Reliable Internet Services

(What features an internet social service should have ?)

Version:   1.2   22.01.2021
 

  1. Confidentiality

          The service does not forward, much less sell nor does it use your personal data for purposes other than those specified in the contract with the user. (for more precise legal definitions see GDPR )   more ...
  Confidentiality of the mere fact of access is taken into account depending on the operating mode, because it is a social network (see point 7).

It practically means that data about who, when and from what place used the serve, e.g. read-access are protected and access to them is in accordance with an agreement with the service user.
 

  2. Data security

          Invisible to others, user's personal data is not transfered outside of the server. This means that data such as IP, email, other identification data, if they are not already visible to others in accordance with the contract, are not only not transferred to other services, companies or entities, but they physically don't leave the server.   more ...
  Of course, administrators do backups, but here the justification depends on where the copies go. Many servers do backups to their own disks. Another example is the decision to apply externals anti-spam filters. In this case, access data (and false attempts of such access as well) are carried outside of the server, which is a breach of above condition.  

  3. No trade of attention

          The service does not process (e.g. within the so-called "business model") the attention data or the user's associations of which he is unconscious. These data, if collected, remain confidential (see point 1)

This practically means no commercial advertising. Trading of attention and association data is the foundation of todays "business models" of most websites. They all build their functionality on abuse.   more ...
  A weaker condition would mean that the attention data can be the subject of processing, but only due to the conscious agreement with the user and only for the needs of the website itself.  

  4. No artificial reality

          The service does not intentionally create a false reality of which (and especially for which purpose), the user does not have full awareness.   more ...
  This is the "other side of the coin" compared to the previous point. Controlling the behavior, attitude and feelings of the user with data sent to him to create certain reality, like the consumption need, or political attitudes, etc. is prohibited.  

  5. Avoid propaganda

          By propaganda we understand the forceful imposition of content with technical methods contradicting the current, live exchange of content between participants.

The service must avoids promoting content. Due to the condition of non-censorship (see art.8) handling of propaganda must take place on the content level first.

A servis that meets this condition avoids "formalized beliefs", for example, "beliefs pretended on a paid job". The latter can well be classified as spam.   more ...
  Distinguishing between authentic and propagated content is and will be increasingly the big question of our culture.  

  6. No fake accounts

          The service does not allow false identifications pretending to be real human, e.g.
  1. providing or suggesting false personal information
  2. profiles generated by robots pretending to be human
  3. multiple account registrations of one user under different nicknames
  more ...
  It is difficult to meet this and the next condition without assistance from institutions established by law to maintain identification data of humans, like residents of the commune.  

  7. Anonymity only if necessary

          The service does not allow anonymous user profiles in the case of important social matters. It means every user is known to others not as an anonymous nickname, but at least with real name. this condition regards social content, like politics. The exchange of socially relevant content must provide a real, well known author.   more ...
  Anonyms are allowed, but only if justified, eg. when the topic is private, intimate, health, etc.  

  8. No content censorship

          There is no content censorship.

"Censorship" of pure technical matter is allowed, such as anti-spam filters. However, the very distinction is important - user content cannot be removed for the sake of contenti itself, only for "technical" reasons such as spam.   more ...
  In particular, banning can only happen for the reasons of technical necessities, e.g. the overload of processing, other inability to operate, and never for a merit reasons.  

  9. Transparent ownership and financing structure

          The service has a clearly defined owner (not a "substitute") and transparent financing, i.e. it is well known who is responsible for it and what is the source of financing.   more ...
  Th funding for a service cannot be related by a "business model" with the content itself. For example, no "sponsored truths", etc. are honored by this service.  

10. Open Source software

          The service uses the "Open Source" software, ie it is publicly known what functions and how the service software is implemented. There are no hidden functions.   more ...
  Every detail of processing is known to the user of such service. He knows what and how happens with his data. This regards not only the service administrator, who has full control over the data transformation process, but also the service user, who can check what data and how are collected, stored and performed.

It is true, hardly anyone will be interested in reading all the source code, but many will want to know important details of this code, and the fact that it is happening publicly guarantees that the software is complete and there are no holes in the software nor abusees in it.
 

11. Using open standards

          The service is built on open standards, i.e. clearly defined rules that anyone can use, not on proprietary limited solutions. There are no financially seized "copyrights"   more ...
  The service respects the inadmissibility of trading of author's rights that is, the status of the author and the author's rights cannot be separated from each other.  

12. Confidentiality maintained by an algorithm

          Data confidentiality is algorithmic, not hidden. There are no "thieves only" accesses, ie access restrictions that only a professional can overcome, and there are no "back doors", ie secret accesses only for manufacturer, etc.   more ...
  Example - "login password database"  

13. Responsibility by a human

          The service clearly states a human responsible for it (not "procedures" nor "other bodies") and the user can always contact this responsible human while the service is running.   more ...
  The user does not pay for any contact regarding security  

14. No incomprehensible legal contracts

          The use of the service does not require agreement of incomprehensible legal conditions. For example, registration does not force the acceptance of long, complex legal contracts, for which evaluation requires knowledge, which the user does not possesses like specialist legal knowledge. The user is only bound by the conditions that he understands.   more ...
  Likewise, there are also no other charges that appear during use. All costs are accurately determined prior to the registration.  

15. Brak wyłudzania niekoniecznych danych

          The service is managed on the basis of clearly defined rules, stating access rights, etc. and these rules are a topic of discussion well accessible for all users

16. Transparent administration rules