[diversity] Proposal for anonymous gender metric question now on RIPE Labs

Denis,

At 2017-06-20 00:20:22 +0000
denis walker <ripedenis at yahoo.co.uk> wrote:

> Sorry for making this personal, but I grew up in a small working
> class town where, had my sexuality been known at that time, people
> would have kicked the s**t out of me. I had an older gay cousin and
> even some people within the family made fun of him. But that was
> nothing compared to what can happen to people in many parts of the
> RIPE region if it is known they have any gender diversity issues. My
> cousin was laughed at by some members of the family. In some places
> in 2017, members of a family will murder relatives to protect the
> 'honour' of their family.

I feel a lot of sympathy for anyone living in an oppressive situation.
I don't deny that people are tortured, killed, and their families
harmed for many unjust reasons - including their gender identity.

> There seems to be some strange disjoint here between 'collecting
> data' and what this data actually means. As a software developer and
> analyst I also love to play around with data and find out interesting
> things. Especially when the results lead on to some significant
> change or improvement. I did so much of that with the contents of the
> RIPE Database for so many years. But we are not collecting details of
> age and colour preferences for shoes. This is sensitive, personal
> data. If it is leaked or hacked it can cost lives. I am not trying to
> be melodramatic here. This is the reality of the age we are currently
> living in.

I don't think there is an issue. I disagree with your repeated
assertion that it is especially sensitive and can cost lives.

When I buy an airline ticket I have to say "Dhr." ("sir") or
"Mevr." ("madam"). When I check into a hotel I have to hand over my
passport, which has my sex on it. Many driver's licenses have sex on
them. Swedish national identity number is different depending on
whether you are a man or a female.

I'm sure others on the list can think of dozens of more examples where
your gender or sex are non-private.

Further, as has been repeatedly pointed out, this is opt-in. Anyone who
feels concerned should not opt-in.

I know you feel like people will feel pressured to participate and put
false information in, but I cannot imagine any scenario where we could
make people feel 100% safe with an Internet-based registration system.
So the only options we are left with are to not gather information
because maybe someone might feel pressured to lie, or to go ahead with a
reasonable balance of privacy & information gathering.
 
> I don't know why we are even having to have this conversation. There
> are reputable companies that will operate surveys and the data they
> collect is disconnected from any identifiable data. Use one of them.
> You simply cannot take short cuts with such sensitive data.

We are having this conversation because there are differing opinions. I
think that I understand your concerns, I just do not agree that they
are valid.

Nevertheless, I am interested to hear of what your suggestions are for
such reputable companies, or at least what selection criteria you would
recommend for choosing one.

Cheers,

--
Shane
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