I think in aggregate, it helps. And it's hard to not be anonymous when you can be put on a black list.
It's not like you're converting anecdotes to data in the typical sense. It's more that it illustrates the kind of abuse that can happen, and why people are so concerned.
In some ways, it beats harping on ideals of privacy when you're dealing with organizations who are concerned with nothing but pure pragmatism. You can draw connections from these incidents to the ideals to show that these aren't isolated incidents, but a pattern that emerges when we ignore some ideals to pursue others.
It's similar to the "bad apples" excuse applied to other disciplines -- yeah, you can say that a majority of police officers or investment bankers aren't total douchebags, but enough are that you have to look into why and what you should do about the problem. And the only way that happens is by pointing out particular incidents as they happen, over and over and over again.
It's not like you're converting anecdotes to data in the typical sense. It's more that it illustrates the kind of abuse that can happen, and why people are so concerned.
In some ways, it beats harping on ideals of privacy when you're dealing with organizations who are concerned with nothing but pure pragmatism. You can draw connections from these incidents to the ideals to show that these aren't isolated incidents, but a pattern that emerges when we ignore some ideals to pursue others.
It's similar to the "bad apples" excuse applied to other disciplines -- yeah, you can say that a majority of police officers or investment bankers aren't total douchebags, but enough are that you have to look into why and what you should do about the problem. And the only way that happens is by pointing out particular incidents as they happen, over and over and over again.