Emptyclosets internet privacy issue

I'm going to move this thread to the Empty Closets Help and Feedback section of the forum. You might also want to start a thread in the Ask The Staff section, so that you can speak to one of our admins about your specific concerns.

 

These particular issues are best outlined to the staff team in the Ask The Staff forum.

To address a few of your points, just as an FYI for other members.

Profile pages cannot be accessed by somebody who is unregistered. Search engines or guests cannot access the content contained within the profiles, but they can index usernames and any information displayed in the little postbit (location, orientation etc). That is why we request that all usernames are unique and not in use by you elsewhere, and that you only disclose vague details within account information, threads etc. The staff team does a lot on our end to make the site as secure as possible, but these particulars primarily fall onto the responsibility of members to protect their own information and identity.

The staff team does not remove content, unless a member can demonstrate that it represents a risk to their identity. If any members are concerned that anything they've posted poses such a risk, they can raise it with the staff team, who will address the concern with you. In cases when such a risk is considered to exist, the staff team will typically make adjustments to the content, and will anonymise it. This helps address the individuals privacy concerns, whilst respecting and preserving the content from those who have taken time and effort to provide responses to said content.

There isn't a way for a member to opt-out of being indexed for search engines. It's a consequence of having a publicly accessible site that others can locate during their time of need, and is why we actively pursue a security policy that outlines rules for protecting a member's identity whilst on here. If these rules are followed, there is no likely reason a member should be at risk. Should a member feel they are at risk, steps can be taken to address that in an efficient manner. To restrict our indexing would not only negatively affect the organisation's outreach strategy, but it would have prevented many of our existing members from ever having found us. Instead, getting members to be careful and be responsible for their own online visibility is a much more beneficial skill that can be used in everyday online practices, and doesn't risk affecting other individuals who need a resource like EC.

Anyways, addressing these particular issues any more would be rather counter-intuitive, given that it will just become another indexed page on a search engine. If you wish to address this privately, the Ask The Staff forum will be able to address your concerns in more specific detail.

Martin.