User talk:Mozzerati/tag risks

A proposal has been made to tag content in Wikipedia. This page is designed to gather risks related to this. Please put risk mitigation strategies at the bottom of the page.

• if material is tagged it proves that it has been examined and so someone beyond the original uploader may become liable for the material.

• tags may be identified in the data stream from wikipedia. From these, users who are viewing specific kinds of material may be automatically identified.

• a censorship system may come under control of a person other than the reader. For example, an ISP might ban images of christianity or a parent might stop their child from learning about evolution.

• tags may be used by a law enforcement agency to prove that people knowingly downloaded illegal images. For example, if a person has a preference to view images of naked bodies turned off, then decides to turn it on

• a database of tag settings stored somewhere presents a valuable target of data about the preferences of a particular user. This is true whether it is stored on the users computer or wikipedia directly.

• a tag system represents a promise. If the tags are incorrect then an image may presented which breaks that promise. In some cases this might involve legal liability or at the very least offense

• a tag system represents a valuable target for vandals.

• a tag system may be used for censorship, by, for example misclassifying material as "offensive" when it is merely politically difficult.

Design Aims

Make it very difficult to associate preferences with a particular person.