Poster country flags and privacy

by Simon 263 Replies latest forum announcements

• 

  besty

  I like the wee flags.

  Simon has enough experience of running the forum securely for us to trust him to make a call on the greater good for the majority, even if a vocal minority disagree. (A poll or vote will naturally be skewed towards those who care enough to register their disapproval - the vast majority don't care - at a glance there are about 5 people on this thread with a strong negative opinion, out of how many thousand members?)

  The corner case described of Bjork the Inept Icelandic hairdresser requires Bjork to be as clueless with regard to the public internet as she is with regard to running a hair salon. Her foolishness should not disadvantage the majority of more clueful forum users, who recognizing they live in a small country are more circumspect with posting significant personally identifiable information. In fact I would argue that having a country flag would help Bjork give a silent anti-witness to other Icelanders also lurking on the forum.

  As to posting while travelling, if its a concern just zip your paranoid thoughts up until you get back to a secure location.
• 

  Witness My Fury

  No one holds a gun to your head and forces you to post personal stuff on here do they? No one holds your family hostage and wont release them unless you post while travelling do they? 

  You have freedom of choice to post or not, and how much personal info you reveal about yourself on here and elsewhere on the internet. If you have posted such personal info and it could come back to bite you and are then worried that a country flag will give your identity away, then whose fault is that really?

  
  
• 

  AnnOMaly

  ... who recognizing they live in a small country are more circumspect with posting significant personally identifiable information.

  People from small countries would have been more circumspect with posting certain identifiable information if they already knew in advance that their small country would be out there on public view. There was no indication upon joining that one day a significant piece of identifying information that they chose to keep private would actually be shared.
• 

  AnnOMaly

  WMF - Nobody holds a gun to a poster's head, true. But the poster can CHOOSE which personal information to disclose and which personal information to keep private. Nobody needs to know their reasons for choosing one way or another.

  By having country flags on display by default, Simon is taking away the CHOICE from the poster and potentially contributing to the exposure of active and fading JWs from smaller countries.

  
  
• 

  besty

  Ann - you are simply adding a further dimension to the list of variables.

  My right to clean air in our shared office trumps your right to smoke cigarettes.

  The global right to reasonable information about a poster trumps the corner case rights of a handful of posters who:

  • are from a small country AND
  • are concerned about their identity becoming known  AND
  • have already posted enough identifying information where simply adding their country makes it impossible to be anyone else AND
  • they have attracted the attention of a snooper who is bothered enough to research all their posts AND
  • that snooper decides to confront them with his findings AND
  • that person can't sidestep the resulting issue etc...

  
  

  Heck Ann - you are using the same avatar on at least 5 different websites - if I could be arsed I bet I could track you down just from your avatar....
• 

  bohm

  Besty: people on here is only arguing there should be a choice to hide the flag. Why is this a "strong negative oppinion"? What is the argument against such an option?

  As for bjork, the point is that the flag tells a snooping elder from iceland who of the thousands of people are worth examining in details. 
• 

  bohm

  Besty: what is being debated is not your freedom to show your countrys flag, but if I and others should have the option to keep it private. As for your list, you know i cannot get into trouble by revealing details, but my girlfriend can. Which is why we agreed to not reveal the country five years ago. Now that choice is being revoked. 
• 

  rebel8

  Rebel8: but do you agree this is then limiting what these people can discuss as well as not solving the problem of information revealed in the past?
  

  I spoke to future posts in my previous comments, but I do not know if it is a fact that previous posts will be flagged with a country. Does the geolocator look for where you were and where you are when it adds the country flag to your posts?
  
  What if you both stopped posting with your current account before the change took place? Then you could re-register with a new account and be sure to obscure anything personally identifiable.
  
  Is that technologically feasible, Simon?
  
  Another thought--how many of these tiny countries are English speaking (and therefore would be able to participate on this forum)?  If they're not English speaking countries but the poster speaks English, that would both help and hinder identification. Speaking English in a non-English country narrows down identities, but reduces the possibility that person can be found by an Internet search (because those searching would have to be searching English forums in English search engines).
  
  There is also the fact that showing countries gives the wts minions less places to hide when searching this forum.  They could, of course, see some info w/o registering, but not the members-only area, which is where those from tiny countries could post. Now that we have the new feature previewing active threads, it is less of an issue to get participation in threads posted to those sections.

  
  Will it be possible to search for posters who are from a certain country? I thought not.
  
• 

  breakfast of champions

  I'm not at all against having flags to identify a poster's country. I've identified what country and state I live in numerous times over the years. 

  My thought, though, is that many times a flag symbol is really almost meaningless. 

  For instance: one poster is from England, another from Scotland, yet another from Wales,  and one from Northern Ireland. Does the UK flag really represent the diversity in these posters?

  Or: I'm from New Jersey and another poster is from Hawaii, and we both get US flags? 

  We practically live on opposite sides of the planet!

  
  
• 

  AnnOMaly

  As for bjork, the point is that the flag tells a snooping elder from iceland who of the thousands of people are worth examining in details.

  100s of people. There are currently only 7 congregations in Iceland ...

  Heck Ann - you are using the same avatar on at least 5 different websites - if I could be arsed I bet I could track you down just from your avatar....

  Besty, you already know where I'm from :-P