Poster country flags and privacy (page 23)

wallowindawn

There is also the important question of European and UK Data protection laws. What is the site owner doing with the PII (Personally Identifiable Information) that he is collecting?

The IP in and of itself is not always considered Personal Data, however it can become personal data by definition once combined with other forms of personal data collected by the site owner during the profile creation process of the site even if the end-user name is not a part of that data. In the UK however, tdealing with end-user I.P.'s is serious as I am sure the site owner is aware.

Best practice is to have a statement during the registration process stating what you will be doing with the I.P. Addresses you are collecting so end-users can make a calculated decision on wether or not they want to join the site based upon that.

I would think the only recourse at this point would be to add this information to all new users and allow all who have joined up previously to be exempt fro the flag display. I think forcing the displaying of ones country of origin is really unnecessary as it will also provide some preconceived feelings by some. That is evident based upon the opening comments of this thread. Why would such a feature be forced anyway, just allow each user to decide.

I am sure for the older crowd and those not familiar with programming it sounds like it would take a long time to implement some feature that would make this option something the user selects. In actuality any web developer straight out of college could implement this in literally minutes.

Also does this NEW website allow the deletion of enormous lists of Private Messages?

What about the ability to remove oneself from the website altogether?

wallowindawn

Simon you said you are trying to catch people? Catch whom? Catch them doing what? Is it the Nigerians trying to solicit money from people

Simon

You have no right to display anything about me, however you want to characterize this information and the minutia of it, without my consent. I have not given it to you. That is the issue, that you do not wish to address. Consent, and lack thereof here.

Do you recall me posting earlier "assume that flags will appear from now on. If you are not happy with that then don't post on this site" ? Just sayin' if you want to get picky ...

Again though, the country you are posting from isn't personally identifiable information.

Your so called arguments are meaningless to me. You drip with dishonesty. You have no morals or ethics then. Good for you, well done.

I take it that's still a "no" to thinking up an example then eh?

Greener

You have no right to display any information about me without my consent. I have not given you such consent. If you choose to change the rules, please remove me and all my posts, which are few in number from this website.

You are an unethical mess. Get some professional help EH

Simon

Simon you said you are trying to catch people? Catch whom? Catch them doing what? Is it the Nigerians trying to solicit money from people

'Catch' meant "make visible in a more noticeable way if people were masking their identity using anonymizing proxies or are obviously not who they say they are".

Some are pure spammers / scammers - someone posting from China or Nigeria (apologies to anyone from those countries who is not). Maybe they have good reason to hide their identity and they are not from there at all but are masking their identity. While people can do this, I think others have a right to know and possibly be more guarded with them as a result.

I think there is risk in freely allowing people to use the shield of anonymity as part of creating a false persona on a community site which may contain vulnerable people when that could be used to give people a false sense of security, possibly sharing with them more than they otherwise would if it was obvious that they were hiding who they were.

One Last Kiss

This thread has gone from the sublime to the ridiculous! I love it! :D

EdenOne

Simon, on my last effort to try to talk you out of this flag nonsense, consider this situation.

Over several months, some poster named "Joaquín" in a small country, let's say in Central America, on the assumption that his/her country information isn't known to other posters and readers, shares informations across several posts such as:

"I'm an active Witness, but an undercover apostate, and I have close family "in".

and

"I'm privy with some Bethel heavies here"

and

"I attend a congregation near my local Bethel"

and

"Our local Bethel branch is closing down"

and

"I used to be an Elder / CO / MS / Regular Pioneer"

and

"My parents are in the truth"

and

"A relative of mine is a District Overseer"

and

"I'm married and have children"

and

"I attended university"

and

"I was disfellowshipped once and now am reinstated"

Now, the above information is vague enough WHEN THE COUNTRY OF THE POSTER IS UNKNOWN. However, the moment the poster's country is known, some casual lurker reading JWN, let's say, a keen uber-Witness with a witch hunt mission happens to be from that same country. He's surprised to see an active Witness from his country posting here and his curiosity is sparked. He decides to dig into that member's posts to dig out information. Also, in that country, not many people are fluent in English, but obviously this poster is fluent in English. So, in a country with only a few thousand Witnesses, do you think it's so hard to figure out the identity of Joaquín, based on the unique set of informations collected?

Tell you what, Simon. I was a victim of real life stalking before, and it all started with information that someone gathered about me in a national chatroom over months. That person tracked me, just for the fun of it, found my telephone and address. Heck, that person even figured out I was a JW based on a casual remark I made regarding a chatter's username. It's NOT FUNNY, and I ended up having to involve the police to get protection, because at some point I felt that my life and my family's life were at risk. So, excuse me if I feel more than a little paranoid about this. It is a serious betrayal of my trust, especially when it comes to posts I made in the past in the assumption that my country was unknown. It's really bad.

Eden

Witness My Fury

My Gawd Greener get a frickin grip! You've made 14 posts and most are on this thread.

You live on a farm is about the most incriminating thing you have posted, so does the country you live in have less than 10 farms, making you easily tracked down i wonder? Are are you just throwing a wobbly for the sake of it?

wallowindawn

Not sure if this thread is the best place to post this but I am receiving cookie requests from very strange sites when logging in like dmitry.com and pix.ru? What is that?

Simon

Now, the above information is vague enough WHEN THE COUNTRY OF THE POSTER IS UNKNOWN.

But it just isn't! Anyone who "knows" that person who recognize them. Heck, people may recognize other people who match the experiences - are they also 'identified'?

In the example above, "Our local Bethel branch is closing down" already gives the country away (at least short-lists it but + timing = good degree of certainty) and really, they have already done a very good job of describing lots of personal details that could identify them. Adding the country does not.

I was a victim of real life stalking before, and it all started with information that someone gathered about me in a chatroom over months. That person tracked me, found my telephone and address. It's NOT FUNNY, and I ended up having to involve the police to get protection, because at some point my life and my family's life were at risk. So, excuse me if I feel more than a little paranoid about this.

Then I can appreciate you being so sensitive to the subject. I have had to endure online harassment and threats, it is not pleasant.

What information did you share? How did they identify you? To be honest I doubt very much "country" would be how they tracked you down or any help.

Now, should someone who would do that be able to pretend to be a member of the community just like others? Would it have been better or worse if you could see whoever had been pretending to be your friend wasn't where they claimed? Something to make you suspicious and more guarded?

Poster country flags and privacy

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