PrivacyIssues

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Community identity policies

The idea of OnlineCommunity (and the counter-view that such a thing is impossible; see VirtualCommunity) has led to debates on the neccessity and ImportanceOfIdentityInOnlineCommunities. Different communities have adopted various different identity policies, such as

UseRealNames (MeatBall's policy, and arguably the policy in MeatSpace)
Persistent pseudonyms
Anonymity

Related to the choice of identity policy is the method of enforcement. Specifically, when should someone's (pseudo)-anonymity be "broken", i.e. when should someone's identity should be revealed against their will; see FairOuting.

The effect of technology on privacy

Is new technology increasing or decreasing privacy? See PrivacyArmsRace.

Should this page exist?

This page isn't coherent nor is it readable. You can immediately tell this is the case by the generic page title. Pick one topic, write about it in depth instead of linking everywhere hoping that someone else will bother finding the pattern amongst all those pages.

Basically, instead of swooping down and shotgunning the site with a lot of links and shallow definitions about some complex idea, start by first introducing yourself and then develop one problem and solution at a time. We're not interested in quantity, nor are we building an encyclopedia. Definitions are secondary. Patterns are primary. cf. Wiki:PatternLanguage.

This should be a DeletedPage.

: Hmm, well, I agree that this page is rather confusing and needs to be rewritten, but I don't see why it shouldn't exist at all. After all, we have a page called SoftSecurity which just provides links to a general way of doing things; it seems to me that "Privacy" is a point of view comparable in scope and structure to SoftSecurity. Also, calling someone a "privacy fanatic" in the summary field probably isn't the best wording.... :)
: -- BayleShanks

Of course it's possible for a page entitled PrivacyIssues to exist, and I'd like that, but that doesn't mean this page does. Keep on editing, WikiMaster. ;) -- SunirShah

things that should be fleshed out by the page creator

and FairProcess (FairOuting) regarding say WhatIsaStalker on many such services. See PowerOverCycle, RaisingSocialCosts and the SoftSecurityDiscussion especially.

: I don't immediately see the relevance of PowerOverCycle, RaisingSocialCosts and SoftSecurityDiscussion, although I can guess. This should be fleshed out

Requirements to UseRealNames, or to contribute anonymously in different types of so-called communities tend to be applied as a result of the outcome of such debates, or pre-existing GroupThink about the notion of identity which itself shapes thought on privacy issues - the role of legal precedent in particular is often debated.

: I don't quite see what you mean about legal precedent here, but I'm interested; perhaps you could explain a bit more?''

A key question is whether AnonymousIdentity introduces any special problems, or if it is just part of the general problem that all software has victims -- and one cannot sue a technology nor hold a piece of software that fails liable for one's lost privacy. The notion of limited liability plays a key role in privacy debates.

: I don't understand what you mean here -- you may have to expand on it. You might want to just expand on it here (or whereever you move the stuff on this page to) rather than creating new pages for things like AllSoftwareHasVictims.

CategoryIdentity