While I’m keen for Dave to show us his “proof’, when looking at the terms and conditions for WordPress hosted blogs (like this one and Mad Genius), the section defining ‘Private Information” says:
We consider publication of certain information to be a privacy violation. Information that we consider to be private include:
Social Security or national ID numbers (e.g. passport).
Credit card numbers.
IP addresses.
Unlisted/non-public physical addresses, email addresses, or phone numbers.
18 responses to “Unfortunately MGC Can’t Publish IP Addresses”
Don’t be ridiculous. Dave Freer has never had any intention of posting IP addesses, because he doesn’t have any that show what he’s been claiming they do.
And there’s nothing in that policy which says he couldn’t post hyperlinks to images on imgur or other 3rd party sites.
I think, as a general rule, reproducing non-public personal data gathered from your website without individual permission would run foul of their terms & conditions and possibly the law.
I’m cool with him asking politely though…in a nice email.
I agree. By this point its clear that he made up some claim because he wanted to attack Meadows. Hey, he might have thought Cam is Foz husband (because Australian) and he might have thought he could proof it, using IP adresses, but I doubt he really digged enough to collect data. Or he started, it came out inconclusive (beyond (Yes, he is in Australia).
But its never about proofing, its about attacking someone, he doesnt like.
What a terrible human being.
Meh. This is a guy who revealed the other day doesn’t know how to use Google for a search as simple as “Jim Hines MZB.” Do you really think that’s someone who even knows what an “IP address” =is=? (And as we have already seen in this mess, he certainly doesn’t know how to identify or dox someone via an IP address.)
Maybe he saw someone online talking about “IP addresses” and decided to use it as a claim to “support” his fabrication about Camestros Felapton, Toby Meadows, Foz Meadows, the grassy knoll, and the Protocols of the Elders of Zion.
I denounce Freer for being a homophobic bigot trying to arrange a violent queer-bashing of another SFF author and family. There, that’s done for the day.
Publishing is one thing. As JJ points out, WordPress’ policy doesn’t prevent him from publishing other places.
However, I’m wondering about the privacy implications of even storing the IP adress for years, and of sharing it non-publically (i.e. between DF, CLU etc.) Does WordPress have any rules about that? How much data is stored when I leave a comment? The comment form only says that the email adress I leave will never be made public, but says nothing about how the email adress is treated apart from “never made public”. It also says nothing about what other information is stored, what’s shown to the blog owner, how long it’s stored, etc.
Freer used his legendary logical skills to deduce my first name from my email address and posted it in his reply to me (the cute diminutive form, but still my name). I doubt that’s a violation, but it is not nice behavior (he had no idea whether that would upset me or not, and I suspect he hoped it would), and shows it’s dangerous to trust any personal information to them, as they are willing to release it publicly for petty reasons.
Hi, been peeking at the awfulness unfolding, and it seems Freer et al have a poor grasp of probability and coincidence. The excellent Sir David John Spiegelhalter could educate them. His blog is a fantastic source for all things statistical, and hosts the ‘Cambridge Coincidences Collection’: https://understandinguncertainty.org/coincidences#coincidences
There is a great Radio 4 show featuring the professor available to residents of the UK on the BBC Iplayer, in which he gives examples of just how unintuitive probability can be, and how seemingly amazing coincidences are actually not that improbable: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b09kpmys
Apologies if links don’t display correctly
I seem to recall David Freer providing a stellar example of his lack of understanding probability in the Hugo Packet the year the pups made him a Fan Writer Finalist.
If I understand the rules correctly, there’s nothing preventing publishing a table with a list of the dates comments were left correlated with the general [city-level] geographic location that the IP address resolves to. If it violates the spirit of the rule, then so does all of Freer’s ranting about the cities he thinks you posted from.
This is actually the exact kind of rules lawyering I was expecting from the Pups regarding this. The only reason they haven’t done it yet is probably because Dave realised somewhere mid-rant (he’s always mid-rant) that his information was way, way off.
Camestros Felapton 
18 responses to “Unfortunately MGC Can’t Publish IP Addresses”
Don’t be ridiculous. Dave Freer has never had any intention of posting IP addesses, because he doesn’t have any that show what he’s been claiming they do.
