I've never been aware they had been halted, only that we have a fairly high bar on what we remove from the lists. This is due to the many concerns already raised on this thread, and in the past. They include (but are not limited to) mailman routing downtime/delays, archive rebuilding index changes, and the fact that once something is on the internet, its never really gone. (Removal from archives doesn't mean removal from archive mirrors or any actual emails.) While those concerns make the bar quite high, they do not mean we simply don't remove data.
If anyone is aware of documentation that states otherwise, please let me know! The only documentation I am aware of is on wikitech: https://wikitech.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailman#Remove_a_message_from_the_mailin... & https://wikitech.wikimedia.org/wiki/Remove_a_message_from_mailing_list_archi...
Operations does not undergo list scrubs lightly, as it involves the stopping of mail processing for lists, including rebuild time of affected archives. In this case,the request was filtered through WMF legal and then legal requested it from operations. This request was filtered by both the legal department and operations management.
I've requested that we delay the scrub until post Wikimania. I have not received any feedback yet from legal regarding the timeline. I'll post back to this list regarding the resolution of the schedule.
I hope that helps clear things up!
On Mon, Jun 20, 2016 at 12:41 PM, Richard Ames richard@ames.id.au wrote:
Yes.... we have been through this before and I thought resolved not to do it.
It only draws attention to that which is 'scrubbed' as it still exists in many public places and invites the comparison of the still public source and the scrubbed source....
Richard.
On Tue, Jun 21, 2016 at 5:30 AM, Pine W wiki.pine@gmail.com wrote:
Hi Rob,
I thought that privacy-related scrubs of mailing list archives had been halted, given (1) the many problems that they have caused in the past and (2) that once info is sent to a public list it is likely to be archived publicly in places outside of WMF control and therefore the usefulness of these wipes is doubtful.
James, you and I have discussed this issue previously. Can you please comment?
Thanks,
Pine
On Jun 20, 2016 09:38, "Rob Halsell" rhalsell@wikimedia.org wrote:
I already got a few messages pointing out that taking down the wikimania mailing list the week of folks traveling there may not be ideal for communication!
I'm working with legal to see if I can push this request for scrub to
next
week.
On Mon, Jun 20, 2016 at 9:28 AM, Rob Halsell rhalsell@wikimedia.org wrote:
List Admins,
Please note that I'll be stopping mailman on 2016-06-21 from 16:00 to 18:00 UTC for some privacy scrubbing of list archives.
Unfortunately, mailman has to be stopped to prevent corruption during
the
archive rebuild for the affected list(s). I hope not to use the full
2 hour
window, but cannot be certain.
Once the work ends and mailman is restarted, all unsent/queued messages will be processed for delivery.
Work is documented on https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T138228
Thanks,
-- Rob Halsell Operations Engineer Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. E-Mail: rhalsell@wikimedia.org Key fingerprint = CB1F C7E7 0FF8 5DB2 6820 9C7E 75ED 14C7 0245 D22A Office: 415.839.6885 x6620 Fax: 415.882.0495
-- Rob Halsell Operations Engineer Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. E-Mail: rhalsell@wikimedia.org Key fingerprint = CB1F C7E7 0FF8 5DB2 6820 9C7E 75ED 14C7 0245 D22A Office: 415.839.6885 x6620 Fax: 415.882.0495
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