Police Blotter : Gender Made Public

Date: Monday, July 16, 2007
Violation: Community Standards: Disclosure, First Life
Region: Badnarik
Description: Appearing to reveal the RL gender of a Resident.
Action taken: Warning issued.


...If i use voice in sl, and talk to someone, and then they tell someone else that by my voice i sound 'male' when my avatar is 'female' that is an violation of the TOS?...



Is the voice feature it's self a violation of the TOS?

It doesn't even say they did reveal it. "Appearing to reveal" so now appearing to do something can get you a warning?

Apparently so.

And that'll be all there is to say about using the voice feature to "out" people eh? LOL they're gonna have to make more windows with all the paranoid homophobes crowding to jump out of one!

First of all who said it was a voice issue and secondly, I'm glad that they warn people about identifying RL characteristics.

I am overjoyed that LL will move to protect the RL info of its residents. That's what they promised to do.

But this didn't have to be a voice issue to very neatly make the point that people who thought voice was gonna give them the power to "grief", "out", or ridicule people were sadly mistaken. After all of the weeks of morons getting on here and drooling publicly in anticipation of doing exactly that, I'm just amused to see how quickly hopes can be dashed.

i think its a pr stunt.

For now ..

Dan Linden wants to remove the Disclosure protections in the TOS. At which point if I knew your real life name, address and phone number I would be allowed to tell them to people.

err why does he want to remove the non disclosure clause? kinda curious to want to remove something like that

not if one is thinking in terms of directed ad spamming and other goodies like that.

I suspect nondisclosure may have to do with the lawful requirements that the Company operates under, doing business in the United States.

Perhaps even to do with US COPA laws (for under 13 year olds one isn't allowed to collect or reveal their info or something like that). Being underage on the grid is a separate (serious) issue.

This is just a guess. But if *you* can't disclose information as a service provider, it stands to reason that allowing others to do so casually also isn't a good idea.

Also, from the business standpoint, the *last* thing you want to do is provide a customer list of those willing to ID themselves and spend metaverse cash... to your competitors.

Basically, disclosure is a risky thing all around. However, it's the *one* thing that might generally cause people to be responsible for their actions (providing the person is from a country whose law enforcement cooperates with the United States).

I suppose but I guess they are assuming everyone signing up for SL is here to do business? Dunno some people like it just for meetings and having fun and never go beyond the free version and just enjoy it for the gaming and RP if they have a good group. I guess if it were from the standpoint of an end user like that I would kinda be a bit puzzled. IN any event they know who I am and have my information however no I wont let them share it with other companies we have laws just not that old in canada stopping that because of issues with stuff being sold to telemarketing companies and all sorts of things. Now when I walk even into the doctor or dentist office and I'm a new patient there are 20 bits of paper to go over and sign to guarantee my "privacy" for what its worth. Also inactive files are now required to be destroyed in as little as 3 years in some senarios. I was just wondering if it had to do with the advent of age verification?

In any event I dnot mind information being used for the purpose its intended for eg: to verify my age etc but it worries me when they remove such a clause cause maybe they are gonna start selling my name to a bunch of marketting firms and I hate hate changing phone numbers

Disclosure only applies to residents, LL isn't bound by the same rules and has its own privacy policy: http://secondlife.com/corporate/privacy.php

Fun quote:
Keep your fingers crossed they never go bankrupt .

Why I use my cell phone number for these things... unless I have prior buisness dealings with the company calling, it's illegal for them to call me. LL can sell that number all they want, those that buy it get one warning before I contact the authorities.

So long as the service provider has the details, it should be ok. I can't remember the last time even a web forum argument (at least, a non-SL one ) went into posting people's personal details.

Another thing- what if your SL name is worth more to you than your real one?

My guess about the original post and the "appearing" clause, is probably to not provide quotable information. Like "hey I was there, and look, it must have been true, because they put it on the blotter. No smoke without fire!" It may also be that any statement that looks like offering RL information to a third party, even if false, would be a violation- to protect the obfuscation of real details.

Laying the whole legal issue of disclosure of resellable RL personal information aside a minute, ie: names, addresses and phone numbers...

"Appearing to reveal the RL gender of a Resident."

... the basic question is:

Doesn't voice chat do that everyday??

