Fools Rush In

Witchdoctor Found This
In Her Double Bed This Morning

In dedication of Witchdoctor over this period leading up to Halloween, I am featuring her excellent posts. Witchdoctor is a lucky bunny because she isn't married to Neil Bacon. So, she should actually count her lucky stars. Indeed, every woman in the UK should count their lucky stars. Even getting divorced from Neil Bacon would not be financially satisfying. No point getting divorced if there is no pot of gold at the end of the tunnel eh.

So, Witchdoctor should be glad that she has a nice irish Wizard tucked up in her bed instead. We have discovered the identity of her irish wizard whom she has been concealing from us. The picture above shows us all why she would wish to keep such secrets to herself. Actually, can I have a nice irish wizard as well Witchy as my mixed [Scottish, Irish and English plus the essential bit of French] guy is threatening to imprison me in his tower of marriage. I must plot an escape at some point but it is the French bit that keeps me more or less tied up.

Anyway, Witchy has mocked iwantgreatcare.org again. This time of course, there is no mention of Pyjama man. Perhaps Witchy has a secret desire to see Bulstrode in his Pyjamas. Second thoughts, we don't want any fatalities.

Witchdoctor states as follows

"But, unlike eBay, Iwantgreatcare comments are anonymous. The question is: how anonymous is anonymous? Iwantgreatcare.org will have access to enough information to identify the individual. Probably most doctors who know their patients well, would immediately be able to work out very easily who was responsible for bad feedback. There will have been an incident. Patients may feel they are well hidden among 2000 other patients. Not so. They may for example be only three or four patients in the practice who have had significant problems with a particular doctor, and whose personality is such they would leave negative feedback on a public site. The doctor will have a pretty good idea who the patient is. In any case, most patients will talk about it to someone and, if a case of defamation follows, information will leak.

Anonymous my foot!

Firstly, nothing IS anonymous on the internet. Lets get that straight. Secondly, anyone can be tracked down via their IP address. One very annoyed blogger found this out earlier on this week. No doubt she still has steam puffing out of multiple ears and is still attempting to locate her broomstick to teach me a few lessons in sweeping. Nevertheless, it proves a point. Secondly, there is case law about this. Motley Fool was to discover this the hard way. The Register covers the lack of anonymity.

"Benjamin was unmasked by a court order compelling Motley Fool to reveal the details it held on the poster known as "analyser71". The IP address associated with his postings was then traced back to a computer at his then employers, Kyte Fund Management"

Wikipaedia covers it briefly here.

In 2007, it was the BBC's turn.

"It is believed to be the first time that the BBC has been told to hand over such information by an order made under the Norwich Pharmacal jurisdiction in connection with online postings, and came before a similar order against in another case involving Sheffield Wednesday last week"

So Norwich Pharmacal as a case law is fairly powerful.

Of course, what amuses me is that sometimes ago a number of doctors hid their profiles on a doctors only website. This was covered by Dr Rant. The problem here is that the Doctors Only website can be compelled by any court to disclose the identity of that person. Their log in IP address would be enough to track them down. Secondly, while the GMC is not on the list of RIPA organisations, the Department of Health is.

Of course, this has all been mentioned before to no avail.

Neil Bacon is at a high risk of being sued one day. One court case could put him [ and any patient or public] out of business. He knows that from past experience.