Where did I get the idea? Chalk it up to naive user expectation. The pages that I see are customised for my account (e.g. vote buttons, monk pictures, nodelets, etc.). So the script that generates pages knows the timestamps in server-time (or univeral time); and it knows (or has access to) my local time adjustment. Doing the adjustment while generating the page won't reveal my information to anyone else; so its not a privacy issue.

I agree with the person who says its not a big deal; but if I was writing the scripts, my hubris would make me add these little details that add up to quality. --Dave.