Getting PUlled -- It's a Privacy Issue

["Glenda R. Snodgrass" <grs@theneteffect.com>]

> This is a good point - in car racing, it is typically known how many laps
> someone completed, and why they 'DNF', right down to the component that
> blew up.
> 
> I think the problem is more a personal issue - when we blow up, it is a
> horse.  We all love horses, and don't want anything bad to happen to

The difference is more than that.  The participants at Wimbledon and
NASCAR races are all professional athletes, and their success or failure
is rightfully "public knowledge."  They expect that before they ever get
into the game.  However, the vast majority of endurance riders are amateur
athletes -- and most think of themselves more as hobbyists -- and as such,
our activities are not properly in the realm of information that the
public "needs to know."

It bothers me to think that all my ride entries, success or failure, etc.,
are available to anyone on the Internet who chooses to search, for a
variety of different reasons:

1 - It is becoming common practice for employers to run Internet searches
on the names of prospective employees prior to interviewing.  It's a way
for them to learn things about the applicants that don't show up on a
curriculum vitae or in references.  Do you want a prospective employer to
know how many weekends you took off work for rides in the past 5
years?  Do you want your pulls to look like abject failure to someone who
doesn't understand the sport at all, and is likely to misapply your
"failures" at endurance to your overall success in life?  Do you want
non-horse and non-endurance people judging other aspects of your life on
your success rate at endurance rides?  And what if the prospective new
employer (or major new client or whoever) is a card-carrying member of
PETA and decides to blackball you after seeing that you are one of those
killer endurance riders?

2 - It's also an easy way for people to check up on what you were doing
last weekend.  You weren't *really* visiting your sick Aunt Betty, now,
were you?  Whether you fudge to your employer, your boyfriend, or your
next-door neighbor, is it really the right of the AERC to put your
personal hobby activity schedule into the realm of public knowledge?  

3 - I am self-employed and usually take off Thurs & Fri to do a ride
because they're all so far away from me.  I tell some of my clients what
I'm doing, but some of them I don't, because they wouldn't take it well.  
Frankly, it's really none of their business what I'm doing, as long as
their needs are met according to our services contract, and I don't want
to think that they can check up on me every time I leave town!

4 - Do you want the neigborhood cat burglar to know which weekends you're
likely to be out of town this year, because you *always* do this ride and
that ride?

I don't think so.  Frankly, it bothers me.  When I post something to
Ridecamp, I have made a conscious decision to publicly say these
things.  No one, however, should have the right to make statements on my
behalf and publish them on the Internet without my prior knowledge and
consent.  And yes, publishing ride results with finishing/pull info is
"making a statement" with nooooooo explanation.  Don't forget that part.

I think making the ride results available online to the membership is a
terrific step forward, but they should be available *only* to the
membership.  It's very common in other organizations for a certain amount
of info published on the Web to be available only to members.  It's also a
good way to give additional benefits to members only, thus increasing the
value of the membership itself.

Glenda & Lakota
Mobile, AL
AERC # M18819 & H27310
SE Region