No. Simple data extraction is what a contracted penetration tester does, because they secured (here's that word again) a contract that limits their liability when doing simple data extraction. Poking around to find out how severe a vulnerability might be is how you manage to get yourself in civil trouble even when you're testing a site that runs a bug bounty; god help you if you're doing it on a site that doesn't have one, or, worse, hasn't really ever heard of one.
People share a lot of really bad advice about security research. The best advice you'll get from people that don't work in the field is "stay away" and "don't try to help"; it's cynical, but at least it's not going to get you sued, like following this kind of "poking around is a white hat norm" advice will.
People share a lot of really bad advice about security research. The best advice you'll get from people that don't work in the field is "stay away" and "don't try to help"; it's cynical, but at least it's not going to get you sued, like following this kind of "poking around is a white hat norm" advice will.