I'm referring to this thread:
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=138028.0It's a nice intitiative, although the main motivation is commercial, which there's nothing wrong with.
I dabbled into the thread, but when I see you had to enter your information in a Google Docs spreadsheet, I was put off.
Firstly you put your bitcointalk.org username into a Google Doc spreadsheet.
This links your IP to the bitcointalk username on Google Docs, in addition if you're already logged into gmail, youtube or any other google
service, I believe this Google identity can also be linked to your bitcointalk user name. To the best of what I can recall, google verifies your account by
sending you a text to your phone number, which links your google account to your cell phone number.
Thus, you're essentially giving away your real life identity in a contest that's supposed to be anonymous.
I'm sure that Bitcoin Nordic did not have the intention of invading the privacy of any participants in the competition, but I do think using
an external collector of data like this is not good.
It's a bit startling how many jumps into a competition like this without thinking about the privacy issues.
I have no reason to believe the information will be misused at any point, but if a rogue google employee or law enforcement is interested,
it would be trivial linking your user name to your real life identity.
I'm sure some parties would be interested in this information, as they could simply cross reference it with other lists of data to pinpoint persons of interest.
For instance, if you had a bitcoin address in your signature, and this somehow was linked to a questionable sale or purchase you've done online,
then it would be rather trivial for law enforcement to get your real life identity by combining the various datapoints.
Of course your ip is probably already logged on bitcointalk.org.
Normally law enforcement would have to contact the ISP to get information about an IP, but here they can just get your phone number (and then probably your address too) right off Google.
I'm not sure what policy Google have to give out information to law enforcement agencies, but it's sound to assume that once information about you are in the hands of others, you never know what can happen to it.
I'm reasonably sure that the information will not be misused in any way, but I think it's important to be aware of the potential for misuse.
Just wanted to bring some awareness to this. If a contestant is ok with this, then I see no issues with it, but if you're unaware of this, then I think it's worth knowing about it.
