[Foundation-l] Note regarding status of privacy policy

Sat Aug 9 19:38:06 UTC 2008

On Sat, Aug 9, 2008 at 6:58 PM, Gerard Meijssen
<gerard.meijssen at gmail.com> wrote:
> Hoi,
> So you are checked. You have to appreciate that by your own words, there
> must be a reasonable suspicion. You even insist that it is published that
> you have been checked. This means that it is now generally known that you
> are under a reasonable suspicion... How nice, that you are now known to have
> a tarnished reputation...
>
> Actually when you are checked, and it is not published that you were
> checked, you are much better off. When everyone can demand checking because
> THEY are suspicious, publication of check results will only increase the
> amount of vigilantism. Really, you are much better off when trusted people
> do their checking and keep their confidences.

Not to mention the leak of confidential information that such
information would entail. Suppose that I am checking whether X and Y
are sockpuppets, and instead I find that X shares an ip with Z. I go
on, check Z some more. Whether Z and X actually are the same person or
not, the information that while checking X and Y I came to Z contains
confidential information that I'm not supposed to give out - whether
it is the information that they are allowed sockpuppets or the
information that they (for example) happen to work in the same
company.

-- 
André Engels, andreengels at gmail.com