[MrKielington]

Many Social Networking sites are now adopting "bill of rights" to help better protect their users as well as establish a point on how much of their information will be shared with advertising companies and such. What do you think about these "bill or rights" and do you think that they protect the user enough? Should they be stricter in the sense that the naive people who use these sites and don't think about what they say and post be protected or should they be more lack and people should become more self educated about posting stuff on the internet? How do you think this bill or rights act also moves to the Forum realm. Should we be more conscious about sharing users information online?

[Moelman]

I think its good that places like facebook are doing these kinds of things, but I don't think as forum owners we need to worry about users revealing their info. People have tried to sue in the past and unless it is illegal, what is posted is not the owner's responsibility. That's my take at least.

[MrKielington]

but what about protecting your users in the case of someone posting harmful or damaging photos or content of them on your website? Classic case of Michale Phelps, granted he is a superstar celebrity, what about people wanting jobs and not getting them due to a picture of them partying two weeks and puking in their friends sink?

I also believe that you can't believe everything on the internet.. At least that was the mentality a few years ago but you've also got to look at the legitimacy of the website itself. Sites like Facebook and MySpace are becoming more mainstream and widely accepted as an acceptable representations of ones behavior. Other sites like 4chan.org however have an overall understanding that nothing on that site is ever to be taken seriously.

[Moelman]

That is true, and I think if something like that happened to one of my users and they requested the content be removed I would do it for them. I think most of the problems with employers seeing bad pics of potential employees is on facebook and myspace and if you are too dumb to post those kinds of pictures or at least not protect your profile from being viewed you probably don't deserve the job. I also agree that facebook and myspace are usually accurate representations of who the person actually is, while forums where people have a username may not be, as anyone can come up with a fake persona to be online.

[MrKielington]

so with the issue of fake nicks then.. Should someone be held accountable for actions done under a fake name or persona? I know it's a bit harder to track that sort of thing, but don't you think someone should be held responsible if the proof is their? Sometimes it's as simple as ip tracking and you got em but sometimes it's a lot harder.

[Moelman]

Well it depends on how far they go, but yes, if they do something illegal, the person they are IRL is still tied to that username.

[MrKielington]

What are some ways you protect your users against their information being seen besides the obvious ones we all use with forums?

[Deadpool]

Just make sure you have a solid way of protecting the information... We aren't asking for social security numbers or blood type here.. Most of this information that you find on sites and such can easily be obtained from other websites and other sources... If you wanna be hidden, and stay hidden... sign up for witness protection.

[nuggnuttz]

What forum software would technically be the "safest" then to use? I don't want people getting my members information.