And there’s nothing in that policy which says he couldn’t post hyperlinks to images on imgur or other 3rd party sites.
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🙂
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I think, as a general rule, reproducing non-public personal data gathered from your website without individual permission would run foul of their terms & conditions and possibly the law.
I’m cool with him asking politely though…in a nice email.
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Of course he can publish an exhaustive list of my Aberdeen IP addresses. He could cut and paste from this list:
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
🙂
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I agree. By this point its clear that he made up some claim because he wanted to attack Meadows. Hey, he might have thought Cam is Foz husband (because Australian) and he might have thought he could proof it, using IP adresses, but I doubt he really digged enough to collect data. Or he started, it came out inconclusive (beyond (Yes, he is in Australia).
But its never about proofing, its about attacking someone, he doesnt like.
What a terrible human being.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Meh. This is a guy who revealed the other day doesn’t know how to use Google for a search as simple as “Jim Hines MZB.” Do you really think that’s someone who even knows what an “IP address” =is=? (And as we have already seen in this mess, he certainly doesn’t know how to identify or dox someone via an IP address.)
Maybe he saw someone online talking about “IP addresses” and decided to use it as a claim to “support” his fabrication about Camestros Felapton, Toby Meadows, Foz Meadows, the grassy knoll, and the Protocols of the Elders of Zion.
LikeLiked by 3 people
Everybody done their daily routine of denouncing MZB and Walter Breen yet? You know the dire consequences we will have to face if we don’t comply
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I denounce everybody now, dead or alive, to be on the safe side. You just never know.
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I denounce Freer for being a homophobic bigot trying to arrange a violent queer-bashing of another SFF author and family. There, that’s done for the day.
LikeLiked by 6 people
Publishing is one thing. As JJ points out, WordPress’ policy doesn’t prevent him from publishing other places.
However, I’m wondering about the privacy implications of even storing the IP adress for years, and of sharing it non-publically (i.e. between DF, CLU etc.) Does WordPress have any rules about that? How much data is stored when I leave a comment? The comment form only says that the email adress I leave will never be made public, but says nothing about how the email adress is treated apart from “never made public”. It also says nothing about what other information is stored, what’s shown to the blog owner, how long it’s stored, etc.
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A website that is gathering email addresses would come under privacy legislation with regard to those email addresses I think.
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Freer used his legendary logical skills to deduce my first name from my email address and posted it in his reply to me (the cute diminutive form, but still my name). I doubt that’s a violation, but it is not nice behavior (he had no idea whether that would upset me or not, and I suspect he hoped it would), and shows it’s dangerous to trust any personal information to them, as they are willing to release it publicly for petty reasons.
LikeLiked by 3 people
Yup
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Hi, been peeking at the awfulness unfolding, and it seems Freer et al have a poor grasp of probability and coincidence. The excellent Sir David John Spiegelhalter could educate them. His blog is a fantastic source for all things statistical, and hosts the ‘Cambridge Coincidences Collection’: https://understandinguncertainty.org/coincidences#coincidences
There is a great Radio 4 show featuring the professor available to residents of the UK on the BBC Iplayer, in which he gives examples of just how unintuitive probability can be, and how seemingly amazing coincidences are actually not that improbable: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b09kpmys
Apologies if links don’t display correctly
LikeLiked by 2 people
I seem to recall David Freer providing a stellar example of his lack of understanding probability in the Hugo Packet the year the pups made him a Fan Writer Finalist.
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Somebody should write a nine post series in that 🙂
Damn: Ninepost Gambit – the pun was waiting to happen but the time frame was wrong!
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I did have a thought about this:
If I understand the rules correctly, there’s nothing preventing publishing a table with a list of the dates comments were left correlated with the general [city-level] geographic location that the IP address resolves to. If it violates the spirit of the rule, then so does all of Freer’s ranting about the cities he thinks you posted from.
LikeLike
This is actually the exact kind of rules lawyering I was expecting from the Pups regarding this. The only reason they haven’t done it yet is probably because Dave realised somewhere mid-rant (he’s always mid-rant) that his information was way, way off.
LikeLiked by 1 person