Hartford Citizens for Responsible Government

[Timid One]

Please check out Ms. Hatch's website, under "Did you know?". Ms. Hatch calls anonymous posters "cowards" and goes on to explain how IP addresses work. She makes a good point about some of the misuse of this site by individuals posing as multiple people, but then ends the paragraph with the rather chilling statement: "You know who you are and thanks to some neat software, so do I". Ms. Hatch is, I assume, either the site administrator or one of who knows how many CRG members with access to site records. For the record, I did register on this site but login under "Timid One" because I lost my password. I did not re-register because I did not want to appear to be posting as multiple people. So although I wanted to communicate in a way that was comfortable for me (I didn't give myself the name "Timid One" for nothing), and even though I enjoyed many of the more thoughtful postings, I'm outta here.

[C.W.D. H.C.R.G.]

Though on the flip side.... with all the wireless networks in the area.... a person with [i]basic[/i] knowledge of using a wireless laptop or even desktop computer with wireless capabilities can just as [i]easy[/i] "hop on" to a neighbors or local business's service and post something (without the actual purchaser of the service even knowing it!), and then if traced persay by Ms. Hatch, could then lead to wrong accusations and disruption of the facts.

[hartford_resident2]

I don't think Ms. Hatch is our administrator - That more than likely is the owner of Valley Technologies, INC, who hosts the forum site or antoher individual who works for Valley Technologies. The admin had at one time a link for a website that went to Valley Tech on his profile. Their was another individual who also had a link to the Valley Tech website also.

As for the IP address - most people do not have a permanent IP address. Your internet service provider will provide a dynamic (think temporary) IP address to your computer when you log on. So each time you log on to the internet you will be assigned a number from the pool of numbers that your provider has. Chances are you won't be assigned the same number each time you log in.

So they administrator of the site can find out the ip address and see who owns it (you don't, the company providing your service does). Now internet service providers can tell which account used which IP address but generally don't give that out unless it is part of a criminal investigation and there is a court order. They may provide other providers with information if they are asked and know the individuals asking but usually that is against thier privacy policy.

So if you go to the library and log in and post, the admin of the site can see where the posting came from - but can't tell who the actually person who made the posting is. That would require some extra work on thier part

[hartford_resident again]

One more think - if she does have the information on who is posting she is in violation of the Acceptable use policy of Valley Technologies, LLC (I think I call them INC before - sorry - that's a company in Pennslyvania).

Here is the Privacy statement from thier website: http://www.valley-technologies.com/policy.html#privacy

[quote]Your personal information is safe with Valley TechNologies. We never have or ever will share any of your private information with anyone outside our organization. With Valley TechNologies you won't have to worry about ending up on "Spam" lists, getting phone calls from telemarketers, or other such annoyances. Valley TechNologies values privacy, security, and confidentiality as much as you do.[/quote]

And then there is this:

[quote]It is the account owner's responsibility to safeguard the account password and to ensure that Valley TechNologies Acceptable Use Policies are honored.

Valley TechNologies will hold the account owner responsible for any violations of the Acceptable Use Policies. The individual who signed the contract is responsible for educating site users on the Acceptable Use Policies. Violations of the Acceptable Use Policies by directly attached sites will be referred to the contract signer for resolution. The contract signer will be held responsible for any violations of the Acceptable Use Policies. [/quote]

So if Ms. Hatch knows who the posters are (and she has stated that she does), then if she is not the account holder she is in violation of the Privacy policy of the hosting site. Now HCRG is probably the actually signer of the site but I thought that one of the older posts says that the only officer of HCRG is the treasurer and he would have to sign for the payment of the services for the web hosting. So he would be the account holder and couldnt provide the information on the users to anyone else.

So now there seems to be some sort of violation of the privacy policy. If Ms. Hatch knows who the posters are then someone had to give her the IP addresses of the poster and that would be a violation in my mind of the acceptable use policy of the forum's hosting company.

Anyone care to explain on a member of HCRG can claim to have knowledge of who the posters are, yet not be in violation of the acceptable use policy of Valley Technologies, LLC.

[VT]

[quote="hartford_resident again"]One more think - if she does have the information on who is posting she is in violation of the Acceptable use policy of Valley Technologies, LLC (I think I call them INC before - sorry - that's a company in Pennslyvania).

Here is the Privacy statement from thier website: http://www.valley-technologies.com/policy.html#privacy

[quote]Your personal information is safe with Valley TechNologies. We never have or ever will share any of your private information with anyone outside our organization. With Valley TechNologies you won't have to worry about ending up on "Spam" lists, getting phone calls from telemarketers, or other such annoyances. Valley TechNologies values privacy, security, and confidentiality as much as you do.[/quote]

And then there is this:

[quote]It is the account owner's responsibility to safeguard the account password and to ensure that Valley TechNologies Acceptable Use Policies are honored.

Valley TechNologies will hold the account owner responsible for any violations of the Acceptable Use Policies. The individual who signed the contract is responsible for educating site users on the Acceptable Use Policies. Violations of the Acceptable Use Policies by directly attached sites will be referred to the contract signer for resolution. The contract signer will be held responsible for any violations of the Acceptable Use Policies. [/quote]

So if Ms. Hatch knows who the posters are (and she has stated that she does), then if she is not the account holder she is in violation of the Privacy policy of the hosting site. Now HCRG is probably the actually signer of the site but I thought that one of the older posts says that the only officer of HCRG is the treasurer and he would have to sign for the payment of the services for the web hosting. So he would be the account holder and couldnt provide the information on the users to anyone else.

So now there seems to be some sort of violation of the privacy policy. If Ms. Hatch knows who the posters are then someone had to give her the IP addresses of the poster and that would be a violation in my mind of the acceptable use policy of the forum's hosting company.

