Invasion of privacy

di11on

If someone posted an honest opinion of a service provided by a company in response to a request for such opinions by another boardsie and that person was subsequently telephoned by the company concerned in response to that post, asking for it to be removed - would this be considered an invasion of privacy?

tbh

it depends, I think. how did they get your phone number? Were they "telling" you to remove it, or asking? What grounds did they give?

di11on

tbh wrote: »

it depends, I think. how did they get your phone number? Were they "telling" you to remove it, or asking? What grounds did they give?

They said "their advice was for it to be removed"... as if their would be some negative consequence (they didn't say this explicitly).

The grounds were that it was defamatory (which I don't believe it was).

They got my phone number from their records because I'm a customer of theirs. They deduced who I am from my signature, I guess.

tbh

I don't think you could say it's an invasion of privacy, but it's certainly heavy handed. My advice would be to let the admins know (you could drop them a pm or report the post in question) and see what they have to say - if nothing else, it'll give them a heads-up. You could try stripping all subjective text from the post if there is somethere - i.e. don't say you got a **** service, explain exactly what happened and leave it to others to make their minds up. It's an interesting problem.

Sherifu

Or maybe from your DOB and first name in your profile, however they found your phone number I would consider it harassment to be calling you about a post on here. Can you afford to cut ties with this company?

It's not very hard to deduce the company involved

humanji

If you didn't say anything deflamatory then nuts to them, they're just being jerks. If you did, then either edit the post or remove it.

bonkey

di11on wrote: »

They deduced who I am from my signature, I guess.

In this case, its not really an invasion of privacy. If you freely put information online which allows you to be identified, then you can't complain if someone uses it.

As pointed out, your public profile gives everything you need to get your name.
Your sig provides a telephone number to a family-run business.

What part of putting those two bits of information together is invading privacy, when you put both in the public domain?

tbh

rkm wrote: »

Or maybe from your DOB and first name in your profile, however they found your phone number I would consider it harassment to be calling you about a post on here. Can you afford to cut ties with this company?

It's not very hard to deduce the company involved

if its something you said today, I wouldn't see a problem with it, and I doubt they'll be able to do anything about it - I AM NOT A LEGAL HEAD.

faceman

Can we see a link to the post in question?

Sherifu

tbh wrote: »

if its something you said today, I wouldn't see a problem with it

I would have a problem with it, I hate unsolicited calls.

tbh wrote: »

I doubt they'll be able to do anything about it - I AM NOT A LEGAL HEAD.

Me either, dunno.
"their advice was for it to be removed"... sounds like they're chancing their arm to me.

di11on

faceman wrote: »

Can we see a link to the post in question?

I'd rather keep this a generic discussion, for the moment at least :-)

humanji

Well from the implied "negative consequence", then they're threatening and not just chancing their arm. Call them up and ask to speak to a manager.

faceman

I understand, no probs.

heres my 2c (not to be construed as legal advice) without seeing your post.

It seems that your contact information is public info. Therefore if they put 2 and 2 together using public available info and you did not deny being the party in question, then their methods seem to be above board. This assumes they contacted you using the public phone number.

Without seeing the post i cant comment on whether or not you were libellous or not. Im not too familiar with your posts in general but if you have a connection to woodentoys.ie id imagine you dont post dodgy comments so as woodentoys.ie arent affiliated with your personal views.

If in doubt, seek legal advice though. You can get free legal advice in ireland but i dont have the link. They operate out of certain locations during the week. Im sure google will turn it up.

di11on

humanji wrote: »

Well from the implied "negative consequence", then they're threatening and not just chancing their arm. Call them up and ask to speak to a manager.

The expression "this comes from high up" was used. And by that I understand it was the manager's decision to call me.

Oryx

I dont consider the call invading your privacy unless they contacted you on a number that is exdirectory. Anyone can call me, its my choice to take the call, or hang up if I feel the need, you know?

If your info is in your sig, they cant be blamed for deducing who you are.

