It seems like "private" could be defined as, "This is my stuff, and if you want access to it, then come ask me. It's okay if you accidentally access it, but if

It seems like "private" could be defined as, "This is my stuff, and if you want access to it, then come ask me. It's okay if you accidentally access it, but if you want to intentionally look through it, ask me first." It seems hard to argue that most people wouldn't feel that way about their own private stuff. I fully understood the implications of giving you the data. I'm a fan of your work and your writing, and I had full confidence in your stewardship of my data. Essentially, I was totally okay with you being the admin, or anyone you decided to hire, and I trusted you to take reasonable steps not to look through your users' private data unless it was to track down some bug, test some new feature, or some other incidental task that was unrelated to analyzing that private data. What I didn't expect was that you'd specifically and intentionally create a program whose sole purpose was to analyze private user data and report on the results. Why didn't I expect that? The only answer is that I should have expected that. I just didn't realize you were that type of developer. It was a bit shocking that someone who has trumpeted the benefits of sticking with businesses that haven't taken VC investment would explicitly break their users' trust like this. In this case, you have both the legal right and the moral high ground. But intentionally seeking through your own users' private data without getting consent isn't something that can easily be forgotten.