Rob Church wrote:
On 04/02/07, StefanB <steffe62(a)yahoo.com>
wrote:
> On Swedish Wiktionarys common.js,
>
http://sv.wiktionary.org/wiki/MediaWiki:Common.js , is a script that
> takes the visitors IP-addresses and transforms it into a non-revertable
> number, and then sends it to an external private server that belongs to
> one if the administrators on Wiktionary. The script is used for
> statistics on visited articles.
>
> To me it seems like this kind of script is a violation of the privacy
> policy, since it is possible to get the IP-numbers of all visitors, even
> though it is not done in this case.
'Is a violation since is possible but
is not done' ??
I don't see where the violation is. Wikimedia servers *do* log the ip
addresses of editors, and when we arrage how, will treat visitors data too.
> I should also mention that a discussion was held
before this script was
> activated and that no one objected to it.
If there were no objections, i
don't have any objection either. You may
want to comment on
http://sv.wiktionary.org/wiki/Wiktionary:Integritetspolicy that visitors
ips are logged.
> Are these kind of scripts allowed?
As far as
the community is happy with it...
On the other hand, I would agree with Brion about
keeping it "within
the family", or under Wikimedia-affiliated control. Your community
should probably jump on it quickly, since it sets a wobbly precedent.
This is a matter of faith. If this admin is trustable, he won't do any
harm with that 'power' the data could give him. If not, he could misuse
it even if he were using the toolserver.
Using a WMF [Germany] Server shows it nicer, just as signed ActiveX. But
the risk is the same.[1]
Probably a grey area, since if it really is an
irreversible hash (at
least, as far as we know the hash function to be so, and we all know
how crap some hashes have proven to be), then it's not supposedly
possible to arbitrarily obtain IP addresses.
Reversing the hash for a IP number would be quite easy. But it is not
neccesary to get the IP.
Why transform it into a 'non-revertable number'? This only make a false
sense of security.[2]
The user is sending the hash to the external server. Thus, the external
server is connecting with the visitor, and *can get their IP*.
I suggest moving
http://internetvision.se/dan/projekt/wikt/stats/sv-wikt.js to a wiki
page. It is simple javascript and doesn't need to be on the external
server. Having it on the wiki will have to changes: internetvision.se
will receive less queries (only for the real counts), and visitors won't
ask it unless it is visiting a countable page (almost all anyway).
1-Note that if it weren 't a private server of the admin, other people
could get this data apart of him.
2-As an example, everybody on this thread were taking the
'non-revertable IP' as granted.