The Illinois Chess Coaches Association runs a website where we post cross-tables of events of scholastic high school chess tournaments as well as rating lists. A student e-mailed me and requested that her name be removed from our website. I was wondering, has anyone run into this problem before? If so, how did you handle it? On the one hand I wouldn’t want to violate anyone’s right to privacy; on the other hand, it would be counterproductive to publish cross-tables with names of players listed as “Anonymous,” let alone rating lists.
Any help on this matter will be greatly appreciated.
Steven Craig Miller
Chess Coach at Lincoln-Way West High School (New Lenox, IL)
President of the Illinois Chess Coaches Association
Perhaps instruct her to have the request come from her school? One can imagine circumstances where nonpublication would be most appropriate (messy custody disputes). But in the general case, as with all IHSA activities, one wants to know how the participants did.
It’s not clear to me that the fact of public participation in a chess tournament can be suppressed or excised, no matter what the requester might have been concerned about.
The name and state and ID number do not compromise the person in terms of privacy risks at all, unless the mere existence of the individual is to be kept secret.
If someone were to say “sure, we’ll remove that for you”, what would really be possible, and where would it lead?
When I was working in the USCF office (in Newburgh, NY) in the summer of 1972, a woman walked in (unannounced) and demanded that her name be removed from the top 100 women’s list (but not from the general rating list). Her concern was not privacy, but the sexism she felt was inherent in having a top women’s list.
I don’t know what the office’s response to her request was.
For the ICCA though I would believe those that a school name is also provided so I can see to some degree that privacy could be an issue. You’re able to narrow it down more than just a name and a State.
But is there something implicitly stated that should you participate in an event, that the information derived from that participation is no longer yours but is the organizing bodies.
Similar here to the scoresheet belonging to the organizer.
The question does remain, what would the USCF do and has this scenario been thought of? The same question can arise when pictures are taken and used in CLO or CL or CL4K. Does the USCF procure a release form from the parent of the minor?
I don’t have a USCF rule book handy to see if in the rules it states that the act of participation in an event is itself a waiver. I’d have to believe that wouldn’t cut it for minors. Adults ok perhaps.
Is it really public participation also? The public can’t participate. You must be a member to participate. But the results are available to the public. Perhaps you meant it’s participation in an event open to the public for viewing. I’m not trying to turn your works around Hal into something it’s not meant to be, just thinking aloud here.
If someone were in the Witness Protection Program, they might not want any photographs published. Similarly, someone who has fled spousal abuse or other threats such as stalkers, might request that the names of their children not be published to avoid risking their safety. The mere fact of knowing the general location of an individual is really helpful to someone intent on doing harm. They can crosscheck using a number of tools to zero in on a target. Is the USCF website hack proof? If an ID number can be obtained and linked to an address, bingo, the bad guy is in business. Some state federations and clubs publish the addresses and/or phone numbers and e-mail addresses of their members.
Ultimately, maybe there is no privacy any more. But we should take into consideration the fact there are people of questionable intent out there who should not be given extra access and help.
Sevan - I am not a lawyer, but much is clear. Participation in a USCF rated event creates the fact of one’s participation. USCF’s records of who has played in a chess tournament are an open book.
I do not know what the fair use rules may be, or what conditions are implicitly or explicitly agreed to when entering a USCF national scholastic event.
I have learned a lot about privacy in online environments over the years, and endeavor to adhere to good practices and stay away from lines that appear problematic or worse.
Tom - Anyone in the Witness Protection Program ought to know the possible consequences of showing themselves in a public place, or otherwise revealing their whereabouts, I would guess.
In any case, you might enjoy this series of videos:
Hal, having your picture unknowingly taken and then splashed on the pages of a magazine or newspaper has happened and caused people to be moved to other places. A sheriff who was doing convention center security at the US Elementary in Pgh was amazed to see photographers walking about taking random pictures of children for publicity shots. He wasn’t concerned only about pedophiles, but also about some kid being discovered through random group shots being seen by a violent spouse whose wife had fled. If he knows the kid has been in one event, he now has a pretty good lead in tracking her down. Kids aren’t as alert as adults to threats and can innocently walk into a shot. It is unusual but not that far fetched. Plus, some of the people in Witness Protection are not the brightest bulbs and sometimes unwittingly out themselves just through doing normal things like everybody else. One guy was caught on KissCam at a televised ballgame and had to move to a different state. BTW, his wife was not happy seeing him kissing his girl friend!?
When someone deliberately asks you not to provide information for public access, I think you have to take serious notice. It would be a shame to deny some kids a chance to participate in chess because we are unwilling to consider procedures to protect them.
I have always wondered how loosely the chess media handles the personal data of kids, especially those in elementary school. Websites show at least full name, age or grade, school and possibly a photo. The higher rated the child, the more likely his data will appear online, e.g. Chess Life Online or one of dozens of personal blogs.
