[Foundation-l] privacy policy update

Fri May 9 15:54:52 UTC 2008

I'd prefer that no possible questions could be raised. Please also
note that this is not only about enwiki, but about wikimedia.
Certainly on small projects, such questions would raise attention. And
if a random user with User:SneakyHiddenName would ask me to turn on my
email... sorry, I doubt that would persuade me :) Maybe MikeGodwin
would, if his userpage tells that he is the general counsel of the
WMF, but that would raise the problems :)

I guess you need to draw a line somewhere, and I think that an
activated email address is a good line. It is the only way you know it
only ends up with the person intended, safe for privacy concerns and
not implying anything. I think it is not unreasonable to expect also
some effort from the user to help us if (s)he wants to be contacted in
such cases. The only not-normally possible action I could justify is a
developer looking into the database if there is either an unconfirmed
address either an address that does not allow to send emails to, but
is activated for password reminder purposes.

Lodewijk

2008/5/9, Andrew Gray <shimgray op gmail.com>:
> 2008/5/9 Mike Godwin <mgodwin op wikimedia.org>:
>
> >  Lodewijk writes:
>  >
>  >> That would still imply to the community that someone is falling under
>  >> this policy, and that the user is therefore "sought", something I'd
>  >> rather prefer to remain private information instead of public
>  >> knowledge :)
>  >
>  > I made exactly the same point when we were discussing revisions of our
>  > privacy policy with EFF.  The EFF lawyers suggested that, in instances
>  > where we don't have an active (working) e-mail for a User, we attempt
>  > notifying the User on the Talk page.  I suggested that many and
>  > perhaps most users would prefer that we not do this in public for all
>  > to see.
>
>
> Surely if the message is something as simple as "could you please
>  activate your email? there's something we need to get in touch with
>  you over", then this won't imply anything to the community unless
>  there's no other possible interpretation of such a message.
>
>  I can't really imagine anyone digging deeply enough to figure out this
>  possibility on spotting such a message, but even if they do, one could
>  avoid this by making a habit of nagging users to enable their email,
>  thus creating plenty of misdirection ;-)
>
>
>  --
>  - Andrew Gray
>   andrew.gray op dunelm.org.uk
>
>
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