The privacy changes were made to address various laws in various countries. In practice, this changes little on our end. Personal data is kept confidential unless we are legally bound to release it.
Everything in brackets will be removed. The new orphaning FAQ will say:
Can orphaning be reversed?
Usually not. Orphaning is irreversible in most cases, so please use this option carefully.
The only way to ensure anonymity is to orphan a work. This removes all identifying information - not even archive admins can view who orphaned a work. Anonymous collections are not risk free and as such we can not officially endorse them. People are welcome to use them, but they do need to realize that archive admins and collection mods can see who created them. If the collection mod decides to reveal all the works in the collection they can. This is not a violation of the Terms of Service and we will not intervene.
I mean, you could always provide us with a truly anonymous option that doesn't require giving up control of our intellectual property. I know that many, many people have asked you for anon psueds and the ability to post anonymously even without an anonymous collection. For some reason you're adamantly opposed to either option.
A side account works, but have you considered that people may want to access all of their works from the same dashboard and stats page? Plus, if one person posts all of their embarrassing dirtybadwrong fic on the same side account it could actually be pretty easy to identify them if the side account has the same grouping of tiny obscure fandoms.
Why are you so obsessed with pushing orphaning as the only option? It's only the only option because you refuse to consider the other options that users suggest.
From their answers, I think it's also the only one that really can be a truly anonymous option--and, frankly, they've got a point that if you want to maintain control of your intellectual property there needs to be some relatively reliable way to determine that you're you.
Basically, if you don't want to ever be connected to your dirtybadwrong fic? The only sure way IS to have them scrub it of anything that IDs it as yours.
Plus, using the same dashboard and stats page opens you up to accidentally outing yourself. If remembering the password your problem, use a different profile in your browser or a different browser for that account. If you're concerned about 'same grouping of tiny obscure fandoms,' break up your aliases for dirtybadwrong fic between them--a sane option anyway if you're posting them not just to AO3.
I could see allowing somebody to have pseudonyms not obviously connecting back to their main account, since I don't see a practical reason for not allowing that--they'd not necessarily be true anon pseuds and (as I noted already) the risk of accidentally outing yourself would remain, but it'd be useful if you really don't want to make it easy for somebody to realize an old pseudonym of yours is yours but still want to have your old works here.
You being ashamed of your kinks is hardly the archive's problem. Make yourself a damn sock account and suck it up, buttercup - or better yet, get over your issues and own your fannish experience.
Thank you for answering the many questions popping up. I have a couple more for you. I'm curious to know which laws in which countries require storage of personal data. And how long is this personal information store? Is it months? Years? Google style forever?
Google remembers everything. Only you control the amount of personal information you put in the internet. Only you control the safety of your email: either it's public or not. Only you control the associations between you and your fanfiction. You don't want it to be plagiarised? Don't ever post it online.
Thank you for the summary on public information, the internet, and google policy/practices. Unfortunately, this doesn't answer either of my questions which were about the countries laws and AO3's policy, specifically how long they retain information. If you have actual answers to these questions, please let me know.
I'm not sure exactly what you're asking--perhaps you could clarify? Personal information may include email addresses, IP addresses, etc. As long as a person has an account with AO3 (and a reasonable amount of time thereafter, until the databases are fully updated), we will have information associated with that account. In addition, in cases involving abuse or potential legal claims, we may preserve information for internal or legal recordkeeping even after it is no longer publicly available.
Okay. Thanks for that info. It does answer some of my question. So in the cases of abuse or legal claims the information may be kept for a long time as would be expected. I guess the question would be a two parter, now. What's "a reasonable time thereafter" after an account is no longer held? And how long is whatever information collected for persons without an account held if they are not involved in abuse or legal claims?
After account deletion, it depends--we try for two weeks, but can't guarantee that. IP address information about a visit unconnected with an account may exist in our logs for varying periods of time, depending on when backups are run. I'm sorry I can't be more specific, but we don't try to track our users for commercial purposes. We use the logs for diagnostic/trouble-shooting purposes.
Comment on Proposed Changes to the Archive of Our Own's Terms of Service and Frequently Asked Questions
AO3_Policy_and_Abuse (Official) Wed 27 Jan 2016 11:45PM UTC
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Anon Author (Guest) Thu 28 Jan 2016 01:36AM UTC
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Ryo Hoshi (Hoshi_Ryo) Fri 29 Jan 2016 02:21AM UTC
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bunnymcfoo Wed 03 Feb 2016 11:28PM UTC
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