On Fri, Dec 01, 2006 at 04:35:32PM +0100, Paolo Bonzini wrote: > There could be privacy problems too. I don't know the relevant > legislation, but the [copyright assignment] list includes personal data > (year of birth, citizenship, employer) and, in Italy, I would have to > sign a form if I had access to such data. The legislation in the US, > however, is probably very different:
The US laws on the data privacy practices private organizations must follow are far looser than those in the EU. If an organization publishes a privacy policy they must follow it, or if they agreed to keep data confidential when they collected it they must follow that, and there are tougher rules for some kinds of data (particularly financial information), but otherwise the rules are pretty loose (I'll put in the usual IANAL disclaimer here). Just the same, the FSF properly tries to keep access to people's personal information limited, going beyond the legal requirements. Right now, if there is doubt about someone's status, we can get someone who has a gnu.org account to check the list.
