On 8/13/07, Anthony wikimail@inbox.org wrote:
On 8/13/07, K P kpbotany@gmail.com wrote:
On 8/13/07, Thomas Dalton thomas.dalton@gmail.com wrote:
Seems like all it would take to solve this dilemma is an encrypted proxy that delivers the decryption code(s) to the WMF developers. So the editor gets privacy from User:JoeSchmoe but Wikipedians with a certain level of permissions could determine the point of origin.
Logging in does exactly that. It hides your IP address from anyone without the checkuser bit.
Something like that would come in very handy for the editors from mainland China, and a couple of smaller countries that firewall access.
That's not a matter of hiding your identity, it's a matter of hiding the identity of the site you are viewing. Anonymous proxies/TOR do both, but they are different things.
Except this list has pretty much established to me that checkuser is used to satisfy curiosity, to find out who is using Tors, and other political reasons, so, logging in isn't any level of security, when it isn't strictly used for its purposes.
Exactly. Some of the people with checkuser can't be trusted. Answer me this: has AB ever been checkusered? Have I?
The last time I alluded to people with checkuser abusing their power I was told privately to contact the privacy ombudsman. But recent discussion on foundation-l has concluded that the privacy ombudsman has no power over inappropriate use of checkuser, because inappropriate use of checkuser is not a violation of the privacy policy.
Yes, it appears from reading that that is correct.
Abusing check user privileges to satisfy curioisity, as offered recently on this list, and to gain information about who is using Tor accounts, then publish that usage is not an abuse, or an actionable abuse by the ombudsman, because the ombudsman is strictly limited to assisting those users whose privacy has been abused, when they were the subject of a checkuser.
And clearly ArbCom doesn't want to do anything serious about those with checkuser privileges abusing it, as indicated by their silly response to the Charlotte Webbe incident.
So, anything that isn't strictly covered by the limited scope of privacy concerns and handled by the ombusdmans is fair game for exposure on Wikipedia, except you might be admonished to not be a drama king about it. But you can still use your checkuser privileges however you want, unconstrained by the intentions behind it.
So, we have users given immense power to violate the personal space of other users, and we have no control over their use and abuse of that power.
And, you don't even have to personally abuse your own checkuser power, as shown by the recent e-mail where a user offered up his check user results to others who e-mailed him, so they wouldn't personally have to sully themselves by snooping--unbelievable.
So, are there privacy issues on Wikipedia? Damn straight, when huge powers to invade others' privacy are given without restraints. It makes me wish I were savvy enough to use a Tor exit node.
KP