From LJ Abuse team

[purpletigron]

Please post your full name, date of birth, full address, and telephone number (plus cell phone number, if you have one) to your journal, as the first chronological entry (backdated) in your journal, with Private security, and leave a note in your userinfo indicating that you've done so. The life you save may be your own. In the event of an emergency, LiveJournal administrators can view this information -- and please believe that it is only used in the event of an absolute emergency. But you'd be surprised how many of those there are on a service with four million users. And in an emergency situation, every second counts.

Yes, the Abuse team occasionally hears of users who plan to commit suicide, but there are other situations where having this information could possibly be of use to the police. There have been, for instance, phone posts that were interrupted by physical violence before, and other such situations. The Abuse team often gets reports of these things, and oftentimes, there is nothing we can do to help, because we can't find you.

Please take a moment of your time and make this post. Your privacy will never be violated except in absolute need, and though we hope it will never be necessary, it could prove to be very necessary indeed.

Comments

[green-amber.livejournal.com]

Is this new?

Does LJ routinely scan our posts inc our private ones to see if we may need intervention? Do they allot manpower to this? or would this be in response to someone emailing and saying say, this person is in danger from a violent spouse?


This isn't a pejorative coment : I am just really interested to know. As a privacy lawyer, for example.

[maureenkspeller.livejournal.com]

I seem to recall a case a while back when an LJ-er apparently posted a suicide note, and concerned friends got on to LJ Central, who were able to track down said person in time, using their privileged knowledge. The general presentation of the situation was, I recall, that they will bust a gut and beyond to track someone down when the occasion demands, and this did, but I would be most surprised to learn they were routinely scanning posts to check on people. On the other hand, if someone is posting to a private or journal not read by others, one does wonder quite how they would find out ... keyword searches?

[purpletigron.livejournal.com]

My understanding is that LJ doesn't scan anything, but wish to be able to act appropriately when individual users report concerns about journal entries. Professionally, I'm sure the LJ 'Abuse' team (presumably named from an original task to police disputes between posters) would be prepared to discuss their policies and experiences with you.

[green-amber.livejournal.com]

I am thinking about that.