Tripadvisor

[eccen4291]

I returned a couple of months ago from a long stint working overseas. I stayed in a hotel and the reception staff farted around with the booking whilst there, and towards the end I got fed up with them. I posted a review that I thought was balanced on Tripadvisor. The review I left was fairly anonymous, only a username left, and made no mention of the company that I work for. The account I used had facebook settings disabled, no friend sharing etc so difficult to see how anyone could have guessed that it was me. Only other bit of information left was that I live in London.

Fast-forward a couple of months, and I've received an email from my manager out there asking me to take the review down. He has somehow managed to correctly deduce that the review was by me, my question is how.

Does anyone know what Tripadvisor's data protection policy is with respect to sharing email addresses with 3rd parties. Could the hotel staff have alerted him to the review?

If Tripadvisor does not give email addresses and personal information out to 3rd parties willy nilly and he has just guessed correctly then I'd prefer to deny all knowledge of having written the review. I thought internet forums such as Tripadvisor allowed the exchange of full and frank reviews away from any unreasonable reprisals and I'm a bit annoyed that this has somehow happened.

Any advice gratefully received!

[Shinobi]

Could it be the length of time stayed in the hotel mentioned in the story? Seems pretty crazy, I thought the only response that hotels could do was a response.

Best of luck

[STW2010]

Refuse to take it down?

Or take it down and put another one up, but with dates for when you weren't there. People considering using them still get the balanced view that way.

Or just take it down, and move on.

[toon10]

I'd take it down, your job is more important. I'd also ask your boss how he knew it was your review. It may just be comments you made at work have matched with the review and he/she has made the deduction. If anything else I'd be stating how unhappy you are with data sharing policy.

[MotorcyclesFish]

I don't understand the grounds he has for asking you to take it down.