Profile removal and account deletion

[clasicks]

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[kawasaki161]

While we're at it can we request all our data according to the new gdpr guidelines?

[xondat]

While we're at it can we request all our data according to the new gdpr guidelines?

I'd like this too.

But let's be real lol

[ghostjuggernaut]

You absolutely can if you meet the wickets. Otherwise geekhack would be in a world of hurt for fines etc.

[algernon]

But let's be real lol

Conforming to the GDPR is not a choice one can have, as long as they have EU users. You either conform to it, or deny access to EU users. But as GDPR is in effect already, and GeekHack is still accessible to EU users, there really is no choice there.

(And yes, if it comes to that, I'll go and invoke the GDPR with every tool I have at my disposal. I hope I won't have to, though.)

[SpAmRaY]

But let's be real lol

Conforming to the GDPR is not a choice one can have, as long as they have EU users. You either conform to it, or deny access to EU users. But as GDPR is in effect already, and GeekHack is still accessible to EU users, there really is no choice there.

(And yes, if it comes to that, I'll go and invoke the GDPR with every tool I have at my disposal. I hope I won't have to, though.)

Some people just want to watch the world burn....

Sent from my SM-G930V using Tapatalk

[kawasaki161]

Some people just want to watch the world burn....

Dw the forum will be gone and the domain will be used for a chinese site in a month anyways. Just interested in what of my data gets sold to them.

[chuckdee]

But let's be real lol

Conforming to the GDPR is not a choice one can have, as long as they have EU users. You either conform to it, or deny access to EU users. But as GDPR is in effect already, and GeekHack is still accessible to EU users, there really is no choice there.

(And yes, if it comes to that, I'll go and invoke the GDPR with every tool I have at my disposal. I hope I won't have to, though.)

Some people just want to watch the world burn....

Sent from my SM-G930V using Tapatalk

As long as he waits until there is a new owner, or there is a hint of a deal going through, I don't think it's a bad thing.

[clasicks]

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[shadowrealmwarez]

i guess i could change all my post to "Please give more money to iMav to unlock this post"

I love this.

[dimo]

All the hundreds of the active GB and IC threads

this is a mess

[Findecanor]

When deleting a user, please do ask if their posts should stay or be removed.
Old posts can have useful information in them.

[shadowrealmwarez]

When deleting a user, please do ask if their posts should stay or be removed.
Old posts can have useful information in them.

I think the objective is to simply nuke the whole account, posts and all would be wiped or replaced with gibberish. Similar to how the one for Reddit works https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/nuke-reddit-history/aclagjkmidmkcdhkhlicmgkgmpgccaod

[clasicks]

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[AMongoose]

guess its time to start manually erasing.

Is there no other option based moderators? I know access is limited but is there really no option to delete my posts and account?

Aren't there backups if you manually erase it?

[clasicks]

Please give more money to iMav to unlock this post

[Findecanor]

When deleting a user, please do ask if their posts should stay or be removed.
Old posts can have useful information in them.

I think the objective is to simply nuke the whole account, posts and all would be wiped or replaced with gibberish.

You're missing my point.

I think that the user who wants to have his account removed should be given the choice between "Delete all my posts" and "Do not delete posts".
There might be reasons for leaving without having it all deleted.

[Sup]

i'd like to delete my account as well don't want any of my traces and information being used against me for advertisements or any other goal. PS delete all my data. I think i will start a new "Geekhack" with phpBB  .

[JP]

Brb...starts new gekhack

[noisyturtle]

How long till GH starts offering lootboxes?

[clasicks]

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[Coreda]

How long till GH starts offering lootboxes?

Good ol' grab bags

[Glod]

As a person that works with companies on GDPR compliance investigations (among other types of investigations), this place is an absolute nightmare.

You really have no choice but to nuke it. I am dead serious.

So much EU user data thrown across fulltext in posts, PMs, linked google docs (those links are also a no no); GDPR compliance is more than just removing a user account. it is not like there is a push button redaction tool for SMbb full text content; you have to scan SQL for named entities to bulk redact and hope that your regex is good enough. And also you have all the backups to deal with. Good Luck. Sure you can make arguments that it would never happen for a community website like this, GDPR doesn't matter, etc--fine, I hope that I am wrong.

