Difference between revisions of "Criminal Defense Wiki:Privacy policy"

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A '''privacy policy''' is a legal document that discloses some or all of the ways a party gathers, uses, discloses and manages a customer's data. The exact contents of a privacy policy will depend upon the applicable law and may need to address the requirements of multiple countries or jurisdictions.
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==General Scope==
While there is no universal guidance for the content of specific privacy policies, a number of organizations provide example forms or online wizards.
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This policy covers personally identifiable information collected or stored by International Bridges to Justice on its servers in relation to the Projects and their communities. Consistent with its Data Retention Policy, International Bridges to Justice collects and retains the least amount of personally identifiable information needed to fulfill the Projects' operational needs.
  
==Development ==
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==The public and collaborative nature of the projects==
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The Criminal Defense Wiki Project of International Bridges to Justice is collaboratively developed by its users using the MediaWiki software. Anyone with Internet access who has been approved by International Bridges Justice as a confirmed user may edit the publicly editable pages of these sites with or without logging in as a registered user. By doing this, editors create a published document, and a public record of every word added, subtracted, or changed. This is a public act, and editors are identified publicly as the author of such changes. All contributions made to a Project, and all publicly available information about those contributions, are irrevocably licensed and may be freely copied, quoted, reused and adapted by third parties with few restrictions.
  
In 1995 the [[European Union]] (EU) introduced the  [[Data Protection Directive]]<ref>Overview of the Data Protection Directive, [http://ec.europa.eu/justice_home/fsj/privacy/overview/index_en.htm EC.europa.eu]</ref> for its member states.  As a result, many organizations doing business within the EU began to draft policies to comply with this Directive. In the same year the U.S. [[Federal Trade Commission]] published the Fair Information Principles<ref>U.S> [[Federal Trade Commission]]  [[FTC Fair Information Practice|Fair Information Practice Principles]], [http://www.ftc.gov/reports/privacy3/fairinfo.shtm FTC.gov]</ref> which provided a set of non-binding governing principles for the commercial use of personal information. While not mandating policy, these principles provided guidance of the developing concerns of how to draft privacy policies.
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==Activities on The Criminal Defense Wiki==
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In general, this Policy only applies to private information stored or held by the Criminal Defense Wiki which is not publicly available.
  
== Fair Information Practice ==
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Interactions with Criminal Defense Wiki not covered by this Policy include, but are not limited to, aspects of browsing and editing pages, use of the wiki "email user" function, subscribing and posting to Criminal Defense Wiki hosted email lists, and corresponding with volunteers via the Criminal Defense Wiki's ticketing system ("OTRS"). These interactions may reveal a contributor's IP address, and possibly other personal information, indiscriminately to the general public, or to specific groups of volunteers acting independently of the Foundation.
  
The four critical issues identified in  Fair Information Principles are:
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Users may also interact with one another outside of the Criminal Defense Wiki sites, via email, IRC or other chat, or independent websites, and should assess the risks involved, and their personal need for privacy, before using these methods of communication.
  
*Notice – data collectors must disclose their information practices before collecting personal information from consumers
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==User accounts and authorship==
*Choice – consumers must be given options with respect to whether and how personal information collected from them may be used for purposes beyond those for which the information was provided
 
*Access – consumers should be able to view and contest the accuracy and completeness of data collected about them
 
*Security – data collectors must take reasonable steps to assure that information collected from consumers is accurate and secure from unauthorized use.
 
  
In addition the  Principles  discuss the need for enforcement mechanisms to impose sanctions for noncompliance with fair information practices.
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The Criminal Defense Wiki does not require editors to register with a project. Anyone can edit without logging in with a username, in which case they will be identified by network IP address. Users that do register are identified by their chosen username. Users select a password, which is confidential and used to verify the integrity of their account.
  
==Current enforcement in the United States.==
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Except insofar as it may be required by law, no person should disclose, or knowingly expose, either user passwords and/or cookies generated to identify a user. Once created, user accounts will not be removed. It may be possible for a username to be changed, depending on the policies of individual projects. The Criminal Defense Wiki does not guarantee that a username will be changed on request.
  
The United States does not have a specific federal regulation establishing universal implementation of privacy policies.  Congress has, at times, considered comprehensive laws regulating the collection of information online, such as the Consumer Internet Privacy Enhancement Act<ref>HR 237 IH, The Consumer Internet Privacy Enhancement Act, as Introduced in House, 107th Congress [http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c107:H.R.237 Loc.gov.]</ref> and the Online Privacy Protection Act of 2001,<ref>HR 89 IH, Online Privacy Protection Act of 2001, as Introduced in House, 107th Congress  [http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c107:H.R.89: Loc.gov]</ref> but none have been enacted. In 2001, the FTC stated an express preference for "more law enforcement, not more laws"<ref>Kirby, Carrie "FTC drops the Call for New Internet Privacy Laws," SFGate, October 5, 2001. [http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2001/10/05/BU162345.DTL&type=printable SFgate.com]</ref> and promoted continued focus on industry self regulation.
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==Purpose of the collection of private information==
  
