[thelist] Online Directory Privacy Concerns

Jason Bauer jbauer at mtu.edu
Thu Apr 25 14:31:01 CDT 2002


I've built an online alumni directory for the University I work for, and we
are wrestling with some privacy and security concerns. It is an opt-in
directory, so we are covered on that end. But, we are worried about people
getting a list of people for a snail-mail commercial mailing list.

I have placed some safeguards in place... No email addresses are actually
displayed, only a form to send an email to the person, so we are not really
worried about people stealing email addresses or spamming. I also only
display full contact information for a maximum of 5 people on a page. If
the search returns more people, it is simply a name, city, class year and
degree list.

So, I was wondering if you all had any opinions on if these safeguards are
adequate, or if you have ideas to improve privacy/security. Also, any
suggestions from people with experience building online directories would
be helpful!

The full directory isn't ready to go yet, so I don't want to give out the
URL. But, I have a email-only directory that recently went live and is
almost identical if you want to check it out: http://www.mtf.mtu.edu/dir/
I'd appreciate any feedback you have on that!


--
Jason Bauer
jbauer at mtu.edu
Michigan Tech Fund
Web Site Coordinator
http://www.mtf.mtu.edu/




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