[Sup]

I think i am gonna remake Geekhack like the way it should be with updated icon's. Got the Domain Geekhack.EU ready and it will be hosted in the US Miami Beach.  If there is any interest i will put more time into it.

[heyitsqi]

As a person that works with companies on GDPR compliance investigations (among other types of investigations), this place is an absolute nightmare.

You really have no choice but to nuke it. I am dead serious.

So much EU user data thrown across fulltext in posts, PMs, linked google docs (those links are also a no no); GDPR compliance is more than just removing a user account. it is not like there is a push button redaction tool for SMbb full text content; you have to scan SQL for named entities to bulk redact and hope that your regex is good enough. And also you have all the backups to deal with. Good Luck. Sure you can make arguments that it would never happen for a community website like this, GDPR doesn't matter, etc--fine, I hope that I am wrong.

I don't think you're wrong honestly. I also work with GDPR. It's a total PITA as I doubt many of the required necessities for it aren't there or even potentially possible with this forum software.

[chuckdee]

https://theadminzone.com/threads/gdpr-helper-for-smf.147378/

https://www.smfhacks.com/gdprpro.php

SMF is very capable.  It's just not used to it's potential here.

[Findecanor]

I just pruned my Personal Messages. Lots of memories there, but it had to go. Can't let that fall into the hands of some data mining firm.

That is provided that iMav does not give them any backup !! Then they would have it and I don't.

[heyitsqi]

https://theadminzone.com/threads/gdpr-helper-for-smf.147378/

https://www.smfhacks.com/gdprpro.php

SMF is very capable.  It's just not used to it's potential here.

Do note that the creator of said plugin does not guarantee GDPR compliance. Granted it’s probably enough for this forum.

[chuckdee]

https://theadminzone.com/threads/gdpr-helper-for-smf.147378/

https://www.smfhacks.com/gdprpro.php

SMF is very capable.  It's just not used to it's potential here.

Do note that the creator of said plugin does not guarantee GDPR compliance. Granted it’s probably enough for this forum.

Do note also that one would expect them to say that to clear them of any responsibility.  You'd have to use your own judgement to make that determination.

[heyitsqi]

https://theadminzone.com/threads/gdpr-helper-for-smf.147378/

https://www.smfhacks.com/gdprpro.php

SMF is very capable.  It's just not used to it's potential here.

Do note that the creator of said plugin does not guarantee GDPR compliance. Granted it’s probably enough for this forum.

Do note also that one would expect them to say that to clear them of any responsibility.  You'd have to use your own judgement to make that determination.

Of course. I just don’t want anyone to be like oh this is all we need to be GDPR compliant! There’s a lot more to GDPR than just what the plugin does hence why quite a number of places will just ban EU users (such as LA times) while they become fully compliant.

[davkol]

Interested in nuking my account too.

[manitoid]

You all realize this is pointless now right?
Massdrop already owns all your information and even f you "nuke" your account, all this info is still in the backups that Massdrop already owns, plus you gave away all rights to the content of your posts when you signed up.

[Wetherbee]

You all realize this is pointless now right?
Massdrop already owns all your information and even f you "nuke" your account, all this info is still in the backups that Massdrop already owns, plus you gave away all rights to the content of your posts when you signed up.

Nothing a good lawyer can't fix. Massdrop has deep enough pockets that it might actually be worth pursuing legal action due to Geekhack's non-compliance with EU law.

[manitoid]

You all realize this is pointless now right?
Massdrop already owns all your information and even f you "nuke" your account, all this info is still in the backups that Massdrop already owns, plus you gave away all rights to the content of your posts when you signed up.

Nothing a good lawyer can't fix. Massdrop has deep enough pockets that it might actually be worth pursuing legal action due to Geekhack's non-compliance with EU law.

The first step would be to file a SAR to figure out exactly what data they are collecting rather than overreacting before you know anything at all.

