[Foundation-l] Fw: Strike against the collection of personal data through edit links

Howie Fung hfung at wikimedia.org
Mon Feb 6 05:32:51 UTC 2012


We would be able to look at just the edit summaries, but that would only
provide us with analysis on edits that were successfully completed.  By
including the actual clicks in the tracking, we can do analysis on the
edit/save ratio (% of total edit attempts that were successfully saved).

Howie

On Sat, Feb 4, 2012 at 6:09 PM, Brandon Harris <bharris at wikimedia.org>wrote:

>
>        I'm not sure why this couldn't be done if that were all that is
> being measured.  I suspect there's other behaviors being tracked.
>
>        As I said, I'm not the person who knows most about this, so you
> have to take what I am saying with a grain of salt.
>
>
>
> On 2/4/12 5:21 PM, WereSpielChequers wrote:
>
>> Hi Brandon, thanks for the explanation, but wouldn't it be easier to just
>> analyse edit summaries? If you edit by section the edit summary defaults
>> to
>> start with the section heading.......
>>
>> Were SpielChequers
>>
>> Message: 7
>>
>>> Date: Sat, 04 Feb 2012 14:51:49 -0800
>>> From: Brandon Harris<bharris at wikimedia.org>
>>> To: foundation-l at lists.wikimedia.**org<foundation-l at lists.wikimedia.org>
>>> Subject: Re: [Foundation-l] Fw: Strike against the collection of
>>>        personal data through edit links
>>> Message-ID:<4F2DB685.70000@**wikimedia.org<4F2DB685.70000 at wikimedia.org>
>>> >
>>> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed
>>>
>>>
>>>        (This may not be 100% accurate; the person who knows most about
>>> this is
>>> on vacation, but I'll try to explain to the best of my understanding.)
>>>
>>>        Those weird URLs are part of a clicktracking process.  It's a test
>>> to
>>> see how people go about editing the page *most often* (by section, or by
>>> edit tab) and further to see how effective various calls-to-action (such
>>> as those given by Article Feedback) are.
>>>
>>>        The longevity of the data isn't something I can comment to but I'd
>>> be
>>> surprised if it lasted even 3 months.  I do not know if there are
>>> identity markers connected to them but I wouldn't be surprised.
>>>
>>>        To that end, the data is only useful in roll-ups, and wouldn't be
>>> something published anywhere except in aggregate.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> On 2/4/12 2:27 PM, Philippe Beaudette wrote:
>>>
>>>> MZ is correct:  3 months is the purge for Checkuser data.
>>>>
>>>> As to the rest of it, Diederick van Liere, our resident guru of data,
>>>>
>>> will
>>>
>>>> be checking into this, and will confirm back when we know exactly wht is
>>>> intended by the devs for that data.  I will say that generally speaking,
>>>> the Foundation prefers to maintain the minimum data possible for the
>>>> shortest period of time.
>>>>
>>>> Thanks,
>>>> pb
>>>> ___________________
>>>> Philippe Beaudette
>>>> Head of Reader Relations
>>>> Wikimedia Foundation, Inc.
>>>>
>>>> 415-839-6885, x 6643
>>>>
>>>> philippe at wikimedia.org
>>>>
>>>> To check my email volume (and thus know approx how long it will take me
>>>>
>>> to
>>>
>>>> respond), go to http://courteous.ly/hpQmqy
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> On Sat, Feb 4, 2012 at 2:19 PM, MZMcBride<z at mzmcbride.com>   wrote:
>>>>
>>>>  Fred Bauder wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>>> David Gerard wrote:
>>>>>>
>>>>>>> 3 months I can live with :-) Can someone from WMF just confirm what
>>>>>>>
>>>>>> data
>>>
>>>>  is kept for how long?
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>> The exact time is confidential.
>>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> Err, no, I don't think so. It's not defined in the files at
>>>>> <http://noc.wikimedia.org/**conf/ <http://noc.wikimedia.org/conf/>>,
>>>>> which means it should be using the
>>>>> default, as defined at
>>>>> <
>>>>>
>>>>>  http://svn.wikimedia.org/**viewvc/mediawiki/trunk/**
>>> extensions/CheckUser/CheckU<http://svn.wikimedia.org/viewvc/mediawiki/trunk/extensions/CheckUser/CheckU>
>>>
>>>> ser.php?revision=106556&view=**markup>. From that file:
>>>>>
>>>>> ---
>>>>> # How long to keep CU data?
>>>>> $wgCUDMaxAge = 3 * 30 * 24 * 3600; // 3 months
>>>>> ---
>>>>>
>>>>> The last attempt to change this value (without community discussion)
>>>>> was
>>>>> summarily shot down:
>>>>> <http://svn.wikimedia.org/**viewvc/mediawiki?view=**
>>>>> revision&revision=40847<http://svn.wikimedia.org/viewvc/mediawiki?view=revision&revision=40847>
>>>>>
>>>> .
>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> That's only CheckUser data, though. I'm not sure what David wants
>>>>>
>>>> confirmed
>>>
>>>> from the Wikimedia Foundation. Different data has different expiries. A
>>>>>
>>>> lot
>>>
>>>> of it is permanent (e.g., revisions aren't going anywhere for the most
>>>>> part). I guess the question is specific to the ClickTracking extension:
>>>>> <https://www.mediawiki.org/**wiki/Extension:ClickTracking<https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:ClickTracking>
>>>>> >?
>>>>>
>>>>> MZMcBride
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
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>>>
>>> --
>>> Brandon Harris, Senior Designer, Wikimedia Foundation
>>>
>>> Support Free Knowledge: http://wikimediafoundation.**org/wiki/Donate<http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Donate>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
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>
> --
> Brandon Harris, Senior Designer, Wikimedia Foundation
>
> Support Free Knowledge: http://wikimediafoundation.**org/wiki/Donate<http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Donate>
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