In most cases, the FTC enforces the terms of privacy policies as promises made to consumers using the authority granted by Section 5 of the [[FTC Act]] which prohibits unfair or deceptive marketing practices.<ref>Implementation of 15 U.S.C. §§ 41-58, [http://www.ftc.gov/privacy/privacyinitiatives/promises.html FTC.gov]</ref>  The FTC's powers are statutorily restricted in some cases; for example, airlines are subject to the authority of the [[Federal Aviation Administration]] (FAA),<ref>Electronic Privacy Information Center, Air Travel Privacy, [http://epic.org/privacy/airtravel/ Epic.org]. Also see FAA Enforcement Database at [http://www.faa.gov/foia/faa_enforcement_database_records/ FAA.gov.]</ref> and cell phone carriers are subject to the authority of the [[Federal Communications Commission]] (FCC).<ref>Helmer, Gabriel M. "Cracking Down: FCC Initiates Enforcement Action Against Hundreds of Telecommunications Carriers For Failing to Certify Compliance With Customer Privacy Rules Security, Privacy and the Law, Foley Hoag, LLP, May 2009. [http://www.securityprivacyandthelaw.com/tags/fcc/ Securityprivacyandthelaw.com.] Also see FCC Enforcement Center at [http://www.fcc.gov/eb/ FCC.gov]</ref>
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The Criminal Defense Wiki limits the collection of personally identifiable user data to purposes which serve the well-being of its projects, including but not limited to the following:
  
==Applicable US law==
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*To enhance the public accountability of the projects. The Criminal Defense Wiki recognizes that any system that is open enough to allow the greatest possible participation of the general public will also be vulnerable to certain kinds of abuse and counterproductive behavior. The Criminal Defense Wiki and the project communities have established a number of mechanisms to prevent or remedy abusive activities. For example, when investigating abuse on a project, including the suspected use of malicious “sockpuppets” (duplicate accounts), vandalism, harassment of other users, or disruptive behavior, the IP addresses of users (derived either from those logs or from records in the database) may be used to identify the source(s) of the abusive behavior. This information may be shared by users with administrative authority who are charged by their communities with protecting the projects.
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*To provide site statistics. The Criminal Defense Wiki statistically samples raw log data from users' visits. These logs are used to produce the site statistics pages; the raw log data is not made public.
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*To solve technical problems. Log data may be examined by developers in the course of solving technical problems and in tracking down badly-behaved web spiders that overwhelm the site.
  
While no generally applicable law exists, some federal laws govern privacy policies in specific circumstances, such as:
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==Details of data retention==
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===General expectations===
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====IP and other technical information====
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*When a visitor requests or reads a page, or sends email to a Criminal Defense Wiki server, no more information is collected than is typically collected by web sites. The Criminal Defense Wiki may keep raw logs of such transactions, but these will not be published or used to track legitimate users.
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*When a page is edited by a logged-in editor, the server confidentially stores related IP information for a limited period of time. This information is automatically deleted after a set period. For editors who do not log in, the IP address used is publicly and permanently credited as the author of the edit. It may be possible for a third party to identify the author from this IP address in conjunction with other information available. Logging in with a registered  username allows for better preservation of privacy.
  
'''[[COPPA|The Children's Online Privacy Protection Act]] (COPPA)'''<ref>The Children's Online Privacy Protection Act, [http://www.ftc.gov/ogc/coppa1.htm FTC.gov]</ref> affects websites that knowingly collect information about or target at children under the age of 13.<ref>COPPA Safe Harbors discussed, Cybertelecom Federal Internet Law & Policy - an Educational Project. Krohn & Moss Consumer Law Center, [http://www.cybertelecom.org/privacy/coppasafe.htm Cybertelecom.org]</ref> Any such websites must post a privacy policy and adhere to enumerated information-sharing restrictions<ref>Discussion of compliance with the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act, FTC Privacy Initiatives, [http://www.ftc.gov/privacy/privacyinitiatives/childrens.html FTC.gov]</ref>  COPPA includes a Safe Harbor provision to promote Industry self regulation.<ref>Data Privacy, A Safe Harbor Approach To Privacy: TRUSTe Recommendations, Center for Democracy and Technology, [http://www.cdt.org/privacy/ccp/safeharbors1.shtml CDT.org]</ref>
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====Cookies====
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:The sites set a temporary session cookie on a visitor's computer whenever a Project page is visited. Readers who do not intend to log in or edit may deny this  cookie; it will be deleted at the end of the browser's session. More cookies may be set when one logs in to maintain logged-in status. If one saves a user name or password in one's browser, that information will be saved for up to 30 days, and this information will be resent to the server on every visit to the same Project. Contributors using a public machine who do not wish to show their username to  future users of the machine should clear these cookies after use.
  
