[Foundation-l] Sexual harassment in Wikipedia

[Ray Saintonge]

Alphax (Wikipedia email) wrote:

>From http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Privacy_policy
>  
>
>>It is the policy of Wikimedia that personally identifiable data
>>collected in the server logs, or through records in the database via the
>>CheckUser feature, may be released by the system administrators or users
>>with CheckUser access, in the following situations:
>>
>>1. In response to a valid subpoena or other compulsory request from
>>   law enforcement
>>2. With permission of the affected user
>>3. To the chair of Wikimedia Foundation, his legal counsel, or his
>>   designee, when necessary for investigation of abuse complaints.
>>4. Where the information pertains to page views generated by a spider or
>>   bot and its dissemination is necessary to illustrate or resolve
>>   technical issues.
>>5. Where the user has been vandalising articles or persistently behaving
>>   in a disruptive way, data may be released to assist in the targeting
>>   of IP blocks, or to assist in the formulation of a complaint to
>>   relevant Internet Service Providers
>>6. Where it is reasonably necessary to protect the rights, property or
>>   safety of the Wikimedia Foundation, its users or the public.
>>
>>Wikimedia policy does not permit public distribution of such
>>information under any circumstances, except as described above.
>>    
>>
I'm glad that you reminded us of exactly what these said.  The one 
glaring absence from these rules, except for Number 3 (which allows 
Anthere (but not Jimbo ;-) !?) to receive information), is that none 
identify "to whom".  This is likely an area where the rules need to be 
tighter than most, because of the possible effects on a person's rights 
beyond Wikimedia.  As the present issue shows, the rights in question 
may also include the rights of non-Wikimedians.