On 8/13/07, K P <kpbotany(a)gmail.com> wrote:
Actually, as to your last, no! If you use the same IP
as a
sockpuppet, information about you that is NOT available to anyone else
on Wikipedia in any other way except checkuser, is now open to be
revealed as long as you are not being checked or accused of
sockpuppetry, and as long as the information is not strictly covered
by the privacy policy for check user, which ONLY covers those who have
been checked.
I'm a little confused by the above, but I'll answer it to the best of
my understanding. The privacy policy covers all information revealed
by checkuser, whether or not the user is the initial subject of the
search.
Information may be revealed through checkuser about individuals not
the subject of the search, which is unavoidable. However, this does
not mean it will be released.
There is some potential, of course, for confusion between different
people using the same IP. However, as David said above, I assume good
faith sharing of an IP unless the accounts work together.
I don't personally see what your issue is with checkusers sharing
information. They can all find out the same information through the
tool in any event.
Either Wikipedia considers users privacy important or
it doesn't.
And, in this case it doesn't. I've never been the subject of a
checkuser request, but if any information not strictly heald in
privacy about me is revealed, that's too damned bad, because there is
no privacy when it comes to checkuser.
Um, what? If information is not private about you then it is not
private; there's no such thing as semi-private.
It's not secure, it's not private, checkusers
share information in a
cavalier manner with other checkers just for curiosity.
I personally think it quite important that the checkusers know what
the others are doing. Why do you disagree?
Access to something like checkuser should be strictly
limited, and
100% confined to what it is designed for. There should be no, "hey
anyone who's curious, I can send you what I found out," no sudden
revelations of Tors in RfAs,
no debate about just where, if anywhere,
people can go when incidental information about them is revealed,
There is no debate. If you feel that the checkuser has violated the
Foundation's privacy policy, complain to the privacy ombudsman. If
you feel that the checkuser has breached checkuser policy in ways not
covered by the Foundation's privacy policy, complain to the Arbcom if
it was on the English wikipedia.
If you think that checkuser policy should be changed, there are ways
to promote change as well.
-Matt