Housekeeping Part 2: Reuters Second Life privacy policy
By Adam Reuters
As part of the roll-out of the updated Reuters Floor and Wall Displays (see below), we are releasing a privacy policy that specifically addresses our products and services in Second Life.
Questions and comments are welcome; please email adamreuters at gmail.com.
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Reuters respects your privacy and seeks to protect your personal data, including details about your Second Life avatar.
Data collected by Reuters
The Reuters Heads Up Display (HUD) and Floor and Wall Displays communicate with Reuters servers to retrieve headlines and other news data. During this process, the Second Life application automatically generates certain avatar-specific information.
Reuters collects and stores some of this usage information in order to measure how its Second Life services are being used and to manage and improve these services. Data that may be stored in this way includes avatar names, avatar ID numbers, in-world location, starting dates for Second Life use, and whether users have payment information on file with Linden Lab.
In order to protect your identity, this usage information is stored in an anonymous form (see technical details below).
Reuters will also maintain a separate database containing the names of visitors to Reuters Island and owners of HUDs and Floor and Wall Displays. This data will be used only for in-world product support and will never be shared with any third party.
Anonymized data
Avatar names, ID numbers and other identifying information are anonymized with a one-way hash code that makes it impossible to identify the user.
HUD or Floor and Wall Display usage data will be stored on Reuters servers after being anonymized. The data will never be shared with any third party except in an aggregated form or as required by law.
For users who pass by the Floor and Wall Displays, avatar names are never permanently stored. Reuters will temporarily record anonymized names in order to count unique visitors, but the data is discarded at the end of each day.
Real life information
Reuters cannot now and will not in not in the future attempt to make any connection between your Second Life avatar and your real-life identity, unless you specifically request it.
Technical details
Before storing anonymous data, information such as your avatar name or ID number is scrambled using a one-way hash, specifically, the MD5 algorithm. One-way hashes cannot be reversed; given an MD5 hash, there is no function that can be performed to obtain the original data.
Additional information
Reuters’ standard Internet privacy policy can be found here.
