2018-Message From Watchtower Informant!

by Atlantis 28 Replies latest jw friends

  • purrpurr

    "This data they acquired without member’s knowledge or

    How? How did they get this data? Did they stalk the person? Hack the person?

  • Atlantis


    Very good question and I am sure others would want to know to. I'll see what I can find out, or others on the board who have worked at WT Headquarters might already know.


  • sparrowdown

    Any hard information they have is stuff personally handed over such as name, address, cong, year of baptism, publisher status inactive irregular, restrictions, reproved etc, marital status, publisher history, previous congs, possibly job details, blood card information, reason for DS DA etc, etc.

    Any other information would be personal opinions and extrapolations of your situation or personality formed by the elders whether true or not or anything the boe felt was noteworthy and relevant to your spiritualy such as menatl health issues, sexual preference or personal struggles maybe with smoking, porn etc.

  • Amelia Ashton
    Amelia Ashton

    I wonder if they keep copies of any posts or comments from former members on sites like this.

  • jwundubbed

    I think I'm missing something again. Why do we care if they have 'records' on us? What power does that give them over us? What can they do with that information?

  • sparrowdown

    It's more who will they share the info with and who else could have access to it. Personal information sharing is valuable to all sorts of groups it's big business these days.

    The personal dirt/stuff would be useful to their lawyers and legal department if a member or former member turns whistle blower, makes allegations and embarks on some course of legal action as an individual or as a class action.

  • FatFreek 2005
    FatFreek 2005

    I don't care as I've been out for 41 years. However, if my simply making a request for my records will impose a financial burden / hardship on this borganization, I'm probably going to do it. Multiply my request times thousands of others making their request and they're going to be in a world of financial hurt.

    If I, in fact, get a copy of my information I will then be inclined to post it here. It will be interesting to find out the reason for my df as they never called me or notified me via postal service. I learned about it via one of my sons.

  • jwundubbed

    Personal information is valuable... when it is formatted in easy-to-access types of information. Does anyone know what software they use to store the information? After seeing their website I have serious doubts that they would store the information in any usable format.

    I'm not worried about the JWs having my information. There are so many groups mining the personal information from people in so many ways (facebook, phone data, etc.) that I find it impossible to really care that they have my information. You know the government already has 'records' on us, no matter what government you are under. I am certain that the IRS and the FBI have records on me already... and so far... there hasn't been a single reason to get all hyper about it. I can't stop it. I can't stop it being shared. And what does it really do to me? It hurts my credit score which is already so far in the crapper that additional information is merely annoying because they insist on reminding me of it.

    So... this seems like a big deal to a lot of people, but I just don't see any reason to worry about it. I definitely do not care if they have a record on me. They have no power over me and keeping records on me only fills up their paper/digital files. It doesn't hurt me in the least.

    And as to being a whistle blower... if I can be scared away by them having kept personal information on me, then I have no right to be a whistle-blower. You have to have a hard shell and hard skin if you are going to call a powerful group to the floor. You better be ready for them to fight dirty. They might even make stuff up. It is way better to acknowledge that they fight dirty and have your answer ready to defend yourself against that kind of crap behavior. Them keeping records makes them look bad, especially if they keep records on people who grew up in their organization. That is all kinds of creepy.

    So where does the Freedom of Information Act fall into all of this. My understanding is that if the Information Act applies to a group, they can't deny you access to your records but they can charge you for the copies they send you.

  • doubtfull1799

    A couple fo us here in Australia have made formal requests to access our data under Australia privacy laws (which are quite similar to what is happening in Europe if not exactly the same) and also the Society's data protection policy as stated on their website.

    Please join us and put pressure on them to act lawfully under these new laws as they claim they will.

  • Gorbatchov

    So every publisher gets an internal ID.

    What will they do when someone stops preaching and losing the publisher label?

    What they can use is big data. Trends in activity.

    What kinds of jw’s are most valuable for the organization.

    What is someone worth? Spiritual, financial and organizational.


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