[Foundation-l] New privacy policy

[Jimmy Wales]

Nathan Reed wrote:
> "It is the policy of Wikimedia that personally identifiable data collected
> in the server logs, or through records in the database via the CheckUser
> feature, may be released by the system administrators or users with
> CheckUser access, in the following situations:"
> 
> Does this mean that personally identifiable information may be released by
> users with CheckUser permissions? For example, is it permissible for me to
> release the actual IP address of a vandal to the general public? I'm not
> sure, but this may not be a good thing.
> 
> I can understand using the information for IP blocks, but perhaps the
> release of the information should not be so broad in these cases. Or, maybe
> I'm tired, have failed to comprehend the policy completely, and have missed
> something.. :D

Notice that the privacy policy is what we tell the public that we *may*
do.  We can and should, in practice, be as privacy conscious as we can
be, and so checkusers who have any doubt about to whom they should
release information, and when, and why, should check carefully with
Angela, Anthere, me, brad, other checkusers, relevant arbcoms, etc.

Even if our privacy policy leaves us room to do something if we need to
do it, we may choose not to do it in most cases.

--Jimbo