Open letter to the owner of slstats.com

Nah, your post is next to mine.. I dont have a watch on. You are safe.

And what about the complaint that you have to Opt-OUT instead of Opt-IN?

The deal is opting out. Have you ever tried opting out of anything on the net?

And in regard to this, if you opt out it does nothing to your data, which would still be displayed when someone else wearing a similar watch collects it. All opting out is doing here is making it so that you are no longer able to have a say in when and how your data is being updated to that site.

How does the old aphorism go..
"If you don't want to be associated with some one, don't be around them"

It is official SL memberships should come with free anti-depressants.

I mean we never seem to run out of things to get pissed off at or complain about. What's the freaking deal with a little stats people? I mean what makes youthink you had privacy in SL in the first place? Have you noticed that everything you do in SL is going through the Linden Labs main grid?

Outrage outrage, they're tracking what I am doing in SL!!!! *ARGH!!!!!!* I am going to orbit myself I swear, I swear if you try to get me off of this roof, I am going to orbit myself. I can not take this loss of privacy any longer.....

Biatch Please...

Nobody, I mean nobody gives a damn what you do in your small insignificant RL, what makes you think that anyone cares about your(or mine for that matter) sad sordid Second Life?

I hate to be a biatch, but come on, get off it seriously. Stop complaining, start building.

Troy

Here go the privacy entitlement crowd again

Seems like some people have forgotten that merely by being in the game they have opted-in to SLStats. My guess is they didn't bother reading the ToS



Nobody owns their account, or any of the data associated with the account, except for Linden Labs.



Your data can freely be handled by LL as they see fit.



And you have authorized LL to share your actions within the game with anyone they see fit, absent your RL personal information.

Seems to me this Mark fellow is being pretty accomodating by even offering an Opt-Out option - he certainly isn't under any obligation to do so.

Good job BTW Mark, SLStats is very cool. I'll be picking up my watch today.

I am suprised at the ammount of posts here that have totally missed the whole point of the thread. It is not about the information gatherd, it is not about our precious little privacy (which we actually do not have but untill recently the only ones who did know was the Lindens, a company we actually chose to allow this insight on the premise that it would not be used against us unless we were abusing the system or other users).
This is about 3rd party datamining and spyware, this is about us not be given the simple right to choose who gets a look into our affairs. This all boils down to, the slstats.com system being a completly useless opt-out instead of an opt-in.

Sorry but LL isn't giving data to mark other users are. That's not covered in your TOS sections.

Shilling is so awesome.

Again, the Lindens have pretty much stated that this is not a Linden issue, it is something that has to be resolved by the Residents. I opend up for discussion about this since I don't like the idea of 3rd party spyware gathering statistics about me no matter what kind of statistics.
I'm an avid user of anti spyware software, I don't like my privacy breached not matter how trivial it is.

Pretty moot,

Maybe this might not be a deal for a dude, but for a woman (as explained to me 20 mins ago), this is a big deal both online and offline. It seems often, when relationships break (and I know this happens from both sexes), the ex-partner might at times get rather distressed and try to harm the other. This harm comes in the form of stalking (online stalking in this case) and or things that escalate higher.

Next, I don't see where LL has freely given this data to Mark whoever. Please point out when this happend. Did he pay for this data?

You say "absent your RL personal information". But dear friend, in SL when people come together and become friends some RL infromation is already transfered. A potential stalker (as shown above say an ex), only need to know a person's name to try and stalk anyone else they come in contact, and various other nasty senarios. I'm just speaking for this perticular case.

Even if the potential stalker is hardware hash banned from SL, that person could access this site, which might have contact information of other people that their ex's hang out with and launch some other sort of harassment.

What I'm pointing out is that ... yes this is a privacy violation, yes this information was already freely accessable... but no this should be OPT-IN and not OPT-OUT.

In SL, your profile data (which is what most of slinfo site uses) is by default OPT-IN to publish onto the net. You have to specifically open your profile and tick a button. Now, you have some guy come up and hand out watches to 24/7 Land Baron Robots, who fly around stealing this very data and without your explicit OP-IN permission... and posting them online.

What part of "All data passes through the Grid" don't you understand?

Wrong wrong wrong. The only thing that's fetched from the profile (and that's been availible from a LSL call since forever) is the ratings, and those are only collected from the *Wearer* of the watch.

