Mailing list privacy stuff

[Chris]

Recently I've been doing a privacy audit of the mailing list. I threw
this thing together a bit haphazardly when we first started, and didn't
think to inform people of the privacy issues involved. I'd like to do a
better job of that going forward. I'm mainly concerned about people (who
aren't publicly out as poly) revealing their real names through the
messages that they send.

First of all, as the group grows and more people join the mailing list,
messages that you send will be going to a larger pool of people that you
don't necessarily know. Pretty much anyone can sign up with no more
reason than "I am curious about poly".

Second, messages sent to the mailing list are available to the rest of
the internet via the web archive. I haven't made the archive
members-only because I feel that would only give people a false sense of
security (see above). Also, having the archive open makes it easier for
our target audience to find us. If people feel significant discomfort
over this, I'm not unwilling to change it, but that's my current
reasoning on the matter.

Note that the membership list itself isn't visible to regular members or
the rest of the internet.

There are three main things that can leak your identity here:
- Your email address itself
- What you have your name set to in your email program
- Your display name for this Google group

Your name will usually show up alongside your email address, like this:

Jayne Doh <jayn...@gmail.com>

These will be seen by anyone who receives email from the group when you
send a message. They will *usually* not be visible in the group's web
archive. Google will instead use your "display name" on messages that
you send. However, if someone replies to your message, their email
program will usually quote you, putting something like this at the top
of the quote:

On 10/3/2012, Jayne Doh <jayn...@gmail.com> wrote

..which will show up in the web archive.

In order to fix this:

- Rejoin the group with an alternate email address that doesn't have
your real name in it.

- Change the name that your email program puts on your messages. If
you're using Gmail, click on the gear button and then
"Settings"->"Accounts and Import"->"Send mail as".

- Change the display name that Google uses for your posts in the web
archive. Go to <http://groups.google.com/group/rocpolytng> (log in to
your Google account if necessary), and click on the "My membership"
button above the topic list.

If you need further explanation or help with any of this, feel free to
email me privately and ask.


-Chris