'''[[GLB Act|The Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act]]'''<ref>Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, [http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c106:S.900.ENR Loc.gov]</ref> requires institutions "significantly engaged<ref>"The Financial Privacy Requirements of the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act", FTC Facts for Business", [http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/edu/pubs/business/idtheft/bus53.shtm FTC.gov]</ref> in financial activities give "clear, conspicuous, and accurate statements" of their information-sharing practices. The Act also restricts use and sharing of financial information.<ref>Information Regarding the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act of 1999, US. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs. [http://banking.senate.gov/conf/ Senate.gov]</ref>
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====Page history====
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:Edits or other contributions to a Project on its articles, user pages and talk pages are generally retained forever. Removing text from a project does not permanently delete it. Normally, in projects, anyone can look at a previous version of an article and see what was there. Even if an article is "deleted", a user entrusted with higher level of access may still see what was removed from public view. Information can be permanently deleted by individuals with access to Wikimedia servers, but aside from the rare circumstance when Criminal Defense Wiki is required to delete editing-history material in response to a court order or equivalent legal process, there is no guarantee any permanent deletion will happen.
  
'''[[HIPAA|Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act]] (HIPAA)''' Privacy Rules<ref>Understanding HIPAA Privacy, HHS.gov Health Information Privacy, [http://www.hhs.gov/ocr/privacy/hipaa/understanding/index.html HHS.gov]</ref> requires notice in writing of the privacy practices of health care services, and this requirement also applies if the health service is electronic.<ref>Notice of HIPAA Privacy Practices. Privacy/ Data Protection Project, Miller School of Medicine Miami University, [http://privacy.med.miami.edu/glossary/xd_notice_of_privacy_practices.htm Miami.edu]</ref>
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====User contribution====
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:User contributions are also aggregated and publicly available. User contributions are aggregated according to their registration and login status. Data on user contributions, such as the times at which users edited and the number of edits they have made, are publicly available via user contributions lists, and in aggregated forms published by other users.
  
Some states have implemented more stringent regulations for privacy policies.  ''[[California Online Privacy Protection Act|The California Online Privacy Protection Act of 2003]] - Business and Professions Code sections 22575-22579'' requires "any commercial web sites or online services that collect personal information on California residents through a web site to conspicuously post a privacy policy on the site".<ref>Privacy Laws, California Office of Information Security and Privacy Protection [http://www.oispp.ca.gov/consumer_privacy/laws/ CA.gov]</ref> Both Nebraska and Pennsylvania have laws treating misleading statements in privacy policies published on Web sites as deceptive or fraudulent business practices.<ref>Deceptive Trade Practices, [http://www.enotes.com/everyday-law-encyclopedia/deceptive-trade-practices Enotes.com]</ref>
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=====Reading projects=====
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::No more information on users and other visitors reading pages is collected than is typically collected in server logs by web sites. Aside from the above raw log data collected for general purposes, page visits do not expose a visitor's identity publicly. Sampled raw log data may include the IP address of any user, but it is not reproduced publicly.
  
==European Union==
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=====Editing projects=====
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::Edits to Project pages are identified with the username or network IP address of the editor, and editing history is aggregated by author in a contribution list. Such information will be available permanently on the projects.
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::Logged in registered users:
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::Logged in users do not expose their IP address to the public except in cases of abuse, including vandalism of a wiki page by the user or by another user with the same IP address. A user's IP address is stored on the wiki servers for a period of time, during which it can be seen by server administrators and by users who have been granted CheckUser access.
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::IP address information, and its connection to any usernames that share it, may be released under certain circumstances (see below).
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::Editors using a company mail server from home or telecommuting over a DSL or cable Internet connection, are likely to be easy to identify by their IP address; in which case it may be easy to cross-identify all contributions to various Projects made by that IP. Using a username is a better way of preserving privacy in this situation.
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::Unlogged-in registered users and unregistered users:
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::Editors who have not logged in may be identified by network IP address. Depending on one's connection, this IP address may be traceable to a large Internet service provider or more specifically to a school, place of business or home. It may be possible to use this information in combination with other information, including editing style and preferences, to identify an author completely.
  
