Do you play by the rules?

Lucifa42

BREAKING NEWS:

In a series of pre-dawn raids, 3000 people were rounded up and sent straight to prisons around the country after answering an online poll.
Police Commissioner Bernard Hogan-Howe said "Our sting operation was a complete success. In collaboration with MoneySavingExpert we managed to get a full confession from various grape rustlers and CV con-artists."
When questioned about the bypassing of due process, the Director of Public Prosecutions Keir Starmer said "Usually we would have trials and stuff, but given the evidence it would obviously be a waste of the courts time so we went straight to sentencing."
A statement from the office of the Lord Chief Justice simply said "Bang 'em up!".

Site chief, Martin "moneybags" Lewis was not immediately available for comment, but was overheard saying "la la la sorry I can't hear you over the sound of how much money I've got".

torbrex

Oh dear, I answered a poll question on an internet forum, the police and Inland Revenue are now going to hunt me down.

To save all the bother and expense of the prosecution and jail time, I will just write my confession and pin it to my shirt so that they find it when they cut my body down from the gantry that I am about to hang myself from.

cusally

I just barely scraped in with one yes, where i took a dress back witha tag on after wearing it, but it did have a hole in the hem which i only discovered while wearing it so even that is dubiously naughty.
I'd be more interested to know the opposites actually - twice in my life I have clipped a parked car and on both occasions the owners were amazed that I fessed up - one with a note on the windscreen with my phone number, the other I went into the shop they were in and found them. surely I am not unique ?

jamesd

Lucifa42, torbrex, you may find learning more about Norwich Pharmacal and search orders to be of interest.

The best available protection is not to have any data that can possibly be used to identify an individual, even when combined with information from third parties like ISPs and email providers. Or not to have any data about responses that could be linked to an individual. Which is why I asked about that protection.

Lucifa42

Those aren't relevant to the point I was making.

Ergates

jamesd wrote: »

Which methods is MSE using to ensure that it is technically impossible for the responses given by an individual to be linked to personally identifiable information such as an IP address or email address? How frequently is any data that may be usable in that way being destroyed in a way that blocks recovery from hard drives after initial erasure?

This is a concern because a number of the replies are seeking a confession of ongoing fraudulent and criminal activity where well funded bodies have active investigative teams available and the ongoing loss can be substantial. HMRC, for example.

Why would they want to do this? It's not MSE's moral or ethical duty to help people who are comitting criminal offences get away with them.

LLouiseR wrote: »

Perhaps I am overly cynical however I often assume that some people aren't going to declare their income, for example my local make-up catalogue representative.... I'm not responsible for peoples actions, if Ive paid money in good faith for a service and if its not been declared then, as far as I am concerned, Ive not done anything 'naughty.'

If you've just paid someone in cash, in good faith, then no, you've not done anything wrong. If, however, someone did or said something that made you think they weren't going to declare it (e.g. offered you a discount for cash in hand) then you have knowingly taken part in tax evasion.

tgroom57 wrote: »

I've said no to all these.
However, if the return part of the ticket isn't clipped I do feel free to use it again. Is that cheating?

Of course it is - how would that ever not be?
It's the same as steaming off a stamp and reusing it.

jamesd

Ergates wrote: »

Why would they want to do this? It's not MSE's moral or ethical duty to help people who are comitting criminal offences get away with them.

MSE may want to encourage people to provide answers. It would be foolish to do so for several of the answers without clear and convincing details of how data is not collected.

aliberry

jamesd wrote: »

Which methods is MSE using to ensure that it is technically impossible for the responses given by an individual to be linked to personally identifiable information such as an IP address or email address? How frequently is any data that may be usable in that way being destroyed in a way that blocks recovery from hard drives after initial erasure?

This is a concern because a number of the replies are seeking a confession of ongoing fraudulent and criminal activity where well funded bodies have active investigative teams available and the ongoing loss can be substantial. HMRC, for example.

I will claim that not only am I a criminal degenerate but that
a) I'm using this computer without the MSE member's knowledge
b) I'm testing the authorities' efficiency
c) I am a compulsive liar so did not answer the questions truthfully
d) I'm from a galaxy far, far away so do not recognise your legal system, earthling officer :rotfl:

jamesd

Nice try.

aliberry

jamesd wrote: »

Nice try.

Thanks Jamesd - oh, I have to go, the men in white coats are coming up my drive, tra-la...