I am alarmed and dismayed that no-one has raised the issue of privacy in this thread. Swimmer963, just from glancing through your comments, you’re [rot13′d description of Swimmer963 deleted].
I didn’t whizz through those to be creepy (actually I was impressed at how you seem to be consistently sensible), but if you’re going to share incredibly personal details about “a friend” who was raped, we need to know if this information has been posted with her consent. The above is very easily enough to personally identify you.
On whether or not this will be important or not: [blanked].
EDIT: Deleted precis of Swimmer963′s situation; it had served its purpose.
EDIT: Deleted some personal information.
if you’re going to share incredibly personal details about “a friend”… we need to know if this information has been posted with her consent.
I think (or, anyway, hope) what you meant to write was “you need her consent before posting”, rather than “we need to know whether you obtained her consent [so that we can socially penalize you if it turns out you didn’t].”
Socially penalise, nothing. Something as personal as this, it’s deeply unusual not to make it clear that you have permission; my concern is for the privacy of person under discussion.
This is an interesting point. However, given that people seldom have interest in random strangers, this really doesn’t seem that worrisome.
If I were particularly dedicated to finding out, say, the name of the roommate of someone I don’t know on the internet’s roommate, this’d give me a decentish pointer. It’d still be really hard.
If I actually met the subject of this person and wanted to find out personal details about her life, I’d need to know specifically about this post and the author’s relation to the subject. Otherwise, it seems quite hopeless.
At the very least though, she could have been more vague on their relationship, as it would have minimized any such risk and cost the post nothing.
If Swimmer963 and her roommate have overlapping social circles, and Swimmer963 talks about posting on LW with her real life acquaintances, it’s fairly likely that someone will be able to put two and two together.
We don’t have the same circles, and we’re no longer roommates, and I don’t talk about Less Wrong with most people, and if any of you did meet her you might find out about it from her first…
Nevertheless, I did not think through all of that. I have some problems with privacy, i.e. I don’t actually notice situations that involve ‘personal’ information, whether it’s mine or other people’s. At least I have the right to post whatever personal stuff I want wherever I want...but I don’t have that right for other people.
I did change the wording of the original post to ‘friend’.
I am alarmed and dismayed that no-one has raised the issue of privacy in this thread. Swimmer963, just from glancing through your comments, you’re [rot13′d description of Swimmer963 deleted].
I didn’t whizz through those to be creepy (actually I was impressed at how you seem to be consistently sensible), but if you’re going to share incredibly personal details about “a friend” who was raped, we need to know if this information has been posted with her consent. The above is very easily enough to personally identify you.
On whether or not this will be important or not: [blanked].
EDIT: Deleted precis of Swimmer963′s situation; it had served its purpose. EDIT: Deleted some personal information.
I think (or, anyway, hope) what you meant to write was “you need her consent before posting”, rather than “we need to know whether you obtained her consent [so that we can socially penalize you if it turns out you didn’t].”
Socially penalise, nothing. Something as personal as this, it’s deeply unusual not to make it clear that you have permission; my concern is for the privacy of person under discussion.
This is an interesting point. However, given that people seldom have interest in random strangers, this really doesn’t seem that worrisome.
If I were particularly dedicated to finding out, say, the name of the roommate of someone I don’t know on the internet’s roommate, this’d give me a decentish pointer. It’d still be really hard.
If I actually met the subject of this person and wanted to find out personal details about her life, I’d need to know specifically about this post and the author’s relation to the subject. Otherwise, it seems quite hopeless.
At the very least though, she could have been more vague on their relationship, as it would have minimized any such risk and cost the post nothing.
If Swimmer963 and her roommate have overlapping social circles, and Swimmer963 talks about posting on LW with her real life acquaintances, it’s fairly likely that someone will be able to put two and two together.
We don’t have the same circles, and we’re no longer roommates, and I don’t talk about Less Wrong with most people, and if any of you did meet her you might find out about it from her first…
Nevertheless, I did not think through all of that. I have some problems with privacy, i.e. I don’t actually notice situations that involve ‘personal’ information, whether it’s mine or other people’s. At least I have the right to post whatever personal stuff I want wherever I want...but I don’t have that right for other people.
I did change the wording of the original post to ‘friend’.
Why worry about Google stockpiling your personal information when people are entirely capable of profiling you anyway!