There are significant differences between the EU data protection and US data privacy laws. These standards must be met not only by businesses operating in the EU, but also by any organization that transfers personal information collected concerning citizen of the EUIn 2001 the [[United States Department of Commerce]] worked to ensure legal compliance for US organizations under an opt-in [[International Safe Harbor Privacy Principles|Safe Harbor Program]].<ref>Safe Harbor Compliance, [http://www.export.gov/safeharbor/ Export.gov]</ref> The FTC has approved [[eTrust]] to certify streamlined compliance with the US-EU Safe Harbor.
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=====Discussions=====
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::On wiki discussion pages:
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::Any editable page can theoretically be the location of a discussion. In general, discussions on Criminal Defense Wiki projects occur on user talk pages (associated with particular users), on article talk pages (associated with particular articles) or in pages specially designated to function as forums (e.g., the Village Pump). Privacy expectations apply to discussion pages in the same way as they do elsewhere.
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::Via email:
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::Users are not required to list an email address when registering. Users who provide a valid email address can enable other logged-in users to send email to them through the wiki. When receiving an email from other users through this system, one's email address is not revealed to them. When choosing to send an email to other users, one's email is displayed as the sender.
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::The email address put into one's user preferences may be used by Criminal Defense Wiki for communication. Users whose accounts do not have a valid email address will not be able to reset their password if it is lost. In such a situation, however, users may be able to contact one of the Wikimedia server administrators to enter a new e-mail address. A user can remove the account's email address from his preferences at any time to prevent it from being used. Private correspondence between users may be saved at those users' discretion and is not subject to Criminal Defense Wiki policy.
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::On mailing lists:
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::The email addresses used to subscribe and post to Project mailing lists are exposed to other subscribers. The list archives of most such mailing lists are public, and searches of public archives may be performed on the Web.  Subscribers' addresses may also be quoted in other users' messages. These email addresses and any messages sent to a mailing list may be archived and may remain available to the public permanently.
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::Via OTRS:
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::Some e-mail addresses (such as info-en at wikimedia dot org) forward mail to a team of volunteers trusted by the Criminal Defense Wiki to use a ticket system, such as OTRS, to respond. Mail sent to this system is not publicly visible, but volunteers selected by Criminal Defense Wiki will have access to itThe ticket system team may discuss the contents of received mail with other contributors in order to respond effectively. Mail to private addresses of members of Board of Trustees and to staff of Criminal Defense Wiki may also be forwarded to the OTRS team. These messages and e-mail addresses may be saved by members of the OTRS team and any email service they use, and may remain available to them.
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::On IRC:
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::IRC channels are not officially part of Criminal Defense Wiki and are not operated on Criminal Defense Wiki controlled servers. The IP address of users who chat over such a service may be exposed to other participants. IRC  users' privacy on each channel can only be protected according to the policies of the respective service and channel. Different channels have  different policies on whether logs may be published.
  
==Online Privacy Certification Programs==
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==Access to and release of personally identifiable information==
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Access:
  
[[Online Certification]] or "Seal" programs are an example of industry self regulation of privacy policies. Seal programs usually require implementation fair information practices as determined by the Certification program and may require continued compliance monitoring. [[TRUSTe]],<ref>TRUSTe, [http://forms.truste.com/go/truste/learn_more_3?gclid=CK7V3sHdkJ4CFRgbawodiDZ2oQ Truste.com]</ref> the first online privacy seal program, included more than 1,800 members by 2007<ref>CDT Guide to Online Privacy, Center for Democracy and Technology, 2009.  [http://www.cdt.org/privacy/guide/protect/ CDT.org]</ref> Other Online Seal programs include the [[Better Business Bureau|Better Business Bureau Assurance on the Internet]]<ref>BBB Seal Program. Better Business Bureau® Assurance on the Internet, BBBOnLine, Inc., [https://www.bbbonline.org/reliability/Rel_EN.asp BBBonline.org]</ref> eTrust,<ref>Etrust, [http://www.etrust.org/certification/privacy/ Etrust.org]</ref> and [[Webtrust]].<ref>Webtrust Seal Program, [http://www.webtrust.net/ Webtrust.net]</ref>
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Projects are primarily run by volunteer contributors. Some dedicated users are chosen by the community to be given privileged access. For example, for an English Wikipedia user, user access levels to the Criminal Defense Wiki are determined by the user's presence in various 'user groups'. User group rights and group members are reachable in every project from the Special:ListGroupRights page.
  
==Technical implementation ==
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Other users who may have access to private identifiable information include, but are not limited to, users who have access to OTRS, or to the CheckUser and Oversight functions, users elected by project communities to serve as stewards or Arbitrators, Criminal Defense Wiki employees, trustees, appointees, and contractors and agents employed by the Foundation, and developers and others with high levels of server access.
  
Some websites also define their privacy policies using [[P3P]] or [[Internet Content Rating Association]] (ICRA), allowing browsers to automatically assess the level of privacy offered by the site.  However, these technical solutions do not guarantee websites actually follows the claimed privacy policies.  They also require users to have a minimum level of technical knowledge to configure their own browser privacy settings.<ref>Softsteel Solutions "The Platform for Privacy Preferences Project (P3P)", [http://www.softsteel.co.uk/tutorials/P3P/ Softsteel.co.uk]</ref> These automated privacy policies have not been popular either with websites or their users.<ref>CyLab Privacy Interest Group, 2006 Privacy Policy Trends Report. January, 2007 [http://www.chariotsfire.com/pub/cpig-jan2007.pdf Chariotsfire.com]</ref>
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Access to and publication of this information is governed by the Access to nonpublic data policy, as well as specific policies covering some of the functions in question. Sharing information with other privileged users is not considered "distribution."
  
