Update

[charmian]

Regarding this comment which I linked in an earlier post.

The person who made the comment has responded, explaining their remarks, in a comment to that post.

To summarize it, the person says that they heard from a volunteer that the volunteer looked up someone's history of support requests in the course of investigating a support request that the user did not feel was adequately dealt with. However, this does not seem to me to necessarily indicate any kind of abuse of power.

Also, to reiterate something: all public posts (unless I make it technically impossible to do so, like turning off comments) are open to comments from anyone (that is, unless you're a spammer/leaving OT/inappropriate comments).

Comments

[charmian]

I suppose in some ways that could be bettered by requiring staffers/volunteers to create a separate account and to not discuss customer service business publicly. (Have no idea what really goes on)

I guess in that situation, you'd need to be really careful about who is granted access to see such information. (I'm not sure how they normally handle this? NDAs? Contracts? Bonding?) But then, identity theft is illegal as well.

[jd]

There already are NDAs, and you're not allowed to discuss anything you know as a result of the corresponding privs with people who aren't under the same NDA.

[charmian]

I see. Thanks for the information.