While independently, I studied the field of ethics quite seriously.  Since the title uses the word &quot;unethical&quot; it is important to realize that ethics isn&#x27;t just a matter of opinion.<p>Without getting deeper into the field, it&#x27;s fair to say that on the basis of this article (I have no personal opinion, the author&#x27;s article is the first I heard of this app) I consider the behavior outlined highly ethical.<p>In particular the author notes:<p>&quot;Serena, my friend, is a heavy View user already&quot;<p>Which implies to me that the app brings great benefits to its users.<p>An example of a clearly unethical growth hack is if the result of using the app was detrimental to its users, for example if the goal of the app were to start getting its users to start smoking cigarettes through inventing a fake impression that friends were doing so.  While a point of debate, it is not so controversial to argue that actions should be judged at least in part on the basis of their likely outcomes, and the author shows that the outcome here is positive for people.<p>Naturally there are grey areas but on the whole the article does not seem to prove the title.  I have no interest in or disclaimer to make on this subject and clicked through for the same reason everyone else did, to see an example of unethical growth hacking. I don&#x27;t believe I did see one.