Hacker News Reader

Comment by fleitz | Hacker News Reader

Kudos to CL for standing up for user privacy. When I use CL it's with consideration of their TOS which bans these practices.

When padmapper copies the data they violate my privacy, my copyright, and the agreement between myself and craigslist as outlined in the TOS. What padmapper is doing is a violation of many data privacy laws like PIPEDA, EUDPD, and various copyright acts.

If padmapper wants the data why don't they just obtain consent from the CL posters, instead of copying it without consent.

Would the padmapper team be ok with me deciding to stick their logo where ever I deem it necessary? I bet they'd probably sue me for copyright and trademark violation.

View on HN

PadMapper team here, I don't show your copyrighted text, I link to your posts an provide a preview of the stats. Just a clarification.

Oh awesome, I thought it was a generic scraping site.

No worries, feel free to browse around :-)

This isn't making a permanent record of casual encounters.

It's putting apartment listings on a map. People listing apartments tend to want it to be widely known.

So since it doesn't cross your arbitrary line of bigotry their concerns are worthless.

People listing apartments tend to want it to be widely "known."

those same people are already getting their listing widely known, by posting it on CL.

So you're upset that a listing that you created for the sole reason of being seen and generating a response is being made more public?

wat??

When you post on Craigslist, you're posting on a public forum. What expectation of privacy could you possibly have?

The expectation outlined in the TOS, as well as the privacy guidelines set out in PIPEDA.

I fail to see how PIPEDA is involved. The information being published on PadMapper is information which you've chosen to publicly disclose. The fact that this publicly disclosed information is showing up on a site you didn't intend might make a case for tort law or copyright law, but there is no disclosure of information that you expected to remain private.

Kudos to CL for standing up for user privacy.

While I appreciate the sentiment, it is very unlikely that a landlord would object to an apartment listing being aggregated so as to expose it to more users.

If padmapper wants the data why don't they just obtain consent from the CL posters, instead of copying it without consent.

How do you propose padmapper do that without violating the Craigslist TOS in some other way like bulk-emailing everyone who lists an apartment?

I'm not saying their conduct wasn't a bit of a grey area, against the TOS and maybe a copyright violation, but I don't think many Craigslist users would object personally to their posts being reposted in this manner.

PIPEDA is a Canadian privacy law and EUDPD is a European one. I don't believe padmapper operates outside the US.

I used it to find an apartment in Vancouver. Still, I have a hard time finding sympathy for somebody that posts something on a public web site, and expects it to remain private.

Enjoy your 1984.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com