Just to be explicit on these points:
On Thu, September 11, 2008 11:23, jonathan cardy wrote:
Wikipedia EN currently works on US Privacy Law which
is different to UK
law, and I suspect that many of our practices would need to be reviewed if
we had to comply with UK or EU Privacy standards (especially with regard
to European views on IP addresses sometimes being personal data).
I'm assuming that someone from Chapcom has looked into this and designed
the proposed chapter structure so that the UK chapter would be
sufficiently independent from Wikipedia not to be considered the UK Data
Controller for Personal data on and processed for Wikipedia EN. But I
would like to see confirmation of that (perhaps this is why the foundation
has retained the right to withdraw trademarks rather having the right to
fire the board?).
Chapters have no control or any sort over the data held by WMF (and
vice-versa). As such Data Protection law doesn't come into it for on-wiki
membership information information.
I couldn't find an existing data protection
registration for wikipedia or
wikimedia with the Information commission
http://www.ico.gov.uk/ESDWebPages/Search.asp but if the new charity is
going to process information on members and donors it probably needs to
register - which currently costs £35 per annum. I'd suggest that that
registration makes it clear that the charity does not control the data on
Wikipedia EN.
Checks were made at the creation of WMUK/WER and because there was only
administrative (listing, subscriptions) use being made of the names and
addresses *explicitly* given to WMUK/WER in order to undertake those
administrative functions, then registration was not required. Doesn't do
any harm though (but first get in some money and the ability to pay out
for DP registration, CRB checks, etc, etc. There are far better things to
do with early money!)
Alison