Poster country flags and privacy (page 2)

hamsterbait

Simon - when you say that it is trivially easy to identify me on this site by my IP address, does this mean you allow people to come here and obtain that information, without my consent?

hamsterbait

And of course the local Dubs don't know you are an apostate from XXXX congo, as you have emigrated thousands of miles, almost half way round the world. I doubt you left contact information!!

Simon

when you say that it is trivially easy to identify me on this site by my IP address, does this mean you allow people to come here and obtain that information, without my consent?

No, *I* won't reveal people's IP information but if you are so concerned about your identity and reveal it to sites you may be putting yourself at risk.

This is another element that is worth pointing out which I forgot to add to the original post:

When you post something on the internet, it comes from your IP address which can be used to help identify you or at least narrow down your location (more than just your country - sometimes the company you are posting from, or the ISP etc...)

But this also happens when you load something - your browser requests a web page, a script or an image and the request get's the IP address and can do the lookup.

Now, here's a newsflash for anyone who is paranoid about being identified but doesn't feel they need to do anything to protect themselves online ...

It's easy for someone to get your IP address on many services.

Here's how: you post something online and include in it a link to an image. It's an image hosted on a service that you have access to so you can see the logs of who accesses it. You can reconcile those logs to posting dates and have a fairly good chance of identifying IP addresses to posters. It doesn't take great web skills to do.

I have put a lot of work into the new site to protect against this by proxying images so it cannot be done - most big sites do things similar to this but not all do or all forums do (if you can post images / smilies etc... then there is a risk). It's also why people have never been able to put HTML (embedded images) into direct messages because this would be even worse.

Finkelstein

Simon would it be too difficult to have an option in their Bio's , as to have a national identifying flag to where people are located ?

I realize its nice to see where people are living and some do use that to socially communicate by.

AnnOMaly

ABSOLUTELY NOT! Apart from my own situation, I know for fact that there were/are ones on here from small EU countries who have specified that they do not want their specific countries revealed for fear of their anonymity being compromised or being plain outed by any savvy hounders. Also, please remember your own attitude to AAWA's FB privacy breaches.

It is of vital importance, on a forum such as this, that fading JWs looking for a safe place to vent, to talk about their personal experiences, can be in control of what information to reveal publicly and what information to remain private. You have assured members that you take their privacy seriously and will do your utmost to protect it.

Please do what other good forums do and MAKE IT A CHOICE whether to reveal one's location or not. Do not take that choice away from vulnerable faders.

Thank you.

Simon

And of course the local Dubs don't know you are an apostate from XXXX congo, as you have emigrated thousands of miles, almost half way round the world. I doubt you left contact information!!

The point I was making is that if you really believe the WTS has teams of people dedicated to tracking others down then they are incredibly crap at their job or, the reality is, they simply don't exist.

I'm pretty sure that they could identify me fairly easily. Guess what - none of us are really that important to the WTS however much they may dislike us showing up their teachings.

Finkelstein

I see where your coming from Simon but taking in the perspective of there are many people who have been deeply involved in this religion (high controlling cult) that are quite paranoid as to revealing themselves openly to the public. Remember that instilled fear that the WTS. imposes onto people .

I'm sure the majority that sign up aren't that paranoid based from the reasons you mentioned but there is that small segment of people who it might effectuate.

Simon

ABSOLUTELY NOT! Apart from my own situation, I know for fact that there were/are ones on here from small EU countries who have specified that they do not want their specific countries revealed for fear of their anonymity being compromised or being plain outed by any savvy hounders.

I know you are referring to Cedars because you were the one who emailed him about it and initiated the "fuss". He was not concerned about his identity being revealed, he was concerned about his publicity stunt of revealing himself being diminished.

Also, please remember your own attitude to AAWA's FB privacy breaches.

I knew who Cedars identity was from the day he started kicking off and being an asshole. I chose not to reveal it unlike the AAWA who retaliated against individuals by revealing their identity.

Also, there is a world of difference between having a flag of the country next to your anonymous alias and having your direct personally identifying name and social media account exposed !

It is of vital importance, on a forum such as this, that fading JWs looking for a safe place to vent, to talk about their personal experiences, can be in control of what information to reveal publicly and what information to remain private. You have assured members that you take their privacy seriously and will do your utmost to protect it.

I think it is also of vital importance that people know who they are dealing with. Suppose you were presenting a false persona - would it be fair for you to go along continuing to do this while potentially using that false persona to befriend and obtain information about others who may otherwise have seen you as a risk if they knew you were not from where you claimed?

The protection against faders isn't always best served by allowing total anonymity by others. I don't think showing someone's country really exposes anyones identity but may show up some people's lies.

Please do what other good forums do and MAKE IT A CHOICE whether to reveal one's location or not. Do not take that choice away from vulnerable faders.

We're having the discussion now and again, we're talking about the COUNTRY being shown, not someone's location. IMO it does not identify anyone as you are trying to claim.

The choice of whether you reveal your location is yours to make and your job to protect if you are concerned about it. But I think everyone has a right to know if you are doing this as they can then rightly decide to limit what information they chose to share with you in return.

I think the tiny and insignificant 'exposure' of showing a country is offset by the benefits it provides and the increased protection it helps to deliver.

Simon

there is that small segment of people who it might effectuate.

Anyone who's situation would be as massively impacted as they claim should be taking measures to protect themselves - use a VPN or other anonymizer. The fact that they are not taking precautions suggests to me that they are making more of the issue than is warranted because they risk their fake persona being exposed as fake.

I think you can be honest about who you are without revealing who you are. I don't need to tell people a fictitious story that I am an Eskimo living in the Australian outback to maintain some privacy.

But if I am so concerned about my privacy then I should limit what I share. If that means I don't get to pally about with people online then tough - why should *they* get played by someone being fake? What gives me the right to play false with their lives? Why should they possibly unknowingly share things with someone who is lying to them?

MAS*H

It seems to me the con's out way the pro's. It would be disingenuous to say the forum needs a 'flag', the forum seems to have scraped by without one so far. If it upsets even a few members why bother?

I think perhaps of all the reasons mentioned for adding the flag, the primary reason would be Simon found a cool little widget that places the flag on the posts and thought it looked cool... the other reasons strike me as considerations after the fact.

If I wanted to know the country of origin of a poster I would ask, if they want to answer so be it.

Personally it would not really bother me one way or the other, however I would give way to those that feel they have something to lose.

Poster country flags and privacy

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