How should a blogger respond to a request to remove a kid’s name or photo? I try to accommodate as much as I can, but there are limits. The higher rated the youngster, the more likely he will appear in the media. Usually the kids get excited and the parents are proud. On the other hand, if the child appears on the Top 100 lists, then is there anything wrong to use these to generate a state ranking list for each age? I once denied a request to remove a name, saying that I would follow the USCF’s lead.
If a kid wins a state or national tournament, do they implicitly allow for their name and image to be published? I’ve never seen a tournament with legal language stating that your photo may be taken and published.
Tom - a lot of things are being bandied about here, and they are not at all the same.
Pictures are quite different than a mere name. Rights are usually either explicitly obtained (as on ChessMagnetSchool.com’s home page). I have no idea how these things work for USCF’s nationals, and I won’t guess.
Laws exist for some of the situations you are imagining, and for every scenario like the one you gave, one could imagine a long lost child being found as a counter-example.
And yes, everyone should take serious notice. But they should be dealt with in ways that are possible and are rational.
I don’t know what the agreed upon rules of participation were for those activities. Perhaps as part of participating you have agreed to that. Perhaps that’s what needs to happen here.
Hal, I went to and watched the links you posted. They are sobering. There is no such thing as privacy anymore. Not for anyone. Soon not anywhere. In the original post, the anoymous person cited will not be able to avoid detection from a dedicated individual or investigator who has the tools and the money to find them. You can’t protect them either unless they do not participate at all. Once any data are registered the laws and regulations concerning privacy immediately become fuzzy. It’s getting weirder and scarier out there. I once laughed when someone told me a Google spokesman said, “We know everything.” No longer. As usual, there will be all sorts of unintended consequences and some vicious manipulation of all of the data that exists.
While I’ve read all the messages on this topic with great interest, I suspect that the request was frivolous (a student surprised she could find her name online). Nonetheless, I was unsure how I should respond. I now think that the simplest response will be to tell this student that the ICCA will be willing to look into this issue further if her school will write us and formally request that her name be removed from our website. At the very least, this will give me some indication as to whether or not there is serious merit for the request.
I always include the following in my pre–first round announcements: “We will be taking photographs of this event for our website today. If you do not wish to be photographed, or if you do not consent to having your child photographed, please let us know.” One player and one parent have made this request of us.
Causing her to get the school to write in, if it then leads to you looking into it and taking no action, may upset people who feel you encouraged them to invest further effort. You probably should reach a conclusion before asking for more people to weigh in in favor of what she requests. If you have further questions or discussion for her, or wish to know what her school thinks of the issue, that is different.
And the school may take the approach that a minor child is asking for her privacy to be respected, in the absence of acknowledgement that participation in an ICCA event waives that right.
The question also is, does that minor have the right to waive his/her privacy or does that require the consent of her parent/legal guardian.
Perhaps its time, as with other sports in high school, that a consent and waiver form be signed by parents, not only for publishing of the name, but also pictures taken in the course of the event.
Again I think this would be important for the USCF to also determine what its policy is in light of this specific scenario.
I’ve dealt with similar issues a fair amount working for newspapers, especially since my job was in sports. Most of what we covered was high school and above, where these issues still pop up but less frequently, although occasionally we’d cover something that involved younger children. I am definitely not a lawyer, but I have some professional experience with these sorts of issues
To get it out of the way, there are no legal grounds that would require you to remove someone’s name from tournament results if asked. If it’s a public event, then their participation implies they’ve waived their expectation of privacy. If someone wants to argue that it’s a private event because of the membership requirement, they’d still have a very hard time making the case that their participation in the event is a private fact, given the number of people at the tournament who witnesses their participation.
The issue, of course, is ethics and morality. There is of course no harm to the ordinary child to have their name publicized (I don’t think anyone in this thread has argued there is, I just want to head that off just in case ). But there are specific examples where specific children may be put in danger through publicity, mostly in the way we already talked about: a child with a non-custodial parent who may take adverse action if they knew the child’s whereabouts. Another, less common, issue that I’ve seen is that police officers involved in sensitive work are sometimes worried that the criminals they target may make the connection between an officer and a child of the same name and look for retribution.
As a general rule, I would really expect the parents of children with such issues to bring it up before participation, so that something can be worked out. If not, I certainly wouldn’t accept the request from the minor themself, I’d want to hear from the parent or at least the school, and I’d want an explanation as to why the information needs to be removed.
Assuming there is a good reason, I’d personally recommend a policy that the organization truncates the child’s name on publications if asked. Initials or first name and last initial should be reasonable.
). But there are specific examples where specific children may be put in danger through publicity, mostly in the way we already talked about: a child with a non-custodial parent who may take adverse action if they knew the child’s whereabouts. Another, less common, issue that I’ve seen is that police officers involved in sensitive work are sometimes worried that the criminals they target may make the connection between an officer and a child of the same name and look for retribution.