Posts by Anders Andersen

110

Jehovah’s Witness who posted criticisms on Reddit can remain anonymous, judge rules

by Tameria2001 in

https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/jehovah-s-witness-who-posted-criticisms-on-13855357.php.

i had this article pop up about the darksilver case.

it says a federal magistrate in san francisco has now ruled that darksilver can remain anonymous but then it says except for identification to lawyers for the religion’s watchtower publication.

Anders Andersen

@betterdaze,

The official documents (including the judge's ruling) that also list who the lawyers are for Watchtower can be found here:

https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/8509534/in-re-dmca-subpoena-to-reddit-inc/

110

Jehovah’s Witness who posted criticisms on Reddit can remain anonymous, judge rules

by Tameria2001 in

https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/jehovah-s-witness-who-posted-criticisms-on-13855357.php.

i had this article pop up about the darksilver case.

it says a federal magistrate in san francisco has now ruled that darksilver can remain anonymous but then it says except for identification to lawyers for the religion’s watchtower publication.

Anders Andersen

How will they obtain his identity? A lot create fake email accounts and all Reddit asks for is an email address and username when joining.

Worst case: Darkspilver bought Reddit coins with his personal credit card, and Reddit actually knows his full name and address.
Slightly less worse case: Darkspilver signed up to Reddit with his personal email address that identifies him (e.g. [email protected])

More likely case:

Reddit doesn't actually know the real identity of Darkspilver.
But Reddit most likely keeps some logs of user activity which include the IP address the user had at that time.
From the IP address Watchtower knows the ISP Darkspilver used/uses.
Watchtower can then summon the ISP to hand over the name and address of the subscriber that used said IP adress(es).

There are however some things that may save Darkspilver in this case:

If Darkspilver always used a VPN while using Reddit, the IP address cannot be used to trace Darkspilvers real identity.
If Darkspilver always used Reddit from a network that is not their own (e.g. a free wifi somewhere in a McDonalds or a Starbucks, at school/work, or some friend or family member's network), Watchtower may run into quite a struggle to get the real identity (if at all possible).
If Darkspilver doesn't live in the USA and doesn't use any Watchtower-controlled internet connection, then their ISP may very well ignore Watchtower's demand to know the real identity of the subscriber. I know a Dutch ISP would ignore such a demand.

So there are quite a few variables that are currently unknown to us that can ether make or break this case....

110

Jehovah’s Witness who posted criticisms on Reddit can remain anonymous, judge rules

by Tameria2001 in

https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/jehovah-s-witness-who-posted-criticisms-on-13855357.php.

i had this article pop up about the darksilver case.

it says a federal magistrate in san francisco has now ruled that darksilver can remain anonymous but then it says except for identification to lawyers for the religion’s watchtower publication.

Anders Andersen

If only the WT lawyers are to learn the identity of Darkspilver and he gets disfellowshipped-- will the JW lawyers then be in some form of legal contempt?

Only if and when there is evidence that shows the laywer revealed Darkspilver's identity. And even then Watchtower will claim that they have zero influence on the actions and decisions of local elders (perhaps even in a different country), because on paper congregations are independent legal entities.
But if that is the case, the lawyer can be punished, for example with a fine or even being disbarred.

110

Jehovah’s Witness who posted criticisms on Reddit can remain anonymous, judge rules

by Tameria2001 in

https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/jehovah-s-witness-who-posted-criticisms-on-13855357.php.

i had this article pop up about the darksilver case.

it says a federal magistrate in san francisco has now ruled that darksilver can remain anonymous but then it says except for identification to lawyers for the religion’s watchtower publication.

Anders Andersen

Yeah I fear for Darkspilver too. His life can be destroyed and nobody would even be able to prove it came from that JW lawyer sleaze.

Only thing that might restrain the lawyer is 1) his own fear of getting shamed or punished for violating a court order and 2) Watchtower thinks keeping their golden star lawyer is more important than keeping the congregation clean.

Knowing Watchtower doesn't really care about anything spiritual whenever their money is at stake, I hope they'll tell the lawyer to just follow the court order.

4

Friday!!!

by ZindagiNaMilegiDobaara in

jw
friends

have a great weekend all!.

.

zing.

Anders Andersen

Aaah another weekend with no field service, no meeting, no dressing up, no guilt, no pressure, no fake smiles. Damn I love it!

Enjoy your weekend to! May there be many more!

62

Reaction to GDPR / field service letter

by sir82 in

here is a thread on the new letter to be read to all congregations in all branches on adjustments in door to door work due to the gdpr:.

https://www.jehovahs-witness.com/topic/6274619758608384/2019-boe-elders-letter-may-13-england-ireland-data-protection.

i have...connections....to a foreign language congregation in europe.

Anders Andersen

@smiddy3,

Watchtower would love to have zero liability, and with regards to GDPR they tried to establish that in court.

Unfortunately for them EU already ruled that even data collected on handwritten notes by unpaid volunteers is within scope of Watchtower's responsibility and liability, because Watchtower organizes that work, and the data is collected to further Watchtower's agenda.

The only thing that could get Watchtower off the hook if (when?) an individual publishers is caught illegally collecting or leaking data is Watchtower's effort to make sure no data is collected.

Of course individual publishers are also liable under GDPR.

62

2019 BOE Elders letter May 13 England - Ireland Data Protection

by Not_Culty in

https://tinyurl.com/y2bzncu9.

Anders Andersen

The letter is a way for leadership to say that they told the congregations not to keep records. It is a legal maneuver. If anyone sues them the blame will fall on the publisher and not WT.

Individual publishers may indeed think they can continue making notes. But I think Watchtower is very much aware of the danger in that wrt GDPR.

Imagine a commercial enterprise that told their sales reps 'don't take any notes with private information of customers'. They tell the sales reps only once. Many sales reps continue to take notes anyway. One of the sales reps then loses his notes somewhere and they get out in the open. Or someone blows the whistle on the sales reps violating privacy laws.

Who is to blame? According to GDPR the commercial enterprise is probably judged as at fault. They should have done more to raise awareness and increase compliance with GDPR. I severely doubt that data protection authorities would rule that a single memo (that not even all employees were guaranteed to have received) would be enough to stop data collection after decades of telling employees to collect data.

Likewise I doubt Watchtower would be off the hook if they only write this single letter and it turns out many of their employees ignore that one memo.

62