> OK then, let's take it into the physical world. Should I be able to
> test the doors of your house or car to see if your alarms are
> working?
If you had something at stake - sure. For example, if you left an
object in my car then you certainly would be justified in doing so.
Or, suppose I own a business which sells your merchandise. Would it
be wrong for you to check on the door if you were walking by at night?
Or even if you were considering doing business with me, it would seem
appropriate to take a careful measure of my security methods.
Let's bring this back online. Recently there was some talk about
online banks on this list. Security is a big concern. Would I be
wrong to probe their website a bit to see if I can find any holes in
their system before I put money in?
Obviously online banking is an entirely different thing than sending
mail, but I don't see any fundamental problem with doing some probing
of a remote host you will be contacting in the future - at least in
the case that the probing is relevant to the the contact you will
have.
But, my disclaimer again is that I'm not stating the above as
anything I've spent more than the last half hour thinking about.
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