[Foundation-l] Wikipedia tracks user behaviour via third party companies

Thu Jun 4 15:23:56 UTC 2009

David Gerard wrote:
> External web bug trackers should be removed without
> exception. People who add them innocently, out of an understandable
> interest in collecting aggregated information that would not violate the
> privacy policy, should be directed to request and help with internal
> solutions, kept within appropriate limits to comply with the policy.

So how do you propose we enforce this? I'm thinking we need to prevent this
from happening in the first place. Analytics like this could pretty much
give checkuser powers to anybody!

They have a legitimate purpose, so, if analytics are wanted/needed by the
Foundation, they may be implemented by the Foundation. Otherwise, no
analytics.

Go Freedom!
Unionhawk

On Thu, Jun 4, 2009 at 11:13 AM, Michael Snow <wikipedia at verizon.net> wrote:

> David Gerard wrote:
> > Web bugs for statistical data are a legitimate want but potentially a
> > horrible privacy violation.
> >
> > So I asked on wikitech-l, and the obvious answer appears to be to do
> > it internally. Something like http://stats.grok.se/ only more so.
> >
> > So - if you want web bug data in a way that fits the privacy policy,
> > please pop over to the wikitech-l thread with technical suggestions
> > and solutions
> Precisely. External web bug trackers should be removed without
> exception. People who add them innocently, out of an understandable
> interest in collecting aggregated information that would not violate the
> privacy policy, should be directed to request and help with internal
> solutions, kept within appropriate limits to comply with the policy.
>
> --Michael Snow
>
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