[Vigrith]

The first step would be to file a SAR to figure out exactly what data they are collecting rather than overreacting before you know anything at all.

Are you trying to imply that you don't wanna go flushing your money by legally contesting Massdrop on something that could be dismissed instantly and/or that you have no chance of winning in the long run just because you're upset? Shocking.

[manitoid]

.

[baldgye]

If you would like to file a complaint on the basis of GDPR, please use this link.

[amnesia0287]

You all realize this is pointless now right?
Massdrop already owns all your information and even f you "nuke" your account, all this info is still in the backups that Massdrop already owns, plus you gave away all rights to the content of your posts when you signed up.

You really need to read up on GDPR. They don’t really have an option.

https://gdpr-info.eu/art-17-gdpr/

[AndyTC]

Yeah they have no choice
They either comply or block EU citizens and delete all their data

All our data has now been sold which is a huge NO, massdrop/iMav could actually be fined for a huge amount

[fanpeople]

Yeah they have no choice
They either comply or block EU citizens and delete all their data

All our data has now been sold which is a huge NO, massdrop/iMav could actually be fined for a huge amount

Out of curiosity, could you explain how theoretically the fine would be collected if the aforementioned people/organisations were actually punished. How does this work internationally?

Actually just curious. I just can't conceptualize how, what I assume is an EU regulation would be enforceable internationally upon a person not in a member state and without cooperation from the host nation (I am just assuming US would not bother enforcing this).

[AndyTC]

Yeah they have no choice
They either comply or block EU citizens and delete all their data

All our data has now been sold which is a huge NO, massdrop/iMav could actually be fined for a huge amount

Out of curiosity, could you explain how theoretically the fine would be collected if the aforementioned people/organisations were actually punished. How does this work internationally?

Actually just curious. I just can't conceptualize how, what I assume is an EU regulation would be enforceable internationally upon a person not in a member state and without cooperation from the host nation (I am just assuming US would not bother enforcing this).

For companies that have a physical presence in the EU, the GDPR can be enforced directly against them. This doesnt really need much explaining, is standard EU law

For Companies that don't have a physical presence it gets a little bit more complicated. Some companys will have designated representatives located in the EU and they will act on behalf of the company.

If they dont have a representive; EU member state authoritieswill act within accordance to international law.
The US government is fully on board with enforcing it and have stated it on many occasions, its also worth noting the EU-U.S. Privacy Shield has been inplace for many years and has been strengthened due to GDPR

[fanpeople]

Yeah they have no choice
They either comply or block EU citizens and delete all their data

All our data has now been sold which is a huge NO, massdrop/iMav could actually be fined for a huge amount

Out of curiosity, could you explain how theoretically the fine would be collected if the aforementioned people/organisations were actually punished. How does this work internationally?

Actually just curious. I just can't conceptualize how, what I assume is an EU regulation would be enforceable internationally upon a person not in a member state and without cooperation from the host nation (I am just assuming US would not bother enforcing this).

For companies that have a physical presence in the EU, the GDPR can be enforced directly against them. This doesnt really need much explaining, is standard EU law

For Companies that don't have a physical presence it gets a little bit more complicated. Some companys will have designated representatives located in the EU and they will act on behalf of the company.

If they dont have a representive; EU member state authoritieswill act within accordance to international law.
The US government is fully on board with enforcing it and have stated it on many occasions, its also worth noting the EU-U.S. Privacy Shield has been inplace for many years and has been strengthened due to GDPR

Ah sweet I get it, mutual agreements in place to compliment it. 

Has anyone actually been fined for breech of this whilst not having a presence in EU?

[AndyTC]

Has anyone actually been fined for breech of this whilst not having a presence in EU?

Too my knowledge, no
It is possible it hss happened but was a deemed not newsworthy

[fanpeople]

Has anyone actually been fined for breech of this whilst not having a presence in EU?

Too my knowledge, no
It is possible it hss happened but was a deemed not newsworthy

sweet

Thanks for the responses.

[Data]

You guys are ridiculous.

