Making the Most of E-mail Addresses Populated from LDS Account

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russellhltn
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#11

Post by russellhltn »

I'll add another concern: Using/disclosing the email beyond what the member had desired. However, it was CHQ that decided to take the LDS Account information and push it to MLS, not any of us. :D
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nutterb
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#12

Post by nutterb »

lajackson wrote:Most of our auxiliary leaders do not understand bcc. They just put everybody in the To box and fire away. It is a bit disconcerting.

As for your e-mail address, I use two approaches, depending on the situation. The easiest way is to ignore the e-mail. Take no action. Act as if you never received it. If you are asked, you did not provide an e-mail address for them to contact you, so they need to phone, write, speak to you at church, whatever.

The other way is to bounce it back, telling them they are not authorized to use it. My "computer" does that all the time. I use that approach when I am feeling feisty and really do want them to wonder whether or not I got the e-mail.
As amusing as that would be, I decided it wasn't a battle worth fighting. At least the Elders' Quorum is pretty good about using their list for official purposes, unlike that other auxiliary. :rolleyes:
nutterb
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#13

Post by nutterb »

rmrichesjr wrote:How many of those auxiliary presidents will have undetected malware hiding on their home computers that will harvest email addresses and sent them to spammers?
Now why did you have to go and rain on the parade! But a very valid point.
boomerbubba wrote:Just as a matter of protocol, a website administrator may need more authority than his own to disseminate data exported from MLS. Ultimately that is up to the bishop's discretion, as I understand it. But as long as he is okay with sharing this data with various auxiliary leaders, I see no problem.

The email addresses themselves are provided voluntarily by LDS Account registrants. I assume that the LDS Account Privacy Policy is being examined, and if need be modified, congruent with the announced policy of propagating that data to MLS.
I'm unlucky enough to be both the website administrator and the clerk. And I'm also lucky enough--well, perhaps unlucky as well--to have a bishop who lets me do whatever I want. To be perfectly honest, I probably won't tell him anything about this because then he'd stop asking me to send his e-mails and start trying to send them himself, and there's no way I could get him to understand the concept of BCC.


Thanks to all for the comments.
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aebrown
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#14

Post by aebrown »

RussellHltn wrote:I'll add another concern: Using/disclosing the email beyond what the member had desired. However, it was CHQ that decided to take the LDS Account information and push it to MLS, not any of us. :D
I was actually thinking of that issue when I mentioned "or other privacy concerns." I do agree that it's not our decision, so we just need to work with this new procedure.

I would note that the current LDS Account Privacy Policy says:
After registration, we may share User's email address with other Church affiliated Web sites, and Users may be sent informative emails from those sites.
It seems to be a bit of a stretch to say that MLS is "an affiliated Web site"; it would probably be good to update the Privacy Policy to make it clear that the email address might be shared with Church administrative applications, as well. The Privacy Policy does say that it can be updated at any time.
RossEvans
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#15

Post by RossEvans »

Alan_Brown wrote:I was actually thinking of that issue when I mentioned "or other privacy concerns." I do agree that it's not our decision, so we just need to work with this new procedure. ...

It seems to be a bit of a stretch to say that MLS is "an affiliated Web site"; it would probably be good to update the Privacy Policy to make it clear that the email address might be shared with Church administrative applications, as well. The Privacy Policy does say that it can be updated at any time.

And that's precisely the policy statement I was thinking about when I said above, "I assume that the LDS Account Privacy Policy is being examined, and if need be modified, congruent with the announced policy of propagating that data to MLS." That policy was obviously not drafted lightly -- there are even multiple versions of the policy to accommodate different legal environments in different countries -- so surely that is being looked at.
TinMan
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#16

Post by TinMan »

I am looking to see if there is something in the privacy policy when a ward member signs up for the ward website that spells out what they can and cannot do in regards to others information.

For example: We have someone who has "acquired" the email addresses for the ward members from the ward website and is sending them requests to volunteer at the local food kitchen and other things she is interested in. Including political messages like "Come to the meet the candidate night."

Her argument is "it isn't commercial." Mine is "it is non-church use." I would like to be able to see what the agreement is when you sign up.

Thanks.
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aebrown
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#17

Post by aebrown »

TinMan wrote:I would like to be able to see what the agreement is when you sign up.
Here is a direct link to the User Agreement for All Web Site Users, which users are required to agree to before using the ward and stake websites. It says:
To use this Web site, you must follow these policies and conditions:
  • I will use the information on this Web site only for Church use.
  • I will not use the information on this Web site for political, business, or commercial purposes.
  • I understand that participation in the membership directory portion of this Web site is purely voluntary. If I do not want personal directory information about my family or me to appear on the Web site, I will contact my bishop or branch president or clerk.
  • I will not post any information or images from this Web site onto any other Web site.
  • I will not share my user name and password with anyone.
That seems to be pretty clear that the information is "only for Church use," and if that isn't obvious enough, "political" purposes are explicitly prohibited.
Questions that can benefit the larger community should be asked in a public forum, not a private message.
TinMan
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#18

Post by TinMan »

Thank you. Exactly what I was looking for.

Does that appear when you sign for for an LDS Account, or when you sign up for the ward website?
techgy
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#19

Post by techgy »

TinMan wrote:I am looking to see if there is something in the privacy policy when a ward member signs up for the ward website that spells out what they can and cannot do in regards to others information.

For example: We have someone who has "acquired" the email addresses for the ward members from the ward website and is sending them requests to volunteer at the local food kitchen and other things she is interested in. Including political messages like "Come to the meet the candidate night."

Her argument is "it isn't commercial." Mine is "it is non-church use." I would like to be able to see what the agreement is when you sign up.

Thanks.
At the bottom of the lds.org page there's a link to a Rights and Use information page that addresses this issue. I suggest you begin with that.
Have you read the Code of Conduct?
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aebrown
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#20

Post by aebrown »

TinMan wrote:Thank you. Exactly what I was looking for.

Does that appear when you sign for for an LDS Account, or when you sign up for the ward website?
That is the agreement for the current ward and stake websites.

For new.lds.org, there is a separate privacy statement (quite similar to the one on lds.org that Techgy linked to). The relevant statement there is:
Access to the ward and stake Web sites is limited to us and the members and leaders of the ward or stake. Access to the ward and stake websites is only permitted for non-commercial, general Church functions.
That version doesn't explicitly prohibit political use, but it does make it clear that the information is to be used only for Church functions.
Questions that can benefit the larger community should be asked in a public forum, not a private message.
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