Post in Group Members Page

On Mon, 2007-10-01 at 19:05 -0500, Steven Clift wrote:
> Are you suggesting that it is illegal for someone hosting a group to let
> be known that by joining a group on their site that there name would be
> listed?

I have the same question (and I'm sure I've raised it before). I have
*never* seen a principle of either our privacy act, or any others, that
could be interpreted as preventing this.

Surely if they are told about the privacy settings of the group (they
are), and they are given an option to reverse the situation (they are --
they can leave).

If we want to do something about it, the appropriate option is at the
*user* level: "Do you wish your name to be shown in the membership of
public groups, to non-logged in viewers?". This could be asked at
account creation time, as part of the profile settings. The help text
should let them know that they will *always* be visible if they post.

In e-democracy, this option could be replaced by supplementing the
account creation conditions, to say that users agree to be shown as a
member of all public groups.

The fact is that in a public group it is moot, IMO. If the user *posts*,
the fact they are a member is visible. Another user could disclose that
they are a member. A user with an account can discover the membership
then leave the group. That takes 4 clicks (join, membership, group home,
leave).
    

--Richard