Re: [OT?] Free Software petition on WhiteHouse.gov
On 12/27/2012 12:53 PM, Max Hyre wrote:
> On 12/26/2012 09:03 AM, John Hasler wrote:
>> Max Hyre writes:
>>> Too bad signing requires registration with personal info.
>>
>> "Personal info"? Email, name, and zip code? You're being silly.
>
> Minor attribution note: It's Worrier Poet who worries about ID.
> I have no problem with it because, as someone mentioned earlier, it
> _is_ a signature (of sorts) on a petition to the gov't.
>
Unless I'm missing something here regarding this attribution note, it's
not me who was worried about ID or about signing petitions online. Other
people were concerned about it. I just pointed out that the type of
information requested by the whitehouse.gov site is available -- unless
one is using an alias and connecting and sending mail through a VPN
connection -- via brief inspection of e-mail headers on postings in this
list. As a matter of fact, a brief examination of IP addresses in the
header can often pin a poster's location down a lot closer than the zip
code.
I was also pointing out that people give much more dangerous info (like
credit card nos.) to all sorts of other entities.
Just because my screen name is Worrier.Poet doesn't mean I worry about
stuff like this. If I want to lend my (real) name to a petition and give
the entity presenting the petition my real e-mail addy, I do it.
;-)
There was one person participating in the thread who apparently takes
that to mean that I'm careless with the way I give out information
online, and that anyone who signs such a petition is wasting time.
To each his own.
Reply to: