[Wikimedia-l] CheckUser openness

[John]

This is something that has been bugging me for a while. When a user has
been checkusered they should at least be notified of who preformed it and
why it was preformed. I know this is not viable for every single CU action
as many are for anons. But for those users who have been around for a
period, (say autoconfirmed) they should be notified when they are CU'ed and
any user should be able to request the CU logs pertaining to themselves
(who CU'ed them, when, and why) at will. I have seen CU's refuse to provide
information to the accused.

See the Rich Farmbrough ArbCom case where I suspect obvious fishing, where
the CU'ed user was requesting information and the CU claimed it would be a
violation of the privacy policy to release the time/reason/performer of the
checkuser.

This screams of obfuscation and the hiding of information. I know the
ombudsman committee exists as a check and balance, however before something
can be passed to them evidence of inappropriate action is needed. Ergo
Catch-22

I know checkusers  keep a private wiki
https://checkuser.wikimedia.org/wiki/Main_Page and I know according to our
privacy policy we are supposed to purge our information regularly (on wiki
CU logs exist for 90 days) however who oversees the regular removal of
private information on the wiki?

My proposal would be for all users who are at least auto confirmed to be
notified and be able to request all CU logs regarding themselves at any
point, and any mentions of themselves on the CU wiki should be retrievable.

John