Re: Warning: your posts can be googled

[Richard Hake <rrhake@earthlink.net>]

If you reply to this long (9 kB) post please don't hit the reply 
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ABSTRACT:  An ARN-L subscriber has warned: "Your posts can be 
googled." I point out that Google spiders have been known to invade 
discussion list archives whose access is supposedly restricted to 
subscribers. The moral:  one should think twice about posting 
potentially embarrassing or sensitive material on discussion lists, 
even if (as for EDDRA, Math-Learn, PhysLrnR, and SciListserv)  access 
to their archives is nominally restricted to subscribers. 
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Elsa Haas (2007) in an ARN-L post of 1 Aug 2007 09:13:09-0400 titled 
"Warning: your posts can be googled" wrote:

"If you use profanity or some other form of speech that you wouldn't 
normally use in a public forum, do you realize that your post to this 
list may pop up some day when somebody googles your name?"

To which Gerald Bracey (2007), who had justifiably used  the f-word 
in an ARN-L post of 30 July 2007,  responded on 1 Aug 2007 
09:48:46-0400:

"I was thinking ARN was open only to subscribers, but I guess not 
since I sent a message from an account that isn't subscribed (I 
think). Elsa's warning is a good one. Privacy is a quaint 20th 
century concept. YouTube will hold you accountable."

The privacy of a discussion list is determined not only by whether or 
not posting is restricted to subscribers, but also by whether or not 
ACCESS TO ITS ARCHIVES is open to all or restricted to subscribers.

As indicated in "Over Sixty Academic Discussion Lists: List Addresses 
and URL's for Archives & Search Engines"  [Hake (2007a)],  the 
archives of  e.g., AERA-L, ARN-L, Dewey-L, Math-Teach, POD, and RUME 
are open to all; whereas the archives of EDDRA, Math-Learn, PhysLrnR, 
and SciListserv are  restricted to subscribers - as indicated by an 
"[R]" preceding the name of those list in Hake (2007a).

What does this have to do with posts being googled?     

According to a 2004 report "Google's IPO raises question on how 
search engine works," copied into the APPENDIX of "How Google Works" 
[Hake (2005a)]:

"Google's 'search engines' use robotic 'spiders' -special software 
programs - that 'crawl' continuously along the myriad trails of the 
World Wide Web, 'harvesting' documents as they go. A separate piece 
of software builds an index of every word the spiders find. . . . . A 
spider visits every Web page THAT ISN'T MARKED PRIVATE,  reads it and 
stores it in compressed form."

But my experience has been that Google spiders DO invade discussion 
list archives marked private in the sense that access is supposedly 
restricted to subscribers.

As a case in point, on 8 March 2007 I  unapologetically [see Hake 
(2005b)] cross posted "How Will Bill Evers Interpret Kirschner, 
Sweller, & Clark?" [Hake (2007b)] to the following discussion lists: 
AERA-L, ARN-L,  Dewey-L, EDDRA, Math-Learn, Math-Teach, PhysLrnR, 
POD, SciListserv, & RUME.

On 4 August 2007, a Google search for a key phrase "abysmal ignorance 
of the hard lessons" in Hake (2007b) (that "repeated the search with 
omitted results included") netted Google hits on AERA-L, ARN-L, 
EDDRA, Dewey-L, Math-Learn, RUME, even though the archives EDDRA and 
Math-Learn are restricted to subscribers as indicated above. 

Has Google enrolled its spiders as subscribers to EDDRA and Math-Learn?

The moral seems to be that posters to discussion lists should think 
twice about posting potentially embarrassing or sensitive material on 
discussion lists, even if (as for EDDRA, Math-Learn, PhysLrnR, and 
SciListserv)  access to their archives is nominally restricted to 
subscribers. 

Richard Hake, Emeritus Professor of Physics, Indiana University
24245 Hatteras Street, Woodland Hills, CA 91367
<rrhake@earthlink.net>
<http://www.physics.indiana.edu/~hake>
<http://www.physics.indiana.edu/~sdi>

REFERENCES
Bracey, G. 2007. "Re: Warning: your posts can be googled," ARN-L post 
of 01 Aug 2007 09:48:46-0400; online at
<http://interversity.org/lists/arn-l/archives/Aug2007/msg00002.html>.

Haas, E. 2007. "Warning: your posts can be googled," ARN-L post of 1 
Aug 2007 09:13:09 -0400; online at 
<http://interversity.org/lists/arn-l/archives/Aug2007/msg00000.html>.

Hake, R.R. 2005a. "How Google Works," online at
<http://listserv.nd.edu/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind0501&L=pod&P=R14527&I=-3>. 
Post of 24 Jan 2005 12:15:42-0800 to AERA-D, AERA-K, AERA-L, 
AP-Physics, Dewey-L, EvalTalk, Math-Learn, Physhare, PhysLrnR, & POD. 
The APPENDIX contains a copy of  "Google: How the search engine 
works," copied by Jerry Becker into the Math-Learn archives from the 
"The Southern Illinoisan."

Hake, R.R. 2005b. "Cross-Posting - Synergistic or Sinful?" Post of 1 
Nov 2005 08:37:12-0800 to ITFORUM and AERA-L;  online at 
<http://tinyurl.com/29azvx>.

Hake, R.R. 2007a. "Over Sixty Academic Discussion Lists: List 
Addresses and URL's for Archives & Search Engines," online at 
<http://www.physics.indiana.edu/~hake/ADL-B.pdf>, or 
<http://www.physics.indiana.edu/~hake/ADL-C.pdf>, or if both fail as 
ref. 49 at <http://www.physics.indiana.edu/~hake>.

Hake, R.R. 2007b. "How Will Bill Evers Interpret Kirschner, Sweller, 
& Clark?" online at 
<http://listserv.nd.edu/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind0703&L=pod&P=R4189&I=-3>. 
Post of 8 March to AERA-L, ARN-L, Dewey-L, EDDRA, Math-Learn, 
Math-Teach, PhysLrnR, POD, SciListserv, & RUME.