I'm wondering why, if it is a violation of Wikipedia policy, this
wasn't brought up to CharlotteWebb some other time than when he/she
ran for Admin?
This is exactly what this seems like, a violation of privacy for
political gain, namely to sink Charlotte's RfA. If the policy is
enforcable, it should have been enforced the first time it was
discovered that Charlotte uses a TOR, not when Charlotte ran for
adminship. That's what is meant by the accusation that it is
political, sinking Charlotte's RfA with the information, rather than
having contacted Charlotte about it when first discovered. The latter
would have been appropriate if TORs are against policy, the former
will be seen as a political move by many people.
I don't really know what a TOR is, or how this affects policy, or
whether this is really bad or inoccuous, but I'm concerned with how
this was done, namely, used to impact an RfA. If it's bad for
Wikipedia, isn't it bad for editors, not just admins? After all, it's
just a mop and a bucket, and it's not big deal. If it is only bad for
admins, then is it enforced only for admins and sock puppets?
I thought that having access to information about people through check
user required a certain level of trust in the person using check user
not to use it other than for what it is explicitly designed for. When
information that is not directly related to a check user request is
revealed, information that can only be gained by having check user
tools, it seems to me that revealing this information is in violation
of being given the check user tools. I am concerned about the
interpretation of the privacy policy--which explicitly states it is of
prime importance on Wikipedia--which leads to it being seen as second
to concerns about revealing information gained about a non-target user
on a check user request.
I think that the policy should be changed to explicitly prohibit
revealing information from a check user request in this manner--when
the user hasn't been the target of the request, when the information
gained shows another user was in violation of a policy, and when the
release of the information is used to impact an internal wikipedia
political matter, namely RfA.
KP