Oh, I can see where it came from. It's because when I posted about handing the forum over, I pointed out that it's against privacy laws (and the contractual obligations in the privacy policy penned by JREF) to do that. However, that's not on my behalf. I was staff at the JREF. My name is all over these forums, and I don't have anonymity here anyway. My issue is that thousands of people signed up here believing that the privacy policy was true. It isn't about whether the information is sold to a company for advertising purposes, either. People have put sensitive information about their atheism or gender identity or whatever else on this forum with the understanding that they could remain anonymous and vent their problems without it carrying over into their real lives. And this isn't hyperbole. People have posted that they believe they will be disowned, fired, divorced, etc if they tell the people in their lives their real views.
If the JREF actually DOES wipe that information if people don't opt into the switch, great. But there has been no clear answer on whether or not that is going to happen.
And, you know, I'd think that an organization with a leader who felt the need to keep his sexual orientation private for the majority of his life would understand that when you tell a secret to people you trust, it isn't cool for those people to turn around and say, "Oh, well, we're just going to pass that secret along to someone we've known for five seconds because we saw their LinkedIn."
I don't know icerat, and I'm sure that this PROBABLY IS fine - but then I have nothing to lose. And this thread is tucked away pretty damn well. The vast majority of people with accounts haven't even seen it. No - I don't think it's right to hand it over and not give those people the choice about whether or not to trust a third party who just happens to be the first person to volunteer with their information.
