Film, Gadgets, and Geekdom

I am in a dilemma right now.  Let me see if I can accurately explain the situation (from my POV), then I will tell you my dilemma.

Tonight, while Lexy and I were watching Ratatouille, (very good movie that looks absolutely gorgeous on Blu-Ray) two of my roommates decided to mess about with another roommate’s computer.  I wasn’t sitting around them while they were doing this, but the gist of what I heard of them doing was messing with some settings, scouting browser history and chat logs, and turning on logging for applications that previously were not logged, presumably for future snooping.  The majority of what I believed them to be doing was gathering information on the owner of the computer for whatever reason.  I think they both had some very, VERY personal reasons for the snooping, but I could be wrong and digress.

So, here was my reaction after the movie was over (I finished the movie because I was interested in it): I thought they were invading the roommate’s privacy.  The computer had a password on the login (and I think screen saver, but don’t quote me on that) for a reason.  That reason, to me personally, was to protect the content on the machine from prying eyes.  Something I think the two did not respect.  So, I confronted the two of them and said that I did not like how they violated the privacy of someone I live with and if they cannot be trusted to not mess with that particular person’s things, then how could I trust them with mine?  The both of the roommates had been using my car to get themselves to work as a courtesy from me.  I told both of them that since I can’t trust them with other people’s stuff, then I can’t trust them with my car and my things.  This, naturally, upset both of them.  I was hoping to have a discussion with them about this situation, but both walked away and later short discussions lead essentially nowhere for now.  I keep thinking that I can tell how they really feel towards me, but truthfully, I can’t really tell.  My friendships with them both have been hitting quite a few rough patches over the past few months.  Both of them are long time friends, but now, well, I’ll get into this next part in a bit.

Here is my dilemma: Was I right?  I know, heavy question.  My brain tells me that I did the right thing, that I handled the situation like it should have been handled.  My emotions, on the other hand, tell me that I should have stayed out of it for the sake of the friendships.  Like I said, these are long time friendships having known both of these people for a very long time.  Recently, it seems, I have been doing more and more to jeopardize these friendships.  I love both of them very much and it really does hurt me to feel this way toward them, to not know whether or not I can trust them.  Maybe I did overreact, maybe it wasn’t any of my business, but it seems that the type of snooping they were doing was NOT harmless and that just makes me uncomfortable.

I did my best to keep any information of the identity of those involved, other than myself and my wife watching a movie, concealed from those not involved in this situation.  Please let me know if I should lock this post from the public.