@christian
Gotcha. But how is consent then confirmed? How can I document consent when taking action on another person’s published content?
If we can confirm consent then yes, it is not missing. But otherwise it appears to come down to drawing assumptions about what another person intends or expects when they post their content.
My concern is that taking action on content that another person’s has posted and repurposing it for use or display in ways that the person could not be expected to intend or expect, can lead to harm that could have been avoided with proper consent.
I feel many are arguing that one should always expect online content to be able to be copied and pop up anywhere (not saying you are). I understand this sentiment. But it assumes a lot of general understanding that I don’t believe is fair for a broad population. It also disregards the need for groups of people to participate without being subjected to this consequence.
So if a person did not expect repurposing of their content, and did not approve it, at what point is it considered consent, if there is no confirmation or advisement they can become aware of before posting.
The interesting thing here is that there are likely a myriad of ways that content can be repurposed in ways that do not harm and are respectful. But that does not mean there was consent.
I’m hoping for a broader recognition that there are many things happening where consent is not present, and that there are likely ways that people get hurt because of this that is often not considered, or considered to ”not matter enough” because of the ”few numbers” of people potentially being put in harm’s way.
(The main trigger for my post was search engines being created by following people and then putting their posts in a database - posts then becoming searchable by people from instances that they had blocked)
Note, because it’s me, I’m talking about ethics rather than law, as there are many countries where there is a huge lack of protection under law, which of course is one of the dilemmas of participating online.
So when I talk about consent I refer to the act of working with the intent of non-maleficence rather than what is necessarily regulated by law in a given context.