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

[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.)