[Leslieann]

While we're at it can we request all our data according to the new gdpr guidelines?

Note: I run (and have run) multiple SMF, PHPbb and Vbulletin (and a few other) forums for many years.

I can answer this very easily.
The forum itself only collects what info you put in and the IP addresses you use to access the site, looking at someone's profile (or your own), you can see everything collected other than their IP address (which the mods and admins can see), and the password (which is encrypted). Yes, they could use a plugin or custom code to get more, but that can dramatically increase hosting costs due to overhead, pose a security risk, and just generally create more work administering the site.

Why do that when you can just add a line and use Google Analytics, which many, many sites use for the above reasons. GH does use Google analytics, however site owners only get to see a fraction of the info Google collects. None of of it is stored on GH's server and it is anonymized before the site owner can see it. So while a site owner may be able to tell someone was looking at freaky porn before coming to the site they can't tell who it was. At any rate, if you want that info, you need to talk to Google because it's not collected or stored by GH.

[Vigrith]

You guys are ridiculous.

I think it's hilarious if anything at this point, GDPR wikipedia armchair experts extraordinaire and people trying to legally combat a company whose latest valuation was $50m by filing a complaint or deliriously hiring a lawyer; funnier even is the fact that GDPR is a European thing and thankfully we don't usually have this "sue everybody" mentality, maybe it's trendy and catching on.

[clasicks]

removed

[ghostjuggernaut]

I have been notified that account deletion is most likely not possible - /shrug

Time to move on for me, lets not criticize people for staying or leaving.

It is possible, it just makes old posts wonky.  Look at all the old ripster posts for example.  Best you can easily get away with is editing all your posts to '.' and randomizing your credentials and dropping the ✌️

[davkol]

It is possible, it just makes old posts wonky.  Look at all the old ripster posts for example.  Best you can easily get away with is editing all your posts to '.' and randomizing your credentials and dropping the ✌️

Right, and that should be a matter of only a couple of lines of relatively simple SQL code. That's what we're (presumably) asking for.

Now, GDPR compliance wrt backups might be trickier, but I won't pretend to be an expert on that.

[Leslieann]

I have been notified that account deletion is most likely not possible - /shrug

Time to move on for me, lets not criticize people for staying or leaving.

It is possible, it just makes old posts wonky.  Look at all the old ripster posts for example.  Best you can easily get away with is editing all your posts to '.' and randomizing your credentials and dropping the ✌️

Account deletion is very much possible.

The second time I deleted an account for someone on my forums I got asked 2 weeks later to help police find the person because they had ripped off someone the marketplace for a few hundred dollars. People tried this two more times over the next year, at least one was caught or was forced to return the goods or money. I suspect at least one of the two was the same person as the one I deleted.

90% of the legitimate asks ended with them returning a few months later asking to have the account reactivated anyway and yes, it does make for a wonky thread and timeline. This isn't Facebook where you post family photos and personal info, so you should not need it to be forgotten.

[clasicks]

good call, dont want my identity stolen 

edit: ha, named changed.

[davkol]

This isn't Facebook where you post family photos and personal info, so you should not need it to be forgotten.

There's the off-topic subforum, where people absolutely post rather personal information, but even the on-topic posts have metadata (time, location) and information about purchases / habits.

All this can be linked to data from other sources.

Then there are private messages with truly personal information, if one trades stuff or participates in group buys; those can be "purged" but I honestly don't know about backups.

[gak1234]

You guys are ridiculous.

I think it's hilarious if anything at this point, GDPR wikipedia armchair experts extraordinaire and people trying to legally combat a company whose latest valuation was $50m by filing a complaint or deliriously hiring a lawyer; funnier even is the fact that GDPR is a European thing and thankfully we don't usually have this "sue everybody" mentality, maybe it's trendy and catching on.

