Privacy issues in Ubuntu's IRC channels and Launchpad

[C de-Avillez]

On Sat, 21 Sep 2013 10:20:29 +0100
Alan Bell <alanbell at ubuntu.com> wrote:

> Hi Long-time Ubuntu community member,
> 
> what you have observed is accurate, and has always been the case. We
> do make efforts to point out in our IRC channels that they are
> logged, it features in our guidance on creating new channels 
> https://wiki.ubuntu.com/IRC/CreatingChannels?highlight=channel%20is%20logged 
> so people should be aware that what they say is in a public space and 
> forms part of the public record. We don't remove or edit logs except 
> under very exceptional circumstances - and people having stupid 
> conversations is closer to the norm than the exception :) There are
> some channels that we don't bother to log, #ubuntu-offtopic would be
> one example of this. As for the launchpad bugs, yes, you are publicly
> and permanently credited with your contributions to making Ubuntu
> better. It would be a disservice to you and everyone else involved to
> remove just your portion of a conversation as it would destroy the
> work you put in, and replies to you would no longer make sense,
> possibly making other people appear to be nonsensical. It is possible
> to contribute to Ubuntu under a pseudonym, but erasing the historical
> record of your contributions isn't really something we are set up to
> support and I don't really see the benefit to the project of doing so.


Additionally, one should keep in mind that even if we were to delete
entries from bugs, or IRC logs, there is the whole wide internet making
copies right and left...

Just for an example, bugs comments are archived in the bug mailing
lists archives (there are *several* such lists, and they sometimes cross
each other); even more, these mailing lists are (re-)archived in many
other indexers, elsewhere.

In other words: once you commented in a bug, or on IRC, it is public.
It is there to stay. There is NO way to clean it up. Fighting against it
will go nowhere, and may subject one to the Streisand effect [1].

Cheers,

..C..

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Streisand_effect

-- 
ab alio expectes alteri quod feceris
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