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List:       wikitech-l
Subject:    Re: [Wikitech-l] Stats on navigation through Wikipedia pages
From:       Platonides <Platonides () gmail ! com>
Date:       2008-11-26 22:09:40
Message-ID: ggkhev$p2n$1 () ger ! gmane ! org
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Gregory Maxwell wrote:
> On Wed, Nov 26, 2008 at 10:32 AM, David Gerard wrote:
> [snip]
>> The first idea that springs to my mind is logging referers for article
>> pages, if the referer is an article page on the same Wikipedia or
>> [[Special:Search]].
>>
>> 1. Is this technically feasible given our logging structure?
> 
> Sure.
> 
>> 2. Is there a privacy gotcha I'm ignoring?
> [snip]
> 
> The only leak I can think of is:
> 
> Step 1. I accidentally paste confidential information into the go box
> (you've never done this?)
> 
> Step 2. I end up at non-existent article [[random confidential information]]
> 
> Step 3. I browse back to the article about me.
> 
> Probably best resolved resolved by not reporting infrequent referrers.
> (Filtering by existing articles is computationally expensive)

You'd need to actually follow a link to the article about you, not just 
using the browser back button. Maybe if you choose the first link on the 
sidebar, it can get logged on the Main_Page referer's.

It's more likely to happen if you actually follow a result link on the 
random confidential information results. So, if I paste, 'Pay $100000 to 
Gregory Maxwell for help hiding Osama bin Laden' and think, "they have 
an article about Greg! What will they tell?" And follow a link to 
[[Gregory Maxwell]], sure, that would get logged and we would find out.

Not a privacy risk as big as publishing the searchs, but still a concern.





PS: Expect the NSA to come at both our homes after ECHELON intercepts 
this email.


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