The answer would be 'yes', and that accepting to enable voice chat you've implied consent on your part that you are willing to revel that part of yourself in SL. If you choose NOT to enable voice then your RL gender should be safe.

IRL I have the sort of voice that gets called "Sir" and "Ma'am" almost equally when I answer the telephone and I just snicker a bit when they get it wrong. For fun, in SL, I wear AVs for both genders at a whim. If you heard me and got it wrong, or right even, you would still have no right to put forth that speculation (because thats all it would be really) to anyone who hadn't heard me themselves. I would certainly AR your speculation about my real life.

You have the right to provide other residents with as much information about yourself as you choose, and enabling voice means you choose to give out that information. No voice enabled, no information about gender revealed and therefore an AR-able offense to have someone 'Appearing to reveal the RL gender of a Resident."

His stated reason is that its entirely un-enforcable.

He actually stated an interest in removing the Entire Community Standards save the Tolerance statement.

The Tolerance Statement he admits is also unenforcable but he said LL should set the tone with that.

(In some circles that would be called him talking of both sides of his mouth.)

This is in the same video where he highlights his plan to merge sections of the teen and adult grid.

I wonder how many parents are going to be cool with not only their kids being able to mingle with adults, but with those adults allowed to disclose the teens rl info if they learn it.




-------------------------------------

Lots of interesting stuff in here:

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=2642394922604088000

Watch for yourself and form your own opinions since some LL aplogists accuse me of not understanding the video and putting words in Dan's mouth - even when I make EXACT quotes.

Voice doesn't necessarily reveal anything about RL gender. A pre-op transsexual would still have the RL gender of their birth, but could convincingly sound like the opposite gender. Voice doesn't reveal physical gender in this case.

Even if someone were to voice with you and think that your voice hints at a different gender than your SL portrayed one, that doesn't mean it's alright for them to run off and start a campaign to inform the whole grid.

Voice chat is no less private than text chat. Unless you're referring to something that can be considered public knowledge (someone's profile, a forum post, their blog, etc) anything you spread around about someone else's real life runs the risk of falling under disclosure.

Yep.. further proof that the only thing that is really non-scalable about SL is Linden Labs.

And I wouldn't let my son near this kind of grid with a 10 foot pole. Not to mention that would be one heck of a lawsuit waiting to happen!

Most PG sites have even stricter ToS/Community Standards, enforceable or not, because it covers their behinds from the being sued by parents whose kid told one of their RL friends a bit of personal information and a third party overheard it and decided to post it for all to see.

Daniel is obviously not an internet user.. or a gamer, if he wants those removed. He should study the ToS/Community Standards of MMO's and other PG sites, if that's his eventual aim, before he opens his mouth again.

but does it?

As you pointed out there will be some people who will have voices that it is hard to tell. Does that person who voices give permission to everyone who they voice chat with to speculate on whether their RL gender is the same as their AVs and spread the information around?

Someone pointed out in other Online spaces where voice changers are common a lot of people try to "out" those using voice changers. And often times get it wrong.

Not everyones voice will fit into hollywood's definition of "He sounda like a man" or "She sounda like a woman"

I personally think this is another totally unenforcable thing - People have speculated about gender since SL started often using ridiculous reasoning. Such as the Classics -

"Any female Av that wears High heels all the time must be a man"

"Any female Av who has sex with another female Av must be a man"

"Any female who is an escort must be a man."

"Any female who dresses slutty must be a man"

"Any female Av who is a Subbie must be a man"

"Any female Av who is a Mistress must be a man"

Ohh and my favorite -

"Any female Av who wont web cam with strangers must be a man"


I think there are a lot of people paranoid about gender in Second Life - to the point they are guaranteed to scare away all those Avs who are the RL Gender they want away.

Men use this issue as an excuse to be prying and nasty to Women.

Women use this issue as an excuse to be bitchy about other Women. The old skewer the competition motif.

How come no one is paranoid of women playing men?

male avs are boring. i have 1 male alt and he's no fun to shop for.

Although the search for the right male attachment took up a lot of my brother's time and energy.

Cos they couldn't do it? ... <ducks the flaming>

See, I knew there was a good reason I hadn't asked you to share your tenant waiting list