posted by ![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
recrudescence at 01:04pm on 14/02/2010 under is this real life?
recrudescence at 01:04pm on 14/02/2010 under is this real life?Lee Jung-Su beat Apolo Ohno at men's 1500m speed-skating! Suck it, motherland!
In regards to the supremely troubling entity that is Google Buzz (which I disabled ASAP), I'm reposting this with permission.
how to not screw your users: guidelines for social networking peeps
Most of the folks building social networking systems are really cool people-- passionate about the technology, idealistic about its possibilities, eager to build cool stuff that helps people. And yet, social networking sites repeatedly make privacy decisions that hurt their users. I've created a list of scenarios that developers and architects can use when making a change in the visibility of user data.
Before you expose data to people who haven't had access to it before, think about how it would affect these users:
* Laurie loves your website. It's helped her stay sane-- she's a 16 year old bisexual, living with Fundamentalist parents in a small town, and she has used your site to get emotional support from queer women around the country. She also has family members as connections on your site. If they ever see the photos and comments posted by her friends, they will kick her out of the house and she will be homeless.
* Amar loves your network. He's a gay man living in Saudi Arabia, where homosexuality is criminalized. He has been very careful to only accept connections from people he knows and trusts. From his contact list, it would be possible to deduce his sexual orientation-- putting him at risk for prosecution and even execution.
* Harriet has been a loyal user for years. She tries out all the services as you add them. She's been using your email system since before she divorced her abusive ex-husband-- in fact, he's still listed as one of her most frequent contacts, from all the emails when they were married. A year ago she started using your RSS feed reader; she's been sharing interesting articles, and her comments, with her current boyfriend. Yesterday she found out that your new social networking system has given her abusive ex access to her RSS links and comments-- giving him information about where she works and lives, information she had very carefully _not_ shared with him. *
If the changes you're making wouldn't harm any of these users, you're probably also going to cover the more mundane cases:
* The man who doesn't want his coworkers to see pictures of him drunk at a party.
* The woman who doesn't want her Catholic mother-in-law to see her snarky comments on the Pope's last speech.
Think it through. Do the right thing.
Because I know you don't want to put any of your users at risk of embarrassment-- or, God forbid, worse.
Originally posted here by![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
nadyalec
Thoughts?
In regards to the supremely troubling entity that is Google Buzz (which I disabled ASAP), I'm reposting this with permission.
Most of the folks building social networking systems are really cool people-- passionate about the technology, idealistic about its possibilities, eager to build cool stuff that helps people. And yet, social networking sites repeatedly make privacy decisions that hurt their users. I've created a list of scenarios that developers and architects can use when making a change in the visibility of user data.
Before you expose data to people who haven't had access to it before, think about how it would affect these users:
* Laurie loves your website. It's helped her stay sane-- she's a 16 year old bisexual, living with Fundamentalist parents in a small town, and she has used your site to get emotional support from queer women around the country. She also has family members as connections on your site. If they ever see the photos and comments posted by her friends, they will kick her out of the house and she will be homeless.
* Amar loves your network. He's a gay man living in Saudi Arabia, where homosexuality is criminalized. He has been very careful to only accept connections from people he knows and trusts. From his contact list, it would be possible to deduce his sexual orientation-- putting him at risk for prosecution and even execution.
* Harriet has been a loyal user for years. She tries out all the services as you add them. She's been using your email system since before she divorced her abusive ex-husband-- in fact, he's still listed as one of her most frequent contacts, from all the emails when they were married. A year ago she started using your RSS feed reader; she's been sharing interesting articles, and her comments, with her current boyfriend. Yesterday she found out that your new social networking system has given her abusive ex access to her RSS links and comments-- giving him information about where she works and lives, information she had very carefully _not_ shared with him. *
If the changes you're making wouldn't harm any of these users, you're probably also going to cover the more mundane cases:
* The man who doesn't want his coworkers to see pictures of him drunk at a party.
* The woman who doesn't want her Catholic mother-in-law to see her snarky comments on the Pope's last speech.
Think it through. Do the right thing.
Because I know you don't want to put any of your users at risk of embarrassment-- or, God forbid, worse.
Originally posted here by
nadyalecThoughts?
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