Personal Identifying Information PII on deleted blog
-
Hi
Can anyone tell me once a blog is deleted is all the Personal Identifying Information (PII) on commentors is deleted from the servers?
i.e. IP addresses are lost forever so nobody can use that information to trace individuals via time of posts etc
-
Everything is removed from the servers or made not available to see (I think there is a bit of a lag between the time a blog is deleted and the content is physically removed from the servers) – but access by anyone goes away in seconds.
Note however that search engines might have cached the content and they are slower to clear their caches.
-
Thanks auxclass. Because the posters on the blog are being hunted down by a legal firm representing one particular undesirable CEO that the blog did a very good job of exposing I need to get an understanding that it is very much beyond the means of a court order to reveal PII once it is deleted.
If any Automttic Jedi wp master is reviewing this post can they also comment?
Not that I doubt Auxclass but I need confirmation from somebody that is an authority on the subject given the potential seriousness of the hunting party gunning for posters of the deleted blolg. This legal firm going after PII , if they got the PII revealed of the deleted blog it will route out innocent individuals and it would lead victimisation of some posters that dared to speak out.
-
I flagged this for staff attention.
WordPress.COM does have a regular backup system, I don’t know how far back it goes or if there is a way for the blog owner to request a flush of any backup tapes. WordPress.com / Automattic are under the jurisdiction of U.S. and the State of California laws. And the legal stuff says that they will obey lawful court orders.
On the good side WordPress.com is a great believer in free speech, I have seen several times when they refused to take stuff off their system when the content offended some people including some governments.
-
Thanks again auxclass. Knowing that PII is beyond reach on a deleted blog will make a few posters sleep easy but getting that confirmation is key. I suspect that now the blog has been deleted that the aim of the CEO has been achieved but I wouldn’t put it past the CEO to still pursue archived PII in attempt to remove those from the company that do not share his views or dare to speak out.
If I know the PII of deleted blog will be revealed or there is a danger of it it will allow a few of us to decide to jump ship before the witch hunt caught up with us. Not that we want to jump ship but better to move before being shoved.
In hind sight wish we all used a Tor but you live and learn.
-
Referencing this support doc: http://en.support.wordpress.com/private-user-data/
If you are a blogger looking for a completely anonymous blogging service, or if the fact that the above data could be revealed in court proceedings, etc. bothers you, please do NOT use WordPress.com for your blogging.
- The topic ‘Personal Identifying Information PII on deleted blog’ is closed to new replies.
WordPress.com Forums 