Poster country flags and privacy (page 13)

KateWild

I have read all 13 pages. The arguments for and against are clear.

Bohm, I have looked at your posting histor to find out more about you and there aren't any revealing personal posts.

Many have been outed without the country, as humans we have the need to vent and share and connect with others.

Being overly guarded can be bad for us and is a condition that is inherited from WT that we need to overcome.

New posters will join with the flag and old ones will leave. You can't please everyone Simon.

Kate xx

Kate: since this topic has been up for 20 hours, and i have about 6000 posts, this mean you have been reading 300 posts per hour or 5 per minute to conclude none of my posts contain revealing information. That is very impressive.

Scully

I opted out of showing the flag on my profile in previous forum formats. I also opted out of showing my gender, although I've freely disclosed information that makes both my gender and country of residence clear.

I prefer to opt out of disclosing that information on my profile. If someone wants to attempt to identify me, they can bloody well work for it, by reading through all of my 13,000+ posts, rather than having it automatically served to them on my profile.

krejames

I like the idea of the country being shown. If anyone doesn't want the country they are posting from to be known, there are plenty of proxy/browser add-ons that can display an alternative in order to protect privacy.

bohm

How about this: make the display of the flag optional, but replace the green box on the front page with a globe with the position of all posters marked, and include a page with a breakdown of posters per country (total and signed in this month). This way there is privacy and the global community aspect. If people want contact with others from a particular country they can start a thread and take it over the pms

bohm

Krejames: a checkbox is a twenty minute fix*. Why should the newbies have to worry about proxies? How about those who are not comfortable about proxies?

* in the webapps i have been involved in.

Simon

Why should the newbies have to worry about proxies? How about those who are not comfortable about proxies?

Then because they are clueless and perhaps unaware their yes - someone can tell exactly where they are, possibly who they are, from their browser requests they are putting themselves at risk.

Showing a country doesn't really narrow down where they are to any great degree but makes them aware that "what, a website can tell where I am?!"

Perhaps they should look into things more and be educated about taking care of their own security. Naively drifting from site to site in the belief that "the internet is anonymous, I saw it on the news" is putting them more at risk than showing their country which may actually help them.

AnnOMaly

Kate, the old ones who may choose to leave will still have been 'force-flagged,' and any potential repercussions will remain; any damage will have been done.

As Simon commented 2 years ago after the first time the country identifier problem came to light:

[EdenOne] And yes, of course, to reveal the geographical location of a poster is just as serious. Especially if that country is a small country with only a few congregations, where basically every JW knows every other JW.
[Simon] I want to answer this in more detail:
While the overwhelming majority of posters are from large countries and regions that cover a large physical area or population (e.g. US states) I take privacy very seriously and obviously rectified things immediately and apologise for it happening. It was due to me combining two code modules: part from the current site which let people set the region and country in their profile and part from an anti-spammer module which identified regions and countries from an IP address - at some point I referenced the 'wrong' region/country pair to update a profile and didn't notice because all the ones I randomly checked just happened to have their location already set anyway (which matched).
The reason for not 'announcing' it was to not draw attention in case of a very slight risk that someone could possibly be identified from it even though I don't think it's likely, if even possible (it would neecd other information to be exposed as well). Unfortunately, Cedars seems to feel it is a risk worth taking by highlighting it.
I've been busy building in some other features to help protect people's identities further and ensure this site continues to be a safe place for already-out or questioning-JWs to visit. [underlining mine]

http://www.jehovahs-witness.com/topic/250655/have-just-been-disinvited-my-brothers-wedding-thanks-aawa?page=3

Simon recognized that there was a very slight risk of somebody being outed by the country identifiers and that, because he took posters' privacy very seriously, the issue was quickly resolved, the flags removed and an apology given.

It would be nice to see a return to the same level of care and concern about individual posters' privacy expressed two years ago. The risks may be 'very slight,' but if a force-added country flag contributes to just ONE person being outed, then there has been a dereliction of duty by this forum to do its utmost to protect members' identities. It's one thing for a poster to out themselves by being careless. It's another for a forum to willfully display a piece of personal information that a poster wishes to remain private.

KateWild

Bohm, I have looked up your posting history in the past, you reveal nothing personal.

No one will out your girlfriend based on anything you have posted.

The fact you have made so many will make it less appealing to a snooping elder anyway.

Kate xx

violias

I am agreeing with Scully( quote )

"I prefer to opt out of disclosing that information on my profile. If someone wants to attempt to identify me, they can bloody well work for it,posts, rather than having it automatically served to them on my pr. "

I'd opt out of my country and gender and any info on profile.

btw, years ago it was VERY common for posters to list fake countries of origin . We were all so afraid.

Poster country flags and privacy

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