On Fri, Apr 1, 2011 at 7:21 AM, Daniel Kinzler daniel@brightbyte.de wrote:
The fact that you are using public data for your analysis does NOT mean that it's compliant with the policy.
As I understand it, there are three options for tools like this:
* Limit the tool to trusted users, so that the analysis is not publicly available. This is the simplest option, but you should check with the TS admins whether this would be acceptable.
* Run the tool on a host other than toolserver and don't use the toolserver databases as a data source. Then the toolserver privacy policy doesn't apply.
* Get consent from the users whose data is being analyzed. This is impractical for investigating sockpuppets.
The underlying source of the privacy policy is that the toolserver is associated with WIkimedia Deutschland, and German privacy law is not the same as U.S. privacy law.
- Carl