[Foundation-l] check user...

[wiki_tomos at inter7.jp]

I think check user generates certain legal risk to the Foundation especially 
when he is a minor. 

Wikimedia Foundation has a privacy policy. It seems the Foundation is 
expressively promising that certain information will not be released 
to the third party unless specific conditions are met. 

And here, "third party release" does not include, at least the 
way I read the privacy policy, release of personal information 
from Wikimedia Foundation to a check user. It suggests that, 
at least in the context of privacy policy, the check users are 
insiders for the Foundation, not a third party. 

This, in turn, means that the Foundation has a legal responsibility 
to make check users to understand and follow its privacy policy. 

So when check user breaks the promise - i.e. violate the Foundation's 
privacy policy, one may question if the Foundation is partly responsible 
for the violation. 

If a check user is legally a minor, he may be able to legally get away with 
breaking promises he has made, including the compliance with privacy policy. 
I am not sure if minors really are less reliable than adults, but if they 
are equally unreliable, then the Foundation is more responsible for minors' 
violation of privacy policy than adults. 

So, not because minors are less reliable, but because adults can bear 
more legal risk when they abuse their check user privilege, it is legally 
safer for the Foundation to limit the check user to adults. 

How significant this difference? That is perhaps open to debate. 

I personally think that the better course of action to mitigate the 
legal risk is to treat check users as outsiders in the privacy policy. 

I am not a lawyer, so be reminded that my reasoning could be flawed.. 


Best, 


Tomos