[Foundation-l] Privacy policy, statistics and rankings

Tue Aug 3 19:28:00 UTC 2010

Thomas Dalton wrote:
> On 3 August 2010 19:33,  <wiki-list at phizz.demon.co.uk> wrote:
>> Currently the data collection and processing doesn't follow its
>> recommended code of good practice of the UKs DPA and may even be in
>> breach of it:
>> http://www.ico.gov.uk/ebook/ebook.htm
> 
> That's quite a long document. You could point out the specific bits
> being violated?

Probably most of it. P26 to start with. Page12 retention, p13 security 
of data, p14-16. All of section 5, ...

>> One wonders what the response would be if a UK ISP published a list of
>> all its users site visits.
> 
> That's completely different. Everyone knows (or can be reasonably
> expected to know, anyway) that when they edit a page their username or
> IP address, the time and date and what they edited will be stored and
> made publicly available. We're just talking about making that publicly
> available information available in a different way. I'm pretty sure
> the UK's privacy laws don't forbid that, although I don't doubt what
> people have said about German law.
> 

The issue is when someone aggregates the data and associates with an 
individual, and then makes publishes it. Or uses that data to make 
public statements about a user.