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

[Brandon Harris]

	(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/>, which means it should be using the
>> default, as defined at
>> <
>> 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>.
>>
>> 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>?
>>
>> MZMcBride
>>
>>
>>
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-- 
Brandon Harris, Senior Designer, Wikimedia Foundation

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