Forum Moderators: phranque
My site revolves around its members.. it provides service to help people keep in touch with others on the internet.. This includes a reunion service, internal messaging, a forum and a few other things..
I have a search function built into the site, so people can search for other members (this is essential to a reunion site!). They can search by first name, surname, country of citizenship and a few other things. People can then see a 'profile' of that person, which at the most basic includes their first and last name, citizenship and age.. (never their email address or DOB)
My intention is for Google to spider all these public profiles, meaning that when people search for someone by name through google, they will find my site -- and be reunited!
Is this acceptable for privacy reasons?. We do have it covered in our terms (I think well enough), so I would imagine it would be ok.. the reason I'm asking is that one of our new members queried me wondering why his full name was shown publicly.
Is there any issue trying to get these names into Google as well, or should I put a 'no-index' tag on it (I really don't want to, considering google is how people are most likely to find each other)
Any experiences with privacy issues like this?
i.e. make sure they "check a box" that says some of their details will have to be used to take advantage of the service.
Have a look for the "data protection act" both here at WW and through SE search, I think it's been discussed in detail here before.
