It’s fine to include my responses in summaries from the dataset, but please remove it before making the data public (Example: “The average age of the respondents, including row 205, is 22.5”)
It’s not clear to me what this option is for. If someone doesn’t tick it, it seems like you are volunteering to remove their information even from summary averages, but that doesn’t make sense because at that point it seems to mean “I am filling out this survey but please throw it directly in the trash when I’m done.” Surely if someone wanted that kind of privacy they would simply not submit the survey?
In 2022, I was advised to make the privacy state of answers clear (that is, what would be released in the public dataset and what wouldn’t be) so I put three options for the only required question on the census.
Release the responses, including the row
Use the responses when I summarize the census, but don’t release the row
Don’t use the responses to summarize, and don’t release the row.
Note that it’s a required radio select: you have to pick an answer before it will let you hit submit. This year I removed 3, because I wasn’t going to do anything with those responses so why bother collecting them.
The main argument I see for bringing 3 back is to say I won’t use the responses to summarize and won’t release the row, but will show it to the LessWrong team. That gives people a way to potentially exert a little influence on what the devs are up to without showing up in the public statistics. I don’t think that’s a strong argument though since there’s lots of ways to make the LW team aware of feedback.
I think you’re misinterpreting. That question is for opting in to the highest privacy option. Not checking it means that your data will be included when the survey is made public. Wanting to not be included at all, even in summaries, is indicated by simply not submitting any answers.
It’s not clear to me what this option is for. If someone doesn’t tick it, it seems like you are volunteering to remove their information even from summary averages, but that doesn’t make sense because at that point it seems to mean “I am filling out this survey but please throw it directly in the trash when I’m done.” Surely if someone wanted that kind of privacy they would simply not submit the survey?
In 2022, I was advised to make the privacy state of answers clear (that is, what would be released in the public dataset and what wouldn’t be) so I put three options for the only required question on the census.
Release the responses, including the row
Use the responses when I summarize the census, but don’t release the row
Don’t use the responses to summarize, and don’t release the row.
Note that it’s a required radio select: you have to pick an answer before it will let you hit submit. This year I removed 3, because I wasn’t going to do anything with those responses so why bother collecting them.
The main argument I see for bringing 3 back is to say I won’t use the responses to summarize and won’t release the row, but will show it to the LessWrong team. That gives people a way to potentially exert a little influence on what the devs are up to without showing up in the public statistics. I don’t think that’s a strong argument though since there’s lots of ways to make the LW team aware of feedback.
(Correction, by “in 2022” I mean “for the 2022 census,” which actually happened in early 2023.)
I think you’re misinterpreting. That question is for opting in to the highest privacy option. Not checking it means that your data will be included when the survey is made public. Wanting to not be included at all, even in summaries, is indicated by simply not submitting any answers.