Yes this is hosed up that I have to opt out of it. I really don't care who knows who saw me or whatever, but I think it's pretty rude.

Maybe I'm blind, but I'm right now looking at a SLStats.com profile. And in addtion to ratings, it also lists.

1. Birthday.
2. Payment Info status.

And no you don't have to wear the watch for that information to be collection. Only need to come close to someone wearing a watch or a land based collection.

In addition to Friends list (if you wear the watch), who someone has been close to, your online usage stats, how long you were with a friend and all sorts of other stats.

I don't have an issue with people wanting to gather stats, I like stats and all. The people who bought the watches and wear them, they should enjoy this service but to infringe on people who have not consented seems a bit shady at best.

Boycott this person, Boycott the product. Boycott everyone who wears one of the watches until it is fixed that only those who opt-in are tracked.

I sent an email to site owner. Those that have worn the devices around me will be finding themselves liberally bitched out.

My friend was pretty distressed about all this, she couldn't reach Mark Barrett, on SL. So she asked in Live-help what to do about it (with URL etc).

Their response was to AR Mark Barrett and the person who collected the information.

Thus for anyone who feels their information is put on this site without prior consent, feel free to follow the above. With enough AR's it's quite possible he'd have to put some sort of opt-in, and possibly restrict the information gathering to only watch wearers.

For those of us that respect privacy the opt out box is marked 'extreme warning'

Ignore the warning, the warning should be on the watch.

edit: Good advice Wrom, and done.

To the owner of slstats.com:

Burn in hell, you tricky fucker!

I'm still missing the "OMG SPYING" with the information given.

On someone not wearing the watch, here's the information it collects, along with some potential abuse that the data could give to some ereet haxor.

FIRST SEEN: this is when someone wearing a watch wandered by. Potentially abusive because if you're not supposed to be online (past your bedtime, hiding from an ex), you might get scolded.

LAST SEEN: This is when someone last saw you. Potentially abuse for much the same reasons above. Naughty naughty, playing SL when you shouldn't

USER INFO: Profile, ratings received/given: Part of the meta-site for SLStats. Worthless to anyone not wearing a watch. IT's just another ratings system that will be abused. I'm over it.

Resident Score -- here's the meat of the problem bits, I guess.
Birthdate: so scheming minions can wish you a happy rezday against your will.
Behavior: accessible via in-world profile. Worthless system.
Appearance: accessible via in-world profile. Worthless system.
Building: accessible via in-world profile. Worthless system.
Payment Info: On file / used -- again, listed in the 2nd life profile. Might be useful if someone wants to beg "rich people lol" for money, but that's about it.
Ratings Score: Probably more SLStats.com meta-garbage.
SL Score: another random meta-stat for those of us playing at home.

Users that saw this user: People who wear the watch that have seen them. Not even remotely threatening, because it doesn't give any specific time, date, or location info. Even if you were trying to dynamically stalk someone, there isn't enough information on the website to even triangulate a position.

Residents that this user met: Unless they're doing things they're not supposed to (clandestine meetings in back alley sims with hookers, but that's normal in sl), this shouldn't even raise a warning flag. And even then, it just shows who hangs out with whom. If your friends are known for being dicks, hey, maybe you shouldn't be hanging out with them? If you're trying to run an honest business but are best friends with the worst scammer in the world, perhaps it's time to make a personal decision.

At the worst, SLStats.com will show you who your friends are, and who has seen you in-world.

And of course, this is a fad that will soon fade away, like everything else does in SL.

You are all making much ado about nothing.

Will you be reporting me if I fly by you?

I have nothing to hide, however his posting of ANY info on me, even my ava name is an invasion of privacy. As such I have sent him a message demanding that any references to my ava name be removed until and unless he receives my WRITTEN permission to post it, and that wil NEVER occur. As such I will now start the abuse reporting process, and do so daily until such time as the owner of SLstats complies, along with any posible legal actions I may take

Come on, get real.

Seriously.

Anonymous avatar scans other anonymous avatar.

And the basis for the lawsuit is...?

Not anymore, but I will be looking at legal action if I am not removed. I have -alot- of time on my hands while I heal.

Small claims court - distress and intentional infliction of emotional duress.

Should he not remove my information, it will be filed.