Some privacy incoherence

[wailor]

Title:
Some privacy incoherence

Area:
Profile

Summary:
There's a way that allows people to know I have updated my journal with a filter entry (and they aren't inside that filter).

Description:
Ok so here's what I've noticed:

Imagine you have a few friends and you want to post an entry to prepared a surprised b-day party just for one of them. You don't want him or her to know about it so you'll post a filter entry right? but, if that friend is smart enough and have some curiosity, he or she could discover that I've posted a new filter entry. That's a problem because that person could feel upset about it thinking that I have something to hide to him or her.

The way he or she could discover it is by my profile page. There's some information that I can't hide that tells her or him that there's something new that she or he isn't allow to see. That information is the number of "journal entries" and the "last updated".

The example I wrote up there is just one of multiple cases where it'll be necessary to hide that information and I can't think a reason why I couldn't hide it.

So, my suggestion is to allow to hide that information as I do with other things like my birthday, my location, etc.

Poll #12623 Some privacy incoherence

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 64

View Respondents

This suggestion:

View Answers

Should be implemented as-is.
11 (17.2%)

Should be implemented with changes. (please comment)
8 (12.5%)

Shouldn't be implemented.
32 (50.0%)

(I have no opinion)
11 (17.2%)

(Other: please comment)
2 (3.1%)

Comments

[dhamphir]

The thing is, last updated date is irrelevant to public posts anyway. I have posts that aren't readable by any of my friends. They're private posts just for my use.

It sounds like someone is worried about a hypothetical problem that isn't even a problem.

[wailor]

Thanks for your answer.

Maybe you can think that those aren't real problems, I respect that, but I'm not saying to obligate everyone to have it hide. I'm just saying to have the option to hide it for the ones who want it. And it isn't something new, it happens with public/access list entries for example. When you are not logged in, in the calendar section, you can't see the link to those access list entries.

[blue_rampion]

I'm one of the people who makes a lot of private posts for my own reference as well - so I definitely agree that being upset because you can't see someone's latest post is a silly thing. Unfortunately, people are not always sensible creatures. I have actually known someone who once had to switch journals entirely because they had someone who stalked their profile for updates, and would then hound them demanding to know what they were hiding. So it can definitely be a real issue. (Whether there's any kind of viable solution though, I don't know.)

[marahmarie]

No, it's a problem. I agree with OP on that, just not on how to solve it. If I have lurkers aware of this privacy loophole (which also exists on LJ and simply got ported here from there, making it endlessly old and doubtlessly well-known to lurk-y types as an end result) then they know every single time I filter-post just by comparing the last-posted date on my profile with the last posted entry on my DW that's set to public viewing. That's a huge thing right there, worrying about what strangers think you just posted, to whom, why you didn't make the entry public, and so on. It can make me feel...squirmish.

It's always bothered me. Just 'til now I couldn't think of a good way to solve the privacy leak, but I think I just did come up with something (will comment below).