Re: PSA: Do not use "Reported-By" without reporter's approval

[Konstantin Ryabitsev <konstantin@linuxfoundation.org>]

On Wed, May 22, 2019 at 12:45:06PM -0700, Joe Perches wrote:
>> It is common courtesy to include this tagline when submitting 
>> patches:
>>
>> Reported-By: J. Doe <jdoe@example.com>
>>
>> Please ask the reporter's permission before doing so (even if they'd
>> submitted a public bugzilla report or sent a report to the mailing
>> list).
>
>I disagree with this.
>
>If the report is public, and lists like vger are public,
>then using a Reported-by: and/or a Link: are simply useful
>history and tracking information.

I'm perfectly fine with Link:, however Reported-By: usually has the 
person's name and email address (i.e. PII data per GDPR definition). If 
that person submitted the bug report via bugzilla.kernel.org or a 
similar resource, their expectation is that they can delete their 
account should they choose to to do so. However, if the patch containing 
Reported-By is committed to git, their PII becomes permanently and 
immutably recorded for any reasonable meaning of the word "forever."

Now, I'm pretty sure that a request to rebase git history to edit a 
commit message would be considered "unreasonable" under GDPR provisions, 
but a) it still eats up valuable time handling such requests and b) it's 
a consequence reporters are not aware of when they submit bug reports.  
So, my request to ask for permission before using "Reported-By" is not 
coming from any legal position, but from the perspective of courtesy to 
people submitting those reports.

-K