You keep using this word 'continuous' but I don't think anyone else has.

The continuum notion was brought up by another AM in this post earlier in the current subthread.

Would you say that is 40% away from it or more like 80% away from it?

:-), I'd say, on the "other side of the line" away.

Therefore, seeing your IP address must not be allowed unless there is an extreme situation.

So you just implied that I'm allowed to see an IP address without the need of an extreme circumstance. What other breaches of private data can I make without invoking the zero-tollerance policy?

I've said from the very beginning that I understand that you and other admins must have access to and see private data. That is a given by the nature of the required tasks.

Sometimes I'm making those connections to try to reconstruct a user's behavior or to identify a user (perhaps so I can contact them). I don't think I've ever done this in what I would call an extreme situation.

If that isn't total and blatant disregard for your desired policy, then please show me where I've misread your description of it.

Yes, the purposeful reconstruction of identity and behavior is absolutely on the other side of the line unless a case could be made that it was a necessary evil to prevent some significant abuse or some such thing that couldn't be handled in another manner.

I'd kind of like a few more bright lines near here. I like bright lines when properly considered and well placed (when they are possible).

I think the line I just painted in the previous paragraph is pretty bright and clearly delineated. Not in absolute terms of what precisely constitues a significant or extreme circumstance (I was never asking for absolutes) but that at least a case could be made that such conditions were present prior to any purposeful breach.

But if you'd like to step back from your black-and-white stance, then we might still make progress in improving the clarity regarding issues of privacy or even the quality of policy.

I do not see my stance as any more (or less) black and white than yours. You draw the line at divulging private information (and I'm pretty sure you don't consider that to be a grey area). I draw it at using your necessary power to recover indentity and habits of users without some seriously good cause to justify that action.