==Criticism==
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Release: Policy on Release of Data
  
Many critics have attacked the efficacy and legitimacy of privacy policies found on the Internet.
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It is the policy of the Crimninal Defense Wiki that personally identifiable data collected in the server logs, or through records in the database via the CheckUser feature, or through other non-publicly-available methods, may be released by Wikimedia volunteers or staff, in any of the following situations:
Concerns exist about the effectiveness of industry-regulated privacy policies. For example, a 2000 FTC report Privacy Online: Fair Information Practices in the Electronic Marketplace found that while the vast majority of website surveyed had some manner of privacy disclosure, most did not meet the standard set in the FTC Principles. In addition, many organizations reserve the express right to unilaterally change the terms of their policies. In June 2009 the [[EFF]] website TOSback began tracking such changes on 56 popular internet services, including the monitoring the privacy policies of [[Amazon.com|Amazon]], [[Google]] and [[Facebook]].<ref>Millis, Elinor, "EFF tracking policy changes at Google, Facebook and others," Cnet Digital News, June 2009. [http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-10257818-93.html Cnet.com]</ref>
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# In response to a valid subpoena or other compulsory request from law enforcement,
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# With permission of the affected user,
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# When necessary for investigation of abuse complaints,
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# Where the information pertains to page views generated by a spider or bot and its dissemination is necessary to illustrate or resolve technical issues,
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# Where the user has been vandalizing articles or persistently behaving in a disruptive way, data may be released to a service provider, carrier, or other third-party entity to assist in the targeting of IP blocks, or to assist in the formulation of a complaint to relevant Internet Service Providers,
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# Where it is reasonably necessary to protect the rights, property or safety of the Criminal Defense Wiki, its users or the public.
  
There are also questions about whether consumers understand privacy policies and whether they help consumers make more informed decisions.  A 2002 report from the [[Stanford Persuasive Technology Lab]] contended that a website's visual designs had more influence than the website's privacy policy when consumers assessed the website's credibility.<ref>Fogg, B. J. "How Do People Evaluate a Web Site's Credibility? (abstract)" BJ, Stanford Persuasive Technology Lab, November 2002, [http://www.consumerwebwatch.org/dynamic/web-credibility-reports-evaluate-abstract.cfm Consumerwebwatch.org.] Stanford Web Credibility Project found at [http://credibility.stanford.edu/resources.html Stanford.edu.]</ref> A 2007 study by [[Carnegie Mellon University]] claimed "when not presented with prominent privacy information..." consumers were "…likely to make purchases from the vendor with the lowest price, regardless of that site's privacy policies<ref>Acquisti, Alessandro and Janice Tsai, Serge Egelman, Lorrie Cranor, "The Effect of Online Privacy Information on Purchasing Behavior: An Experimental Study" Carnegie Mellon University, 2007. [http://weis2007.econinfosec.org/papers/57.pdf Econinfosec.org]</ref>  However, the same study contends where privacy information is clearly presented, consumers prefer retailers who better protect their privacy and may "pay a premium to purchase from more privacy protective websites."  Furthermore, a 2007 study at the [[University of California, Berkeley]] found that "75% of consumers think as long as a site has a privacy policy it means it won’t share data with third parties," confusing the existence of a privacy policy with extensive privacy protection.<ref>Gorell, Robert. "Do Consumers Care About Online Privacy?" October, 2007. [http://www.grokdotcom.com/2007/10/30/do-consumers-care-about-online-privacy/citing Grokdotcom.com] citing to a study by Chris Hoofnagle, UC-Berkeley's Bolt School of Law.  Samuelson Law, Technology & Public Policy Clinic, [http://www.law.berkeley.edu/4391.htm Berkeley.edu]</ref>
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Except as described above, Wikimedia policy does not permit distribution of personally identifiable information under any circumstances.
  
Critics also question if consumers even read privacy policies or can understand what they read. A 2001 study by the [[Privacy Leadership Initiative]] claimed only 3% of consumers read privacy policies carefully, and 64% briefly glanced at, or never read, privacy policies.<ref>Goldman, Eric. "On My Mind: The Privacy Hoax," October, 2002, [http://www.ericgoldman.org/Articles/privacyhoax.htm EricGoldman.org]</ref> One possible issue is length and complexity of policies. According to a 2008 [[Carnegie Mellon]] study the average length of a privacy policy is 2,500 words, the research and requires an average 10 minutes to read.  The study cited that "Privacy policies are hard to read" and, as a result, "read infrequently".<ref>Out-Law News. "Average privacy policy takes 10 minutes to read, research finds," [http://www.out-law.com/page-9490 Out-Law.com], July 2008.</ref>
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Third-party access and notifying registered users when receiving legal process:
  
==References==
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As a general principle, the access to, and retention of, personally identifiable data in all projects should be minimal and should be used only internally to serve the well-being of the projects. Occasionally, however, the Criminal Defense Wiki may receive a subpoena or other compulsory request from a law-enforcement agency or a court or equivalent government body that requests the disclosure of information about a registered user, and may be compelled by law to comply with the request. In the event of such a legally compulsory request, Criminal Defense Wiki will attempt to notify the affected user within three business days after the arrival of such subpoena by sending a notice by email to the email address (if any) that the affected user has listed in his or her user preferences.
{{reflist|2}}
 
  
==Further reading==
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The Criminal Defense Wiki cannot advise a user receiving such a notification regarding the law or an appropriate response to a subpoena. The Criminal Defense Wiki does note, however, that such users may have the legal right to resist or limit that information in court by filing a motion to quash the subpoena. Users who wish to oppose a subpoena or other compulsory request should seek legal advice concerning applicable rights and procedures that may be available.
* [http://cid-8b56ed9e88c6c995.office.live.com/view.aspx/Online%20Trust%20%5E0%20Privacy%20Statements/Online%20trust%20and%20perceived%20utility%20for%20consumers%20of%20web%20privacy%20statements.doc Online trust and perceived utility for consumers of web privacy statements: UK Overview - WBS Mark Gazaleh (2008).]
 
