# So why not personal legal and medical advice? **URL:** \ **Category:** About This Message Board\ **Created:** [September 4, 2009, 8:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-why-not-personal-legal-and-medical-advice/508905 "2009-09-04T20:54:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Gfactor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/9de053/32.png) [@Gfactor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gfactor)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2009, 7:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-why-not-personal-legal-and-medical-advice/508905/21 "2009-09-05T19:52:56Z")
> [@IAmNotSpartacus](#): > > Yeah, guy was asking about his own legal situation, and even asked one of the people who replied to him if they were a lawyer or not. I thought that took it from general to specific. I’m afraid I have to disagree with your interpretation of the thread here (we are 1-1 today). Here is the OP: > [@](#): > > Legal question: Possible legal issues arising from online backup > Can there be any legal issues with online backup? > > That is, is there some document that, if I have on my laptop in my home, it is fine, but if I back it up online, on some company’s server in another state, I may be violating some law? > > Simple example would be pornography, but that’s not what I had in mind. Any other classes of documents which would have this issue? > > Maybe a document from a company with which I signed an NDA agreement? > If I back up the document to an online server, can the company sue me for “disseminating” information about their company? > > Any other cases? > > ETA: Assume the data you are backing up is encrypted using the strongest encryption available. He’s asking a bunch of questions, all based on his first, general one: “is there some document that, if I have on my laptop in my home, it is fine, but if I back it up online, on some company’s server in another state, I may be violating some law?” Somebody points out that it’s unlikely he’d have trouble with a backup company because they don’t give a crap. [QUOTE=dolphinboy] These online backup companies don’t really care what files you want to backup. They just provide offsite storage capabilities. I don’t see how what you stored would matter to them. [/QUOTE] And he clarifies that his question deals with other parties beyond the backup company. He gives an illustration: > [@](#): > > I’m not saying the online backup companies would care. I’m saying a company I signed an NDA with might care that I backed up some of their information to an online service (even if I encrypt it) ---
**Author:** ![Gfactor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/9de053/32.png) [@Gfactor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gfactor)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2009, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-why-not-personal-legal-and-medical-advice/508905/22 "2009-09-05T19:58:35Z")
By the way, the rules we are discussing apply in General Questions. Similar questions often get posted in In My Humble Opinion, which has no posted rules. ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2009, 11:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-why-not-personal-legal-and-medical-advice/508905/23 "2009-09-05T23:04:03Z")
So GQ is a statute jurisdiction and IMHO is a common law jurisidiction? 😛 ---
**Author:** ![C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b2d939/32.png) [@C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/C_K_Dexter_Haven)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2009, 2:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-why-not-personal-legal-and-medical-advice/508905/24 "2009-09-07T14:58:35Z")
Also, message boards do not provide full information. On a message board, you post the symptoms you know about, and you get responses based on what you posted. Ignore, for the moment, the possibility of piss-poor responses, pretend every poster responding is a doctor with House’s encyclopediac knowledge. However, you don’t mention some other symptom, perhaps because you’re not aware of it, perhaps because you’ve had it for years. You’re basically looking for a medical analysis based on incomplete information. The same is true for legal advice. There are general rules that we can certainly discuss, but your specific case may have all sorts of complications that make it different from the general rule. In short, a Message Board is fine for getting general information, but not for getting a specific solution to your specific problem – we don’t know all the details. ---
**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2009, 3:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-why-not-personal-legal-and-medical-advice/508905/25 "2009-09-07T15:09:07Z")
With respect to: > [@C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](#): > > In short, a Message Board is fine for getting general information, but not for getting a specific solution to your specific problem – we don’t know all the details. I see nothing wrong with asking for or giving advice on a message board, but it would be unwise to use that as the only source if it affected an important decision of yours. ---
**Author:** ![C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b2d939/32.png) [@C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/C_K_Dexter_Haven)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2009, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-why-not-personal-legal-and-medical-advice/508905/26 "2009-09-07T19:58:26Z")
> [@Musicat](#): > > With respect to:I see nothing wrong with asking for or giving advice on a message board, but it would be unwise to use that as the only source if it affected an important decision of yours. Nor as the main source. Advice from Message Boards are not much different from advice from your friends at the bar or (say) consulting an encyclopedia. The medical encyclopedia (or message board) can tell you that chest pains are one potential sign of heart attack [general advice]; but it can’t tell whether YOUR chest pains are [specific advice.] The legal encyclopedia can tell you that gender discrimination is not legal [general advice], but can’t tell you whether your employer is guilty of it [specific advice.] [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-why-not-personal-legal-and-medical-advice/508905.md?page=1)