ES - The Elfsea Domesday

[Padraig Ruad]

I'm going to play devil's advocate for a moment and address some issues that everyone may want to think about.

Caelin said -

>We will take care of getting Nicolette a copy. Please do not 
>copy the Domesday or pass it around. We are trying to control 
>the information since it is personal information. Corporate is 
>currently evaluating what type of information we can publish 
>in print and on web sites and what kind of releases, if any, 
>we would need. Also, some of our Elfsea citizens have expressed 
>some reservations about making their contact information available 
>beyond the limits of those active in the Barony.

It was clear to me, and I think that it should have been clear to everyone else, that inclusion of any information in the Domesday was on a completely voluntary basis, and that only information that I agreed to supply would be included.  I realized at that time that there is no way to guarantee that once the information is published that it will not ever, under any circumstance, come into possession of someone outside of the Barony.  I do not believe that anyone in the Barony would deliberately pass the Domesday outside of the Populace, but copies can be dropped. lost, left behind, tossed out into the trash, etcetera, ad nauseum.

>Based on that we are trying to be over-cautious for a while 
>until we see what Corporate requires of us. We will provide 
>copies for any legitimate purpose. Anyone in the document 
>who agrees it is for personal (non-business) use certainly 
>deserves a copy if they want one. 

Voluntarily placing your information on a list, paper or electronic, is tacit approval and release.  If you believe otherwise, you are sadly mistaken, rulings from Corporate notwithstanding.

>But if you copy it and give it to others (who may have a 
>perfectly wonderful, non-business use for it), we lose the 
>audit trail. Timothy has volunteered to track the copies, 
>so lets send requests to him and when they add up to an 
>appropriate number we will print a batch.

Once a single copy has left the hands of the individual who gathered the information and printed it, you have effectively lost control of the document, and you have no further audit trail.  Having spent over twenty years in the military, I am familiar with the relationship of audit trails, accountability and responsibility.  Where you have no accountability and no way to hold an individual (or individuals) responsible, you have no audit trail.

Does this mean that with the publishing of the Domesday that everyone in Elfsea has lost a degree of privacy?  Not at all.  It is highly unlikely that anyone in the Barony is going to purposely or carelessly pass on the Domesday to someone who does not need or should not have it.  We tend to be like-minded private individuals who value our privacy and respect it in others as well.  If I did not believe this, I would not have allowed any information concerning me to be published in the Domesday.

One last point to consider:  with the "information superhighway" available to me, as long as I know your name, I can find out anything and everything about you that is a matter of record anywhere, for as little as $35, and in as little as 24 hours.  You can thank the Freedom of Information Act for that.  Just don't think that you can remain anonymous in today's world - it's not an option.

Off the soapbox now.

Padraig

Nunc Est Bibendum
**********
Politicians prefer unarmed peasants.
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