  
==External links==
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If the Criminal Defense Wiki receives a court-filed motion to quash or otherwise limit the subpoena as a result of action by a user or their lawyer, Criminal Defense Wiki will not disclose the requested information until the Criminal Defense Wiki receives an order from the court to do so.
* [http://web.archive.org/web/20080605072625/http://www.bbbonline.org/privacy/sample_privacy.asp BBBOnLine privacy policy template.] (link to advertising)
 
* [http://www.ftc.gov/ftc/contact.shtm#publications FTC Guideline Publication Archive.]
 
* [http://www.eff.org/wp/osp EFF Best Practices for Online Service Providers (2008) including Privacy Policies.]
 
  
{{DEFAULTSORT:Privacy Policy}}
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Registered users are not required to provide an email address. However, when an affected registered user does not provide an email address, Criminal Defense Wiki will not be able to notify the affected user in private email messages when it receives requests from law enforcement to disclose personally identifiable information about the user.
[[Category:Privacy]]
 
[[Category:Internet privacy|Policy]]
 
[[Category:Computing and society]]
 
[[Category:Policy]]
 
[[Category:Public policy]]
 
  
[[de:Privacy policy]]
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==Disclaimer==
[[fr:Politique de confidentialité]]
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The Criminal Defense Wiki believes that maintaining and preserving the privacy of user data is an important value. This Privacy Policy, together with other policies, resolutions, and actions by the Criminal Defense Wiki, represents a committed effort to safeguard the security of the limited user information that is collected and retained on our servers. Nevertheless, the Criminal Defense Wiki cannot guarantee that user information will remain private. We acknowledge that, in spite of our committed effort to protect private user information, determined individuals may still develop data-mining and other methods to uncover such information and disclose it. For this reason, the Criminal Defense Wiki can make no guarantee against unauthorized access to information provided in the course of participating in Criminal Defense Wiki or related communities.
[[ja:プライバシーポリシー]]
 
[[pl:Polityka prywatności]]
 
[[fi:Rekisteriseloste]]
 
[[sv:Registerbeskrivning]]
 

Latest revision as of 09:20, 3 December 2010

General Scope

This policy covers personally identifiable information collected or stored by International Bridges to Justice on its servers in relation to the Projects and their communities. Consistent with its Data Retention Policy, International Bridges to Justice collects and retains the least amount of personally identifiable information needed to fulfill the Projects' operational needs.

The public and collaborative nature of the projects

The Criminal Defense Wiki Project of International Bridges to Justice is collaboratively developed by its users using the MediaWiki software. Anyone with Internet access who has been approved by International Bridges Justice as a confirmed user may edit the publicly editable pages of these sites with or without logging in as a registered user. By doing this, editors create a published document, and a public record of every word added, subtracted, or changed. This is a public act, and editors are identified publicly as the author of such changes. All contributions made to a Project, and all publicly available information about those contributions, are irrevocably licensed and may be freely copied, quoted, reused and adapted by third parties with few restrictions.

Activities on The Criminal Defense Wiki

In general, this Policy only applies to private information stored or held by the Criminal Defense Wiki which is not publicly available.

Interactions with Criminal Defense Wiki not covered by this Policy include, but are not limited to, aspects of browsing and editing pages, use of the wiki "email user" function, subscribing and posting to Criminal Defense Wiki hosted email lists, and corresponding with volunteers via the Criminal Defense Wiki's ticketing system ("OTRS"). These interactions may reveal a contributor's IP address, and possibly other personal information, indiscriminately to the general public, or to specific groups of volunteers acting independently of the Foundation.

Users may also interact with one another outside of the Criminal Defense Wiki sites, via email, IRC or other chat, or independent websites, and should assess the risks involved, and their personal need for privacy, before using these methods of communication.

User accounts and authorship

The Criminal Defense Wiki does not require editors to register with a project. Anyone can edit without logging in with a username, in which case they will be identified by network IP address. Users that do register are identified by their chosen username. Users select a password, which is confidential and used to verify the integrity of their account.

Except insofar as it may be required by law, no person should disclose, or knowingly expose, either user passwords and/or cookies generated to identify a user. Once created, user accounts will not be removed. It may be possible for a username to be changed, depending on the policies of individual projects. The Criminal Defense Wiki does not guarantee that a username will be changed on request.

