From edgrif from sanger.ac.uk Thu Nov 15 04:48:04 2007 From: edgrif from sanger.ac.uk (Ed Griffiths) Date: Thu Nov 15 04:52:23 2007 Subject: [Acedb-soft] Bionet public archives and privacy Message-ID: All, Please read the below from Don Gilbert who supervises/coordinates much of the bionet archives. I'm not aware of any issues for acedb but if you have concerns you should probably contact me directly in the first instance. Ed -- ------------------------------------------------------------------------ | Ed Griffiths, Acedb development, Informatics Group, | | The Morgan Building, Sanger Institute, Wellcome Trust Genome Campus | | Hinxton, Cambridge CB10 1HH | | | | email: edgrif@sanger.ac.uk Tel: +44-1223-496844 Fax: +44-1223-494919 | ------------------------------------------------------------------------ ---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Tue, 13 Nov 2007 17:18:49 -0500 (EST) From: Don Gilbert To: biomail@magpie.bio.indiana.edu Subject: [Biomail Site List] Update on Bionet public archives and privacy concerns Dear Bionet moderators, As some contributors change their minds or learn after the fact that any public discussions become Google'able and expose their messages to searches by name, I and likely some of you, get requests to edit/remove posts from the public archives at www.bio.net The consensus of comments from many folks on this is summarized in this policy http://www.bio.net/bionet/docs/biosci-termsofuse.html Please share your opinions among this moderators group. There is not now software support for moderators to edit the Bionet group archives. Somewhere down the road for Bionet, if new software packages make this feasible, I would like to see moderators have the option to handle these requests. For now, you should direct requests for message removal/editing to the above biosci-termsofuse.html document. If a Bionet contributor's concerns extend beyond the fairly common "just don't want my name in Google searches" to some specific need or harm, I deal with these on a case by case basis, thru e-mail to biosci-help@net.bio.net Generally if it is an appropriate message for a Bionet group, this is a public message that should be preserved, and it will be preserved in other Internet archives. Removing it from Bionet archives doesn't solve problems of increased spam (spambots read Usenet directly), and basically may only lower the ranking in Google searchs of where the message is found (e.g. all Bionet messages also make it into searchable Google Groups archives). Scientists have a public persona, with contact information and views expressed in many venues. Googling our public discussions is now part of our society. I occasionally look thru Bionet use logs, and find for instance that Google searches from NSF.gov, which has no reseachers in-house, only grant program officers and reviewers, is often a search for people by name. -- Don Gilbert _______________________________________________ Biomail site list Biomail@net.bio.net http://www.bio.net/biomail/listinfo/biomail -- The Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute is operated by Genome Research Limited, a charity registered in England with number 1021457 and a company registered in England with number 2742969, whose registered office is 215 Euston Road, London, NW1 2BE.