Furthermore... with regards to non-EU organizations, GDPR isn't NEARLY as powerful or sweeping as the general public thinks it is... it definitely doesn't have 'universal' jurisdiction over every little nook and cranny on the web with at least one EU-based member.  The enforcement of GDPR is going to be EXTREMELY selective, and in reality there is virtually zero chance that a small place like Geekhack, which neither specifically targets EU citizens with goods/services, nor attempts to 'profile' individual users by monitoring their activities and/or analyzing their behavior, would ever fall within the scope of an official enforcement action.  This site probably wouldn't even meet the criteria for being subject to GDPR in the first place, even now, despite it being owned by a corporate entity.

[Visionaire]

This thread is so over the top.

GDPR is intended to protect individuals from companies processing and misusing user's personal data. This includes traditional PII as well as cookies and IP addresses. Upon request, you can have these items shared with you and / or purged from a company's database.

As has been mentioned above, GH is run on top of a pretty standard forum software package. This package collects WHAT YOU GIVE IT. The only items they're collecting which you have not entered yourself would be the IP address used to access your account and any 3rd party tracking that might be on the site. As you can see with this Ghostery scan (Chrome plugin), the only 3rd party tracking that this website has deployed is Google Analytics, which does not collect personally identifiable information (PII). Its job is to understand site performance. Where people are coming from, how long they stay on the site, etc. This information is anonymous and aggregated (meaning you can't reverse engineer to tie to an individual) for all GA accounts.

• Can this website delete your account and post history? Yes. It's an option in the admin panel
• Should you suddenly feel differently about having an account here now that MD owns it? That's for each to decide, but I can't think of a reason why you're at more 'risk' now that MD owns the site. And if that's the case, I'd also advise you to close your Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat and every other internet account you have (as they ACTUALLY use your information to sell advertising)
• Will the EU government fine MD over your GDPR requests? Please. Not even close. This website doesn't collect your personal information (beyond IP address) and does nothing with it. But if you feel that you're at risk, I suppose you could reach out to a GH admin to delete your account.

Source: 10+ years in digital media analytics, targeting and optimization

[Data]

This thread is so over the top.

Glad I'm not the only one.  I eyerolled so hard I gave myself a migraine.

[HotRoderX]

This thread is so over the top.

GDPR is intended to protect individuals from companies processing and misusing user's personal data. This includes traditional PII as well as cookies and IP addresses. Upon request, you can have these items shared with you and / or purged from a company's database.

As has been mentioned above, GH is run on top of a pretty standard forum software package. This package collects WHAT YOU GIVE IT. The only items they're collecting which you have not entered yourself would be the IP address used to access your account and any 3rd party tracking that might be on the site. As you can see with this Ghostery scan (Chrome plugin), the only 3rd party tracking that this website has deployed is Google Analytics, which does not collect personally identifiable information (PII). Its job is to understand site performance. Where people are coming from, how long they stay on the site, etc. This information is anonymous and aggregated (meaning you can't reverse engineer to tie to an individual) for all GA accounts.

Show Image

• Can this website delete your account and post history? Yes. It's an option in the admin panel
• Should you suddenly feel differently about having an account here now that MD owns it? That's for each to decide, but I can't think of a reason why you're at more 'risk' now that MD owns the site. And if that's the case, I'd also advise you to close your Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat and every other internet account you have (as they ACTUALLY use your information to sell advertising)
• Will the EU government fine MD over your GDPR requests? Please. Not even close. This website doesn't collect your personal information (beyond IP address) and does nothing with it. But if you feel that you're at risk, I suppose you could reach out to a GH admin to delete your account.

Source: 10+ years in digital media analytics, targeting and optimization

but the question is this ... GDPR retro active? I mean people are assuming it is but.. chances are its gray area that will take many many years of court battles to figure out. Technically a website would only need to purge the data since the GDPR become into being and was signed into law. I don't know not a lawyer but ^_^ law's aren't the end all be all people make them out to be. Most the time laws are muddy gray and nasty things.

[davkol]

wat.

Protection of data that the service provider has, not some data they had at some point, but don't have anymore.

[Visionaire]

GDPR applies as of 5/25/2018. All actions since then are under the regulation.

[c137]

I hereby request account deletion in accordance with GDPR.
It would be easier for everyone if there was an option in the user account settings panel.