Purpose of the collection of private information

The Criminal Defense Wiki limits the collection of personally identifiable user data to purposes which serve the well-being of its projects, including but not limited to the following:

  • To enhance the public accountability of the projects. The Criminal Defense Wiki recognizes that any system that is open enough to allow the greatest possible participation of the general public will also be vulnerable to certain kinds of abuse and counterproductive behavior. The Criminal Defense Wiki and the project communities have established a number of mechanisms to prevent or remedy abusive activities. For example, when investigating abuse on a project, including the suspected use of malicious “sockpuppets” (duplicate accounts), vandalism, harassment of other users, or disruptive behavior, the IP addresses of users (derived either from those logs or from records in the database) may be used to identify the source(s) of the abusive behavior. This information may be shared by users with administrative authority who are charged by their communities with protecting the projects.
  • To provide site statistics. The Criminal Defense Wiki statistically samples raw log data from users' visits. These logs are used to produce the site statistics pages; the raw log data is not made public.
  • To solve technical problems. Log data may be examined by developers in the course of solving technical problems and in tracking down badly-behaved web spiders that overwhelm the site.

Details of data retention

General expectations

IP and other technical information

  • When a visitor requests or reads a page, or sends email to a Criminal Defense Wiki server, no more information is collected than is typically collected by web sites. The Criminal Defense Wiki may keep raw logs of such transactions, but these will not be published or used to track legitimate users.
  • When a page is edited by a logged-in editor, the server confidentially stores related IP information for a limited period of time. This information is automatically deleted after a set period. For editors who do not log in, the IP address used is publicly and permanently credited as the author of the edit. It may be possible for a third party to identify the author from this IP address in conjunction with other information available. Logging in with a registered username allows for better preservation of privacy.

Cookies

The sites set a temporary session cookie on a visitor's computer whenever a Project page is visited. Readers who do not intend to log in or edit may deny this cookie; it will be deleted at the end of the browser's session. More cookies may be set when one logs in to maintain logged-in status. If one saves a user name or password in one's browser, that information will be saved for up to 30 days, and this information will be resent to the server on every visit to the same Project. Contributors using a public machine who do not wish to show their username to future users of the machine should clear these cookies after use.

Page history

Edits or other contributions to a Project on its articles, user pages and talk pages are generally retained forever. Removing text from a project does not permanently delete it. Normally, in projects, anyone can look at a previous version of an article and see what was there. Even if an article is "deleted", a user entrusted with higher level of access may still see what was removed from public view. Information can be permanently deleted by individuals with access to Wikimedia servers, but aside from the rare circumstance when Criminal Defense Wiki is required to delete editing-history material in response to a court order or equivalent legal process, there is no guarantee any permanent deletion will happen.

User contribution

User contributions are also aggregated and publicly available. User contributions are aggregated according to their registration and login status. Data on user contributions, such as the times at which users edited and the number of edits they have made, are publicly available via user contributions lists, and in aggregated forms published by other users.
Reading projects
No more information on users and other visitors reading pages is collected than is typically collected in server logs by web sites. Aside from the above raw log data collected for general purposes, page visits do not expose a visitor's identity publicly. Sampled raw log data may include the IP address of any user, but it is not reproduced publicly.
Editing projects
Edits to Project pages are identified with the username or network IP address of the editor, and editing history is aggregated by author in a contribution list. Such information will be available permanently on the projects.
Logged in registered users:
Logged in users do not expose their IP address to the public except in cases of abuse, including vandalism of a wiki page by the user or by another user with the same IP address. A user's IP address is stored on the wiki servers for a period of time, during which it can be seen by server administrators and by users who have been granted CheckUser access.
IP address information, and its connection to any usernames that share it, may be released under certain circumstances (see below).
Editors using a company mail server from home or telecommuting over a DSL or cable Internet connection, are likely to be easy to identify by their IP address; in which case it may be easy to cross-identify all contributions to various Projects made by that IP. Using a username is a better way of preserving privacy in this situation.
Unlogged-in registered users and unregistered users:
Editors who have not logged in may be identified by network IP address. Depending on one's connection, this IP address may be traceable to a large Internet service provider or more specifically to a school, place of business or home. It may be possible to use this information in combination with other information, including editing style and preferences, to identify an author completely.
Discussions
On wiki discussion pages:
Any editable page can theoretically be the location of a discussion. In general, discussions on Criminal Defense Wiki projects occur on user talk pages (associated with particular users), on article talk pages (associated with particular articles) or in pages specially designated to function as forums (e.g., the Village Pump). Privacy expectations apply to discussion pages in the same way as they do elsewhere.
Via email:
Users are not required to list an email address when registering. Users who provide a valid email address can enable other logged-in users to send email to them through the wiki. When receiving an email from other users through this system, one's email address is not revealed to them. When choosing to send an email to other users, one's email is displayed as the sender.
The email address put into one's user preferences may be used by Criminal Defense Wiki for communication. Users whose accounts do not have a valid email address will not be able to reset their password if it is lost. In such a situation, however, users may be able to contact one of the Wikimedia server administrators to enter a new e-mail address. A user can remove the account's email address from his preferences at any time to prevent it from being used. Private correspondence between users may be saved at those users' discretion and is not subject to Criminal Defense Wiki policy.
On mailing lists:
The email addresses used to subscribe and post to Project mailing lists are exposed to other subscribers. The list archives of most such mailing lists are public, and searches of public archives may be performed on the Web. Subscribers' addresses may also be quoted in other users' messages. These email addresses and any messages sent to a mailing list may be archived and may remain available to the public permanently.
Via OTRS:
Some e-mail addresses (such as info-en at wikimedia dot org) forward mail to a team of volunteers trusted by the Criminal Defense Wiki to use a ticket system, such as OTRS, to respond. Mail sent to this system is not publicly visible, but volunteers selected by Criminal Defense Wiki will have access to it. The ticket system team may discuss the contents of received mail with other contributors in order to respond effectively. Mail to private addresses of members of Board of Trustees and to staff of Criminal Defense Wiki may also be forwarded to the OTRS team. These messages and e-mail addresses may be saved by members of the OTRS team and any email service they use, and may remain available to them.
On IRC:
IRC channels are not officially part of Criminal Defense Wiki and are not operated on Criminal Defense Wiki controlled servers. The IP address of users who chat over such a service may be exposed to other participants. IRC users' privacy on each channel can only be protected according to the policies of the respective service and channel. Different channels have different policies on whether logs may be published.

