Urban Review Privacy Policy

Given recent flack over comment tracking and such I thought it best to explain a few things and clarify how information is used or not used.

First, every website you visit tracks your IP address and creates a big log showing traffic. This is how sites know things like the number of unique visitors or total page views in a month. I have looked at my log a total of once — the day after my site was attacked. I do not and will not search through a 100,000 lines of boring code. Furthermore, this information will not be sold or given to anyone for private or commercial purposes.

Many blogs, such as MayorSlay.com, do not permit comments at all. I happen to like the discussion so comments are very important. Some sites have moderated comments where they appear only after being approved by the host. I don’t like that either. Since day one my comments have been open and people are free to post anonymously.

The site structure requires a name & email address. These can be your actual name & email or they can be completely false. I have many people that comment here on a regular basis that disagree with me — some using their real info and others that don’t.

If you post a comment you’ll see that in addition to name & email address a place for a URL exists. You are free to add a website address in this location. With a website address the public reading the comments will see the URL rather than the email address you use. Without a URL, the public reading comments will see the email address you use. In the past, people have been really clever with made up names & email addresses. I want to repeat this, everyone reading the site can see the email address you use on comments unless you use a URL (I still see your email address regardless). If you do not want me or the general public to see your actual email address then simply make one up.

For the record, email addresses are not gathered for any purpose private or commercial. This data is not even complied so it is not used to send out spam or other. It will never be sold.

I do look occasionally to see if a new comment matches up with any earlier comments, especially if the post catches my eye. I do publicly reply to comments to a few as time permits. I get a large volume of comments so I mostly scan them to make sure they are not offensive or otherwise inappropriate.

And yes, there are comments you do not see. I’ve had cases where people abused the system. People have made highly personal comments about some of the people discussed here, suggesting they have mental illness, engaging in extra marital affairs, etc… These were intended to inflict pain or cause major personal embarrassment for the people they were about — I removed these immediately as they were unverified and on a personal level unrelated to the issues. I’ve also had cases where people try to pose as someone else. Using the IP address information I was able to verify a couple of comments as not being from the public figures that were claimed as they came from the same location as another person. These comments, trying to pose as public officials, were immediately deleted so as not to mislead the public reading my site and to help protect the integrity of the people mentioned. In one case I warned a reader not to continue to post as someone else or use foul language or he would be banned. These are the things you don’t see.

Even computer IP addresses can be misleading to a degree. For example, multiple people posting from wi-fi locations such as Hartford Coffee will show up as being from the same location as these are internet connection, not computer, specific. People posting from the same company will appear as being from the same place as well. For the most part, I can draw no specific conclusions other than they are from the same place, a place that I have no idea where it is.

Yes, posting a comment on my site may mean I will highlight that comment in its own post. I’ve done it before and may well do it again. Posting an anonymous name & email address will ensure that your thoughts are just that — anonymous. Posting your real name &/or email address may lead myself or anyone of the 16,000+ monthly readers to call you out publicly.

On a related side note: For those that are concerned about computer safety you really should consider a web browser other than Microsoft’s Internet Explorer. In April 2006 63% of the visitors to this site used IE even though it cannot be trusted as it can lead to vulnerabilities within your system. A great alternative to IE is the open source browser Firefox which is free for Windows & Mac users. Over 11% of you are really smart and use Macs.

So, thank you so much for reading and participating in discussions here. Be savvy about when & where you give out your personal information (here and anywhere).

– Steve