion of a tool that is using illegal methods and/or the owner of the tool suggesting to users to illegally access data is in violation of the terms and condition of this website.
From this websites terms and conditions:
Content prohibited from our sites and services includes but is not limited to: (1) illegal content; (2) content in facilitation of the creation, advertising, distribution, provision or receipt of illegal goods or services; (3) offensive content (including, without limitation, court ordered defamatory statements, threatening, hateful or pornographic content); (4) content that discloses another's personal, confidential or proprietary information; (5) false or fraudulent content (including but not limited to false, fraudulent or misleading responses to user ads transmitted via our sites and services); (6) malicious content (including, without limitation, malware or spyware); (7) content that offers, promotes, advertises, or provides links to posting or auto-posting products or services, account creation or auto-creation products or services, flagging or auto-flagging products or services, bulk telephone numbers, or any other product or service that if utilized with respect to our sites and services would violate these TOU or our other legal rights; and (8) content that offers, promotes, advertises or provides links to unsolicited products or services. Other content prohibitions are set forth in supplemental terms for particular categories or services on our sites and services and all such prohibitions are expressly incorporated into these TOU as stated in the introductory paragraphs above.
In my view, KVS is in violation of item 2, if the accessing of this information is illegal, being they're clearly promoting their tool and methods for doing that here. For item 4, I've not seen them post directly on this website such content, but they are using this website to facilitate this.
Just an idea for anyone who's data is being misused, one might want to take a round-about approach, in addition to any direct methods being sought, to terminate their promotion of illegal and/or unethical access of data.