[Toolserver-l] Privacy Violation?

[Carl (CBM)]

On Fri, Apr 1, 2011 at 7:21 AM, Daniel Kinzler <daniel at brightbyte.de> wrote:
> The fact that you are using public data for your analysis does NOT mean that
> it's compliant with the policy.

As I understand it, there are three options for tools like this:

* Limit the tool to trusted users, so that the analysis is not
publicly available.  This is the simplest option, but you should check
with the TS admins whether this would be acceptable.

* Run the tool on a host other than toolserver and don't use the
toolserver databases as a data source. Then the toolserver privacy
policy doesn't apply.

* Get consent from the users whose data is being analyzed. This is
impractical for investigating sockpuppets.

The underlying source of the privacy policy is that the toolserver is
associated with WIkimedia Deutschland, and German privacy law is not
the same as U.S. privacy law.

- Carl