There has been an increasing trend within SL for people to post comments in their Profile and / or Picks along the lines of:
“TOS Disclaimer: My IM’s are logged and might be distributed if i wish…”
Or
“Since Linden Lab demands this notification you are by this informed that all my IMs as well as Local Chat are logged to harddisc and that I will use the logs in any way I feel suitable. If you are uncomfortable with this you are free to avoid interacting with me.”
So how much weight do such comments actually carry? Do they actually conform to the Community Standards (and not the ToS, as many with such comments in their Profiles wrongly refer to)?
These questions can be answered simply and in the order given:
1. None whatsoever.
2. No.
Let’s see what the Community standards actually states (Section 4, Disclosure):
Residents are entitled to a reasonable level of privacy with regard to their Second Life experience. Sharing personal information about a fellow Resident –including gender, religion, age, marital status, race, sexual preference, and real-world location beyond what is provided by the Resident in the First Life page of their Resident profile is a violation of that Resident’s privacy. Remotely monitoring conversations, posting conversation logs, or sharing conversation logs without consent are all prohibited in Second Life and on the Second Life Forums. [emphasis mine]
The very clear implication here is that informed consent is required before such conversations are distributed. Informed consent is a two-way agreement. As such, posting a unilateral declaration of intent within one’s Profile does not absolve oneself of adherence to the Community Standards.
Note also, that at no point in the section is any caveat given that allows people to bypass it. There is no “unless otherwise indicated in an individual’s Profile” or “except where the individual monitoring and distributing conversations states XYZ in their Profile”.
Rather, all these comments actually achieve in the first instance, is to demonstrate the poster’s own woefully inadequate understanding of the Community Standards for the reasons stated.
Of course, there are exceptions to Section 4: as stated elsewhere in the CS, open chat is not regarded as a private conversational area. Similarly, where outright abuse is concerned, Section 4 does not mean a person cannot use a transcript of an IM conversation when filing an Abuse Report.
But really, that’s not what these disclaimers are about; rather they lean towards the individual posting them as being at the least insecure – if not potentially malicious in their intent – by posting such comments. Certainly for me, encountering someone for the first time who has such a statement in their profile leaves me feeling they are somewhat less than trustworthy and thus I pass on communicating with them.
I have to admit as well that the sheer hubris of people putting such comments in their Profiles – particularly those who have been in SL long enough to know better – does, to use the vernacular, get right up my nose.
I’m not alone in this feeling, as friends have pointed out. To this end, a number of us have started posting the following (sometimes amended to suit our personal style) in our picks (with thanks to Yasmin Heartsdale for the original wording). If you feel the same way, I invite you to add it to your own Picks.
To those with comments about their “right” to distribute conversations logs, etc:
Linden Lab’s Community Standards state (Section 4: Disclosure): “Remotely monitoring conversations, posting conversation logs, or sharing conversation logs WITHOUT consent are all prohibited in Second Life and on the Second Life Forums.” (Emphasis mine)
The key here is MY *informed* verbal / written consent, *not* your own misguided attempt to waive consent on my part.
Therefore, in the correct spirit of the CS, you are hereby informed that *UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES* do I give you consent to monitor, post, or share any private conversation involving me, *regardless* of any misguided language to the contrary contained in your Profile. ARs can and may follow should you choose to deem yourself above the CS.
Consider yourself forewarned and informed.
Inara Pey: Living in a Modemworld 