While the Boston Marathon bombings and fertilizer plant explosion in West Texas had Latin American news outlets scouring for wire reports, press from one Spanish-speaking country maintained a physical presence in Washington for the bipartisan immigration bill introduced Wednesday morning. Yes, it’s obvious – Mexico.

Like media in the U.S., El Universal, one of the largest newspapers in Mexico City, published a straightforward piece titled, “Immigration reform plan presented before the Senate.”

Unsurprisingly, the paper first quoted Florida senator Marco Rubio, who spearheaded Republican outreach. El Universal details the border security, path to citizenship, interior enforcement and immigration overhaul portions of the bill but they are buried two-thirds of the way down. The article’s subhead demonstrates the portion it finds most important:

The project contemplates more severe border control measures that, until applied, will prevent any undocumented immigrant to solicit a temporary visa.

Six hours later on Wednesday, El Universal published a second article titled, “Left and right in the U.S. criticize immigration project” breaking down the political leanings, arguments and the like.

Halfway through this story, El Universo departs from the alarming tone characterizing the first story’s headline and highlights the bill’s potential upside for immigrants in a paragraph:

With these developments, the U.S.’s immigration system would move from emphasis on family ties with citizens or permanent residents to determine who could enter the country, to a focus based on the abilities and opportunities for employment of future immigrants.

El Universal warmed up to the bill even more the next day. The headline “U.S. drives immigration reform” suggests a majority of legislators and Americans support the proposed bill – something presumptuous. If that doesn’t come off at least slightly enthusiastic, the accompany photo and its caption give it away:

 PRIDE. Immigrants take an oath of citizenship at a ceremony celebrated yesterday in New York.

And to clear up any doubts that El Universal is looking forward to immigration reform, check out the headline of the short, second piece today. The headline reads, “Positive, the advances sought: Mexico.”

An infographic package called “The route toward immigration reform” created earlier this year reiterates El Universal’s commitment to informing Mexico’s people about this issue that pertains to them at a larger scale than other Latinos due to proximity.

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The infographic charts dramatic changes between boroughs and neighborhoods. Manhattan’s income gap between the richest 20 percent and poorest 20 percent was on par with countries like Sierra Leone, Namibia and Lesotho, The New Yorker reports. Other highlights include a highest median income of $205,192 at the Chambers Street, Park Place and World Trade Center stations, a lowest median income of $12,288 at the Sutter Avenue stop on Line L in Brooklyn and a largest range in median income of $191,442 on Line 2 .

The interactive got us wondering what further conclusions could be drawn about disparities within individual lines and the boroughs along the way – Brooklyn, the Bronx, Manhattan and the Queens. So we went ahead and found the average median household income for all 21 lines and came up with this chart displaying them from highest to lowest:

Line E had the highest average median income at $88,888, while Line D had the lowest at $48,203, an 84.4 percent deficit. All six lines with the highest incomes, all above $70,000, included stations in Manhattan. Only Line 1, which ranked second highest at $82,638, included stops in the Bronx. That got us curious about average median incomes per borough, so we created a separate chart, pulling out duplicate median income values because it is assumed they are in the same neighborhood.

Unsurprisingly, Manhattan came out on top with an average median income of $84,510 and the Bronx dead last at $33,676. What surprised us is how close the average medians for Brooklyn and Queens came out – $49,014 and $54,274, respectively. This just skims the surface of what could be a long analytical journey into other societal problems as they relate to income like ridership numbers and crime rates for each line or borough, or even a platform for comparison to this disillusioning map by Max Fisher of The Washington Post on how 35 countries compare on child poverty (the U.S. is ranked 34^th).

The takeaway from our analysis so far, though, is something you may or may not already know depending on your average median income. If you’re in the middle to low range, you’ve probably used the subway enough to see the disparities, whereas if you’re a resident at Park Place, your go-to transportation may not be the subway that exposes these gaps. But we could be wrong.

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Here is an image of the beginning of the massive doc. We blurred out selected information to protect these Good Samaritans:

Entries ranged in simplicity from the first post, “Small apartment; can accommodate 1 or 2 people” at 5:39 p.m. EST to this one that offered quite a bit of information on the volunteer and even his friend:

I’m staying with a friend in Livermore, east bay area of San Francisco, and am out of work now for a couple of months. As a runner and a human being this is a great opportunity however since it gives me something away from the constant job hunt and allows me plenty of time to help in any way someone may need. Contact me by the most convenient method to you and allow me to do whatever I can to help.

The outpouring of offers spoke to the selflessness of so many in our society, but this “act of terror”  inflamed our sensitivity over personal information. We weren’t the only ones.

“Sometimes, social media in the event of a crisis like this brings out both the best and dumbest in us,” Steve Quigley, a Boston University associate professor in the College of Communication told The Atlantic Wire. “I do think it’s moving to see how many people will respond generously, offering support and information. In some ways, it shines a spotlight on the best of us. It also perhaps gives low-hanging fruit to those who may represent the worst in us.”

As access and participation in digital spaces mushroom, more and more opportunities arise to spread personal information with insufficient safeguards. In this case, the Google doc is a click or tap away for anyone, whether a marathon victim or a criminal preying on personal information. Quigley thought it was “really risky” and would have preferred to see people provide their neighborhoods and e-mail addresses but hold their names and phone numbers. “I think people forget the medium they’re using and maybe even in a very best of instinct of trying to help somebody. It’s easy to rush in and provide more information than is wise to provide,” he said.

Granted much was public information, but a disaster like the Boston bombings creates an opportunity for scammers to capitalize on massive amounts of personal data. It suddenly becomes easier to juxtapose with information that location-based platforms like Foursquare make available, Quigley said.

Our concern – hopefully just paranoia – isn’t anything new. A Foursquare parody site pleaserobme.com launched in 2010 to raise awareness about over-sharing. “The danger is publicly telling people where you are. This is because it leaves one place you’re definitely not…. home,” the website says.

If that sounded like a stretch, this shouldn’t: scammers tweets. A much retweeted message came from the phony marathon account “@_BostonMarathon”, since deleted by Twitter, reading: “For every retweet we receive we will donate $1.00 to the #BostonMarathon victims #PrayForBoston.” As Benny Evangelista of The San Francisco Chronicle explains in his blog post:

Such tragedies always bring out the scammers trying to make a quick buck, and this is no exception. The Domains, a website that keeps track of Internet domain name news, reported that there were at least 70 “troubling” new domain names registered after the Boston bombings, “many that look like charitable domains that can be be used to raise money for the victims.”

Digital spaces, like public places, can harbor danger, but Quigley sees the glass as half full. “I’m not saying that these outlets are not being used to harm others but I have a general feeling that there’s more good coming from them than bad.”

We haven’t heard any reports of crime related to the Google doc sharing and sincerely hope we are being overly cautious in thinking such a positive use of social media could lead to harm.

UPDATE: The Boston Globe took down personal information from the Google doc and stopped accepting submissions on Wednesday morning after receiving nearly 6,000 offers for help.

A row added at the top of the Google doc reads: “NOTE: The Boston Globe has removed personal information from this list, but left up the details column as a tribute to all those who offered up their homes and hearts.” The timestamps remain, as does “Other info” detailing what was being offered up, but the name, phone number, e-mail address and neighborhood are blanked out.

Again, excuse our paranoia, but we’re relieved.

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