Corpus 2

[TokyoBouncyBall]

A summary would be good and I might do one later but Aston, data scraping, astonishing lack of contrition…

Hello everyone,

Thanks again for your patience. We promised to update you here when we had more information…
Besides agreeing to delete the sandbox, with regard to the smaller Mumsnet dataset for the PHD research, Aston has agreed not to identify Mumsnet by name in the final publication or use the Mumsnet logo. They are also adamant that this data set has been anonymised.

We’d suggest that if you still have any concerns about personal information that Aston may hold, to please contact their Data Protection Officer: www.aston.ac.uk/about/statutes-ordinances-regulations/publication-scheme/data-protection.

And of course if you have any concerns about particular posts on Mumsnet that may contain personally identifiable information, feel free to email us at [email protected], and we’d be happy to assist.

We’ll continue to keep you informed of any further developments.
Thanks Justine

when we had more information…
Besides agreeing to delete the sandbox, with regard to the smaller Mumsnet dataset for the PHD research, Aston has agreed not to identify Mumsnet by name in the final publication or use the Mumsnet logo. They are also adamant that this data set has been anonymised.

ooh people are not going to be happy!

Can you at least get agreement from them that someone from, mumsnet, or your no doubt highly expensive lawyers, to actually check before publication? Given they couldn't even redact their own students private contract information on the F O I response at don't have any faith in them at all!

@JustineMumsnet I really don't think that's a good enough response to be honest. Have Aston confirmed exactly when this smaller set was scraped? If it was after the Ts&Cs of the site were changed to explicitly forbid scraping, then you're setting a precedent that "asking for forgiveness rather than permission" is acceptable to you, which may cause you problems if you want to take action against other scrapers later on. In addition, "not identifying Mumsnet by name in the final publication" is easily subverted - if they describe it as "a UK site by parents for parents", it'll be obvious who that means, particularly if the PhD student involved has said it's about Mumsnet in any presentations they do prior to publication. Plus, anonymising the dataset will not be sufficient if posts are quoted wholesale in the publication, as it's easy to find the original post with a long enough quote. These reassurances do not reassure me in the slightest.

Finally, I'm not sure if you've done this already, but I think each board that has been affected needs a post from Mumsnet HQ explaining what has gone on, what you've done about it, and how they can get their data removed from Aston's dataset.

I can't see how they can put the genie back in the bottle if they allow this to happen. Especially as it's widely known outside of Mumsnet exactly what Aston has done and what Eden is planning on doing.

It does open the site up to any tom Dick or Harry to say well they did it and nothing happened so we will.

And Edens last data set includes 2024 so recent.

And and and so many other things that no doubt other people will add.

I'm too annoyed right now to think coherently!

The relationships board, FWR and the LGBT children's board are what she's scraped.

Well I'm not happy. I'll return under a new name soon, with a whole new email addy. Meantime im dfe. If MN wont do it, I'll do it myself.
It could take a while but I'm ok with that

The relationships board, FWR and the LGBT children's board are what she's scraped.

All of which contain a lot of extremely personal - and identifiable - detail.

I'm also not happy. We're being accused of transphobia and while we can legally hold gender critical opinions some of us live in Scotland with it's new hate crime legislation. It's not currently clear how implementing that legislation is going to play out for gender critical Scottish women. I for one am extremely uncomfortable about this and feel I very much do now have to wheesht on Mumsnet.

What naughtystep said.

It certainly seems like a move that will make women wheesht.

And it is a disservice to so very many women.

This is the data scraped according to the FOI response

Apologies I got the date wrong on a previous post I said 2024. The date ranges are below

"The data chosen for analysis must satisfy the following criteria:
• For the ‘time’ analysis, posts and comments will be collected within the boundaries of each of
the three timeframes: (01/01/2008-01/01/2013; 02/01/2013-01/01/2018; 02/01/2018-01/01/2023).
• For the ‘identity’ analysis, posts and comments will discuss one of three transgender identities transgender women, transgender men, and non-binary people). The date the posts were created will be irrelevant.
• Posts and comments consistently must discuss transgender people or transgenderism. The thread will be removed if it significantly diverges from this topic.
• The posts and comments together created at least 30 replies, with any fewer constituting a thread too small to analyse.
• In a selected thread, all comments (and thus participants) will be used in the corpus, unless:

• The comment has been deleted or banned for breaking Mumsnet’s Terms of Service
• The comment was posted after the timeframe for that corpus has ended"

Yeah we can't ask about our data because we'd have to link our real names to the posts.

And no one in their right mind is going to do that!

The thread will be removed if it significantly diverges from this topic.

I still reckon Eden is going to be scuppered by that sentence.

The ICO said that we could make a complaint directly to them if we weren't able to contact the DPO of Aston.

So a student is still proposing that defamatory PhD? Unbelievable. They're practically asking to be sued.

If it goes ahead this will turn into an absolute shit show!

I don't think a university should be setting it's students off with a lawsuit against them as they start their career. This should have been binned the moment they were found out.

Has anyone contacted the list of people like Dennis and Sarah above to let them know this is going on?

I don't mean the student, per se. I mean Aston.

I've just tried and it wont go through without some supporting documentation.

Sigh. I'll try tomorrow when I'm less angry. Trying to not out myself all over the place here.

I'll be composing a letter over the weekend.

On FWR, definitely. Unfortunately in Relationships the most sensitive threads, on things like supporting people to leave abuse, are the least likely to wander off topic.

The ICO are very helpful if you ring them and they don't record the initial enquiry calls as far as I recall.

And then we'll all be cribbing off you on Monday.

😘

I can't even get my head around Edens board choices to be honest. ...

"I've come home early from a week away with the kids as one broke his arm and found my husband in the bedroom in my knickers and bra and great aunt violets wedding dress with my best makeup smeared all over his face when he was supposed to be at a work conference in scunthorpe.

He's drained the joint account buying 30 dresses and ten pairs of size 13 high heels, and is insisting on living as his true self, that I call him Barbara and the kids call him mummy and if I won't or even think of leaving him he'll tell everyone im a transphobic bitch

Please can someone advise me I feel like I'm losing my mind"

Yay way to go Aston University you morally corrupt arses

Can we set up our own gardening for legal advice?