Anyone care to explain on a member of HCRG can claim to have knowledge of who the posters are, yet not be in violation of the acceptable use policy of Valley Technologies, LLC.[/quote]

Valley TechNologies here. It's amazing that someone actually reads the small print from a website. We acknowledge the hosting of the HCRG website and this forum, and have been assured that all of the information meets with the policies of our company and that of the forum. The policy of this forum (for those that registered as I just did), states:

"While the administrators and moderators of this forum will attempt to remove or edit any generally objectionable material as quickly as possible, it is impossible to review every message. Therefore you acknowledge that all posts made to these forums express the views and opinions of the author and not the administrators, moderators or webmaster (except for posts by these people) and hence will not be held liable.

You agree not to post any abusive, obscene, vulgar, slanderous, hateful, threatening, sexually-oriented or any other material that may violate any applicable laws. Doing so may lead to you being immediately and permanently banned (and your service provider being informed). The IP address of all posts is recorded to aid in enforcing these conditions. You agree that the webmaster, administrator and moderators of this forum have the right to remove, edit, move or close any topic at any time should they see fit. As a user you agree to any information you have entered above being stored in a database. While this information will not be disclosed to any third party without your consent the webmaster, administrator and moderators cannot be held responsible for any hacking attempt that may lead to the data being compromised.

This forum system uses cookies to store information on your local computer. These cookies do not contain any of the information you have entered above; they serve only to improve your viewing pleasure. The e-mail address is used only for confirming your registration details and password (and for sending new passwords should you forget your current one).

By clicking Register below you agree to be bound by these conditions."

It had been discussed at the outset to make this forum available only to those that register to make sure that anyone posting would have to agree to the policy of the forum. Those that do not cannot be held to that policy. After much discussion, it was decided to leave it open for all for the sake of ease of use and to encourage anonymous entries. It has definitely had its pros and cons. This topic will definitely be re-visited in the near future.

Our company's use policy - parts of which are copied into the posting by hartford resident again - is non-wavering, non-negotiable, and is the basis of our existence. I have been assured that all of the information on this forum that could be possibly be considered personal (including e-mail and IP addresses ) has been held in strict confidence, as required by our use policies.

I looked at her site, and it looks like the information referred to has likely been deleted, as I was unable to find it. For the record, our company does not host or maintain that site. If Ms. Hatch has indeed found a way to obtain that information from the site or its administrator(s), she and the HCRG will be held accountable and could face immediated suspension of the forum and general site. Valley TechNologies.

[hartford_resident2]

thanks for the update - glad that you looked into it

[JK]

VT

Thank you for looking into what I consider a very serious issue. I have been doing some research into the issues surrounding the overwhelming threats used within this forum related to the IP addresses of individuals, and have felt on many occassions that the use of the information was borderline in keeping with the policies of Valley Tech..as well as potential abuses of state/federal laws.

I was made aware of Ms. Hatch's comments on her site and was immediately alarmed to think that someone outside of this forum (where I am registered) would have this information. I work in the I/T field and know some of the issues that can be faced and occur when someone gets a hold of this information and has the potential to hack into a computer; sometimes resulting in identity theft.

I appreciate the information you provided in your posting on this subject.

~ JK ~

[HartfordResident]

The information regarding her knowing who is posting is linked here- still on her site

http://www.janhatch.com/html/lokken_defends_city_assessor.html

It's at the end of the 4th paragraph ( The one starting with "Her item by item....)

[admin]

[quote="HartfordResident"]The information regarding her knowing who is posting is linked here- still on her site

http://www.janhatch.com/html/lokken_defends_city_assessor.html

It's at the end of the 4th paragraph ( The one starting with "Her item by item....)[/quote]

Hi HR -

Ms. Hatch was quoting one of the postings that was on this site where we had warned one of the posters about some of his/her abuses of the site, according to the policy.

We had been able to identify (by IP address only) up to as many as 6 different anonymous postings plus one registered posting, all coming from the same IP address. Although it is not impossible that there were 7 different adults posting from that IP address, it was highly unlikely.

The "registered profile" included an e-mail address where we sent a private e-mail message warning to that poster that if the abuses continued that we would block that IP address from future postings. We did edit some that persons' postings, and deleted one of the "usernames" that he or she used to do the postings.

All information was done only for the purposes of managing this forum according to the policy stated, and none of the information was (or ever will be) divulged to anyone, nor was it used in any way to attempt to identify the individuals involved in the postings.

Thank you for your input.

Admin

[hartfordResident]

She may be quoting from a post - but she also says that due to some net software she knows who they are too. Now that to me says she knows who the posters are and from everything I seen here - the only way would be to get the IP address -

I have no problem with the admin going and taking care of the multiple posting by the same individual using 6 alias - there is no need for that.

By the way - can we get rid of some of the other spam postings that show up or is it too difficult with the software for this site?

[admin]

[quote="hartfordResident"]She may be quoting from a post - but she also says that due to some net software she knows who they are too. Now that to me says she knows who the posters are and from everything I seen here - the only way would be to get the IP address -

I have no problem with the admin going and taking care of the multiple posting by the same individual using 6 alias - there is no need for that.

By the way - can we get rid of some of the other spam postings that show up or is it too difficult with the software for this site?[/quote]

Hi HR -

There is surely some software out there that can pinpoint where a computer resides - that is how terrorists and virus launchers are found by government agencies. Is that type of software available to the general public? I doubt it.

If she really has a legiitimate way of finding out that information, I'm not sure that there is anything that anyone can do about it. If it is not legitimate, then we will have to deal with that. Unfortunately, nothing can be done until there is a record of such activity.

I eliminate the spam entries as I see them posted - I've been away for a couple days for Thanksgiving, and I just noticed them. They are now gone.

Thank you for your input.

Admin.