So, you are offering a prize equivalent to US $2.50? Not exactly an inspirational amount of money (though perhaps that is the point).
-Robert Rohde On Sun, Mar 29, 2015 at 3:25 PM, Brian <[email protected]> wrote: > I'm sure many of you recall the Netflix Prize > <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Netflix_Prize>. This is that, for Wikipedia! > > Although the initial goal of the Netflix Prize was to design a > collaborative filtering algorithm, it became notorious when the data was > used to de-anonymize Netflix users. Researchers proved that given just a > user's movie ratings on one site, you can plug those ratings into another > site, such as the IMDB. You can then take that information, and with some > Google searches and optionally a bit of cash (for websites that sell user > information, including, in some cases, their SSN) figure out who they are. > You could even drive up to their house and take a selfie with them, or > follow them to work and meet their boss and tell them about their views on > the topics they were editing. > > Here, we'll cut straight to the privacy chase. Using just the full history > dump of the English Wikipedia, excluding edits from any logged-in users, > identify five people. You must confirm their identities with them, and > privately prove to me that you've done this. I will then nominate you as > the winner and send you one million Satoshis (the smallest unit of Bitcoin, > times 1 million), in addition to updating this thread. > > I suspect this challenge will be very easy for anyone who is determined. > Indeed, even if MediaWiki no longer displayed IP addresses, there would > still be enough information to identify people. Completely getting rid of > the edit history would largely solve the problem. In the mean time, this > Prize will serve as a reminder that when Wikipedia says "Your IP address > will be publicly visible if you make any edits." what they mean is, "People > will probably be able to figure out where you live and embarrass you." > > An extra million Satoshis for each NSA employee that you identify. A full > bitcoin if you take a selfie with them. > > Let the games begin! > > Brian Mingus > _______________________________________________ > Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: > https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines > [email protected] > Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, > <mailto:[email protected]?subject=unsubscribe> _______________________________________________ Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines [email protected] Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, <mailto:[email protected]?subject=unsubscribe>
