Timeline for Delay user requests for account deletion by 24 hours
Current License: CC BY-SA 3.0
13 events
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| Oct 19, 2012 at 1:50 | comment | added | jmort253 | @Sklivvz, I'm not sure your argument supports the idea of doing soft-deletions. The fact is that as moderators, we're supposed to follow the rules outlined in the moderator agreement. It doesn't really matter if we can siphon off data to a third party or our browser cache or not, we still must operate within the guidelines/rules. If we're not doing that, then that's a completely different issue altogether. Also, I'm not 100% sure, but I suspect that when devs undelete data, they're not just hitting a button, they're probably piecing it together from offline backups... | |
| Oct 18, 2012 at 22:36 | history | edited | Sklivvz | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
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| Oct 18, 2012 at 22:31 | comment | added | Sklivvz | @MarkTrapp re-read my comment. I can do it if I choose. I would be in breach of my moderator agreement but there is no programmatic barrier preventing me from doing so. I never said that I am entitled! | |
| Oct 18, 2012 at 22:29 | comment | added | user149432 | No, you can't. You agreed to a moderator agreement that prevents you from copying that PII. But the fact that you think you're entitled to keep a copy of all the PII you see is perhaps the strongest and most compelling argument as to why giving moderators more access to PII is a very, very bad idea: you don't need this to do your duty, and it shouldn't be added precisely to help mitigate abuses of PII. | |
| Oct 18, 2012 at 22:27 | comment | added | Sklivvz | "they do so under the agreement from SE that the only people who would have access to that information is SE". This is not correct, they do so under the agreement from SE that the only new people who would have access to that information is SE. SE can't undo the past or control where the info went before the deletion. As a mod I can keep a copy of all PII of my site if I so choose (not that it would be legal, but SE is not preventing me from doing so). Also, according to EU privacy law, PII has to be hard deleted entirely from SE DBs, FWIW. | |
| Oct 18, 2012 at 22:23 | comment | added | user149432 | Privacy is a contract: when a user requests deletion, they do so under the agreement from SE that the only people who would have access to that information is SE and they will only use it for the purposes of complying with safe harbor provisions. SE, by giving that information to moderators to make fixing accidental deletions slightly more convenient, would be breaking that contract. There's no reason for this: users are warned that deletion is permanent. SE likely couldn't even amend their privacy policy to allow for it, as all past deleted users couldn't agree to the change. | |
| Oct 18, 2012 at 22:12 | comment | added | Sklivvz | My argument is: I can already see PII and delete users as a mod. Preventing me to undelete does not give me any extra information. And if the concern is that it does, simply mail a link to click to the user before any deleted data is restored. | |
| Oct 18, 2012 at 22:09 | comment | added | user149432 | If your argument is that, because browser caches exist, you should be able to see and undelete deleted user accounts, I'm not really sure what I can say to that. Why have privacy measures at all in that case, or for that matter, allow people to delete their accounts? Someone's browser cache could already have it. | |
| Oct 18, 2012 at 22:07 | comment | added | Sklivvz | But they already do (e.g. in their browser cache) | |
| Oct 18, 2012 at 22:04 | comment | added | user149432 | Devs are employees of SE: users, by agreeing to the privacy policy, know and accept that SE retains records for the specific purpose of complying with safe harbor provisions. Moderators are not, and they should have no access to deleted personally-identifiable information without the consent of the user. I trust SE a lot more than I do 200+ volunteer moderators, many of whom aren't even within the US jurisdiction. | |
| Oct 18, 2012 at 22:01 | comment | added | Sklivvz | From that point of view, it wouldn't be different from now, Mark. Accounts can already be undeleted by a dev, so clearly the data is there. | |
| Oct 18, 2012 at 21:58 | comment | added | user149432 | Deleting an account is, among other things, a privacy issue: it should not be easily (if at all) undone, much less "soft deleted". Facebook gets a lot of deserved flak for how resilient accounts are in the face of requested account deletions: it would be disconcerting to see SE go that that road as well. | |
| Oct 18, 2012 at 21:38 | history | answered | Sklivvz | CC BY-SA 3.0 |