If their request concerned a comment made today, I would advise the mods and otherwise ignore it. Seems to me you were just expressing your opinion.

di11on

faceman wrote: »

I understand, no probs.

heres my 2c (not to be construed as legal advice) without seeing your post.

It seems that your contact information is public info. Therefore if they put 2 and 2 together using public available info and you did not deny being the party in question, then their methods seem to be above board. This assumes they contacted you using the public phone number.

Without seeing the post i cant comment on whether or not you were libellous or not. Im not too familiar with your posts in general but if you have a connection to woodentoys.ie id imagine you dont post dodgy comments so as woodentoys.ie arent affiliated with your personal views.

If in doubt, seek legal advice though. You can get free legal advice in ireland but i dont have the link. They operate out of certain locations during the week. Im sure google will turn it up.

Thanks Faceman - that's a good view of the situation. Cheers.

Kimbot

f its the post I am thing of mate I really think there should be no problem with it! Remember we are all entitled to our opinions.

tbh

rkm wrote: »

I would have a problem with it, I hate unsolicited calls.


.

I just meant if it's regarding a post he made today, I can't see a problem with that post. I'd be mega pissed if someone called me.

di11on

tbh wrote: »

I just meant if it's regarding a post he made today, I can't see a problem with that post. I'd be mega pissed if someone called me.

If the post you are thinking of is the post I'm thinking you're thinking of, I edited it slightly to be 100% sure myself that it wasn't defammatory :-)

Sherifu

tbh wrote: »

I just meant if it's regarding a post he made today, I can't see a problem with that post. I'd be mega pissed if someone called me.

Aha, took you up wrong then.

GuanYin

Asok invaded my privacy once.

I quite enjoyed it.

smashey

PSI: Las Vegas wrote: »

Asok invaded my privacy once.

I quite enjoyed it.

He changed your name a well.

GuanYin

smashey wrote: »

He changed your name a well.

That wasn't Asok.

What can I say? I'm a slut

Orion

Well you've edited the post so I can't make a comment on the defamation question. But I certainly think it's very unprofessional for them to call you directly about it. If it was me I'd currently be transferring my hosting to another company before posting on this forum.

Shiminay

You shoulda told them to go fuck themselves in fairness - that's completely out of order no matter what was said.

Nerin

personally i'd just find it creepy they went to the effort.
but then i'd laugh.
directly at them

Sully

After looking over the assumed post, I don't think what you said is wrong. If I was the company owner, I would like to contact you to hear about your feedback and act upon it. However, I suppose the company didn't like negative feedback and wanted you to withdraw it - fearing it would affect their business (and the post would probably appear on Google to).

Its not an invasion of privacy. Your contact details are public on your business website, and your Boards.ie username connects to you to the business website.

I don't think they can do anything about it, but don't quote me on that. In my opinion, they should take your feedback and try to act upon it and address the problem you (and I assume others) are experiencing. Boards.ie can not be held responsible, and should not get invovled. Its really got nothing to do with them. Its a public site, your details are public.

Btw: I think this is really the wrong forum for such a question!

Good luck!

CuLT

I really, really hope the company in question gets their entire IP range banned from accessing boards.ie unless they apologize for this blatant intimidation.

humanji

Should we call Anonymous? Or maybe Batman?

Rb

CuLT wrote: »

I really, really hope the company in question gets their entire IP range banned from accessing boards.ie unless they apologize for this blatant intimidation.

Agreed.

Name and shame and get the admins involved.

If your post contained the truth and you could prove it, then it's not defamation. If such a thing had happened me I'd have told them to f*ck off and no longer avail of their service. Says a lot about a company that instead of taking negative feedback as something that highlights a problem that could be fixed to improve service, they actively track down the person in question and have the gall to call them with threats. Again, name and shame!

di11on

For all your information, the company I refer to in this thread is letshost.ie.

They have suspended my website because of the post in question:

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=55022100#post55022100

See for yourself:

www.woodentoys.ie

Surely this is against the law - suspending my website, on which my business depends, because I posted my opinion of their services. This is an absolute outrage. They suspended my site while I was in the middle of downloading a backup of the site.