Access to and release of personally identifiable information

Access:

Projects are primarily run by volunteer contributors. Some dedicated users are chosen by the community to be given privileged access. For example, for an English Wikipedia user, user access levels to the Criminal Defense Wiki are determined by the user's presence in various 'user groups'. User group rights and group members are reachable in every project from the Special:ListGroupRights page.

Other users who may have access to private identifiable information include, but are not limited to, users who have access to OTRS, or to the CheckUser and Oversight functions, users elected by project communities to serve as stewards or Arbitrators, Criminal Defense Wiki employees, trustees, appointees, and contractors and agents employed by the Foundation, and developers and others with high levels of server access.

Access to and publication of this information is governed by the Access to nonpublic data policy, as well as specific policies covering some of the functions in question. Sharing information with other privileged users is not considered "distribution."

Release: Policy on Release of Data

It is the policy of the Crimninal Defense Wiki that personally identifiable data collected in the server logs, or through records in the database via the CheckUser feature, or through other non-publicly-available methods, may be released by Wikimedia volunteers or staff, in any of the following situations:

  1. In response to a valid subpoena or other compulsory request from law enforcement,
  2. With permission of the affected user,
  3. When necessary for investigation of abuse complaints,
  4. Where the information pertains to page views generated by a spider or bot and its dissemination is necessary to illustrate or resolve technical issues,
  5. Where the user has been vandalizing articles or persistently behaving in a disruptive way, data may be released to a service provider, carrier, or other third-party entity to assist in the targeting of IP blocks, or to assist in the formulation of a complaint to relevant Internet Service Providers,
  6. Where it is reasonably necessary to protect the rights, property or safety of the Criminal Defense Wiki, its users or the public.

Except as described above, Wikimedia policy does not permit distribution of personally identifiable information under any circumstances.

Third-party access and notifying registered users when receiving legal process:

As a general principle, the access to, and retention of, personally identifiable data in all projects should be minimal and should be used only internally to serve the well-being of the projects. Occasionally, however, the Criminal Defense Wiki may receive a subpoena or other compulsory request from a law-enforcement agency or a court or equivalent government body that requests the disclosure of information about a registered user, and may be compelled by law to comply with the request. In the event of such a legally compulsory request, Criminal Defense Wiki will attempt to notify the affected user within three business days after the arrival of such subpoena by sending a notice by email to the email address (if any) that the affected user has listed in his or her user preferences.

The Criminal Defense Wiki cannot advise a user receiving such a notification regarding the law or an appropriate response to a subpoena. The Criminal Defense Wiki does note, however, that such users may have the legal right to resist or limit that information in court by filing a motion to quash the subpoena. Users who wish to oppose a subpoena or other compulsory request should seek legal advice concerning applicable rights and procedures that may be available.

If the Criminal Defense Wiki receives a court-filed motion to quash or otherwise limit the subpoena as a result of action by a user or their lawyer, Criminal Defense Wiki will not disclose the requested information until the Criminal Defense Wiki receives an order from the court to do so.

Registered users are not required to provide an email address. However, when an affected registered user does not provide an email address, Criminal Defense Wiki will not be able to notify the affected user in private email messages when it receives requests from law enforcement to disclose personally identifiable information about the user.

Disclaimer

The Criminal Defense Wiki believes that maintaining and preserving the privacy of user data is an important value. This Privacy Policy, together with other policies, resolutions, and actions by the Criminal Defense Wiki, represents a committed effort to safeguard the security of the limited user information that is collected and retained on our servers. Nevertheless, the Criminal Defense Wiki cannot guarantee that user information will remain private. We acknowledge that, in spite of our committed effort to protect private user information, determined individuals may still develop data-mining and other methods to uncover such information and disclose it. For this reason, the Criminal Defense Wiki can make no guarantee against unauthorized access to information provided in the course of participating in Criminal Defense Wiki or related communities.