---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: dee dee strategicdesign2001@yahoo.com Date: Sat, Nov 22, 2008 at 5:06 PM Subject: Have you dealt with this yet? If so,how? To: foundation-l-owner@lists.wikimedia.org
Four brief points: 1: I think the primary issue here is the appearance that
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WP:CHECKUSER
gives to the community and the public of a completely transparent and open Checkuser request process when the discussions have shown that,as Thatcher131said,
"The vast majority of checks are run following talk page, email or IRC requests to the checkusers. WP:RFCU is a backup;.."
or as JzG|Guy said at
http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wikipedia:Village_pump_%28policy%2...
"The vast majority of checkuser requests are, and always have been, performed quietly and without a request at RFCU."
At the very,very least there should be an acknowledgement at
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WP:CHECKUSER
that there is also a parallel "back channel"(Guy's phraseology) method of requesting and processing CHECKUSER activity which is not transparent to the general Wikipedia community nor the public.
2: In addition, this section of
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WP:CHECKUSER
"Privacy violation?
* If you feel that a checkuser has led to a violation of the Wikimedia Foundation privacy policy regarding yourself, please refer the case to the Ombudsman commission."
is something I find to be quite Orwellian. How can someone report a privacy violation if they do not know that checkuser has been used on them?
3: A third aspect is that it seems these "private" Checkuser checks are being used frivolously on brand new Users to effect 1 second blocks for "scrutiny" reasons and the Checkuser usage is being so poorly documented that sometimes no one even knows who used the tool as shown here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Administrators%27_noticeboard/Archive...
Therefore, there should also be full disclosure to all new Users that Checkuser could be used without their knowledge on the basis of suspicion at any time after they open a Wikipedia account.
4: I also think User Risker's comments about the privacy aspect have merit:
http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wikipedia:Village_pump_%28policy%2...
--- On Tue, 12/11/07, dee dee strategicdesign2001@yahoo.com wrote:
From: dee dee strategicdesign2001@yahoo.com Subject: Re: Jimbo's response re:Rampant Checkuser Privacy Abuse To: foundation-l-owner@lists.wikimedia.org Date: Tuesday, December 11, 2007, 9:06 PM Four brief points: 1: I think the primary issue here is the appearance that
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WP:CHECKUSER
gives to the community and the public of a completely transparent and open Checkuser request process when the discussions have shown that,as Thatcher131said,
"The vast majority of checks are run following talk page, email or IRC requests to the checkusers. WP:RFCU is a backup;.."
or as JzG|Guy said at
http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wikipedia:Village_pump_%28policy%2...
"The vast majority of checkuser requests are, and always have been, performed quietly and without a request at RFCU."
At the very,very least there should be an acknowledgement at
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WP:CHECKUSER
that there is also a parallel "back channel"(Guy's phraseology) method of requesting and processing CHECKUSER activity which is not transparent to the general Wikipedia community nor the public.
2: In addition, this section of
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WP:CHECKUSER
"Privacy violation?
* If you feel that a checkuser has led to a violationof the Wikimedia Foundation privacy policy regarding yourself, please refer the case to the Ombudsman commission."
is something I find to be quite Orwellian. How can someone report a privacy violation if they do not know that checkuser has been used on them?
3: A third aspect is that it seems these "private" Checkuser checks are being used frivolously on brand new Users to effect 1 second blocks for "scrutiny" reasons and the Checkuser usage is being so poorly documented that sometimes no one even knows who used the tool as shown here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Administrators%27_noticeboard/Archive...
Therefore, there should also be full disclosure to all new Users that Checkuser could be used without their knowledge on the basis of suspicion at any time after they open a Wikipedia account.
4: I also think User Risker's comments about the privacy aspect have merit:
http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wikipedia:Village_pump_%28policy%2...
dee dee
Jimmy Wales jwales@wikia.com wrote: In English Wikipedida, ArbCom is a good place to go for this sort of thing.
However, having reviewed checkuser policy, I see absolutely nothing even close to a policy violation here.
"Notification to the account that is checked is permitted but is not mandatory. Similarly, notification of the check to the community is not mandatory, but may be done subject to the provisions of the privacy policy."
I strongly support this element of the policy.
Cary Bass wrote:
dee dee wrote:
Hi, I think the Stewards have authority in this
matter. The Ombudsman
Commission seems to accept these clandestine
Checkuser requests but I
doubt the Stewards will. I hope you will forward
my message to them so
they can decide for themselves.
Hi again, dee dee.
Being a steward myself, I responded to you in that
capacity. I'm sorry
my signature didn't indicate such, but I'll
mention it again.
You seem to be mistaken about the function of
stewards. Why don't you
read the relevant page on meta, here:
The stewards have no authority over the checkusers or
checkuser policy.
There is no steward committee, only a mailing list
where the stewards
can share their thoughts, actions, etc.
Where there is a local policy in place, the stewards
have no authority
over local policy.
Where there is a function policy in place (like
checkuser), the stewards
have no authority over that function policy.
Short of suggestion you address it to the local Arbcom
or the Checkuser
Ombudsman Commission, there is nothing any steward on
this list can do
for you.
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Thank you.
Date: Thu, 29 Nov 2007 12:58:36 -0800 (PST) From: dee dee strategicdesign2001@yahoo.com Subject: Rampant Checkuser Privacy Abuse To: foundation-l@lists.wikimedia.org
In regards to: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WP:CHECKUSER
''''Privacy violation? If you feel that a checkuser has led to a violation of the Wikimedia Foundation privacy policy regarding yourself, please refer the case to the Ombudsman commission.''''
Please note that so-called "private" uses of checkuser are occurring and tolerated as seen here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Administrators%27_noticeboard#False_B...
How can someone report a privacy violation if they do not know that checkuser has been used?
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