I would be upset if a web site published my name, email address and IP address when I had sent them a message of support. I don’t know about Harold (middle and last names redacted for this article).
Thanks to Orly’s April 5 conversion of a comment into an article, we have some information about Harold. For one thing, I now know that this is the same person who posted on my blog in 2014 as “Harold.” I know what large city he lives in or near from his IP address.
I sent Orly an email about this issue a few months ago, about how her pasting left email addresses in hidden HTML source. Now she just posts them in the clear. I criticize Taitz for her lack of regard for her commenters’ privacy, while at the same time benefiting from the information for statistical purposes.
For much more on Orly’s history of privacy violation, see:
Orly is quite literally too stupid to understand what you are talking about. She’s not doing it on purpose.
I am betting on lazy. It could be both however.
i know that feeling. like when the historian dude posted my phone # at PF. but….. he did get it from orly’s site.
Judging by the state of her website, I’d wager that she’s just that inept.
To me it’s a complicated issue, but I strongly feel that the threat of releasing information should never be used to coerce, intimidate or punish someone.
I believe that there is a public good that comes from understanding social phenomena, like the birtherism, and that knowing about individual birthers contributes to this understanding. I myself know lots of things that I have no intention of ever publishing, but they do inform me about what birthers are like in the aggregate.
Where the line gets fuzzy is when we are talking about a very public anonymous person, such as the “Birther Report” character that runs the web site of the same name. Some things are legitimate territory for investigative journalism, and other things are simply invasions of privacy.
That’s the way that I feel about Falcon. It’s interesting to know who he is, and I now know his address, but I would never think of harassing him. On the other hand, I wouldn’t hesitate to report him if he threatened President Obama.
True. I would add the issue of the “right” to face one’s accuser as a legitimate reason for removing the veil of privacy.
Everyone has the right to express their opinion, and if they feel they cannot do so without hiding their identity, well then so be it. However, when opinion crosses the line into accusation, especially accusation of criminal behavior, then the right to privacy is lost.
it was quite unintentional, he didn’t even know he did it, which is unusual for frank.
we all kid the daylights out of each other, but i think that’s good.
together we will all get to the bottom of this. eventually
i too would report any threats made to public servants, we’re Americans first.
There is nothing to get to the bottom of, unless you’re looking to do some bottom feeding.
We got “to the bottom of this” seven years ago. To fail to understand this is to be willfully ignorant.