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

Sun Feb 5 10:13:21 UTC 2012

The person running it is Dario Taraborelli, our chief research officer;
he's currently on holiday. Hopefully we'll have more specifics soon - in
the meantime I've started a new FAQ item at
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Article_Feedback_Tool/Version_5/Help#What_are_the_new_phrases_like_.22articleFeedbackv5_click_tracking.22_in_the_URL_bar_on_some_articles.3F.
I prepared it a couple of weeks ago; sorry for not putting it up until now.

On 5 February 2012 02:09, Brandon Harris <bharris at wikimedia.org> wrote:

>
>        I'm not sure why this couldn't be done if that were all that is
> being measured.  I suspect there's other behaviors being tracked.
>
>        As I said, I'm not the person who knows most about this, so you
> have to take what I am saying with a grain of salt.
>
>
>
> On 2/4/12 5:21 PM, WereSpielChequers wrote:
>
>> Hi Brandon, thanks for the explanation, but wouldn't it be easier to just
>> analyse edit summaries? If you edit by section the edit summary defaults
>> to
>> start with the section heading.......
>>
>> Were SpielChequers
>>
>> Message: 7
>>
>>> Date: Sat, 04 Feb 2012 14:51:49 -0800
>>> From: Brandon Harris<bharris at wikimedia.org>
>>> To: foundation-l at lists.wikimedia.**org<foundation-l at lists.wikimedia.org>
>>> Subject: Re: [Foundation-l] Fw: Strike against the collection of
>>>        personal data through edit links
>>> Message-ID:<4F2DB685.70000@**wikimedia.org<4F2DB685.70000 at wikimedia.org>
>>> >
>>> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed
>>>
>>>
>>>        (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/ <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<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<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<https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:ClickTracking>
>>>>> >?
>>>>>
>>>>> MZMcBride
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
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>>>
>>> --
>>> Brandon Harris, Senior Designer, Wikimedia Foundation
>>>
>>> Support Free Knowledge: http://wikimediafoundation.**org/wiki/Donate<http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Donate>
>>>
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>
> --
> Brandon Harris, Senior Designer, Wikimedia Foundation
>
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-- 
Oliver Keyes
Community Liaison, Product Development
Wikimedia Foundation