Private Deleted Messages from 10 years ago have reappeared

Leg End Reject

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117718195#Comment_117718195

But then they're not actually deleting them, so where are they hiding them in the interim and who has access to them?

Andrew76

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117718223#Comment_117718223

Yep, old PM's zapped. I'm fine with that tbh, well, assuming they are actually removed from the database and not just hidden or my access to the record removed (which I can't tell either way).

Leg End Reject

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117718223#Comment_117718223

Jesus, they could move on that! No long, drawn out pull request there.

o1s1n

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117718252#Comment_117718252

A reflection of how serious an issue it was I take it.

embraer170

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117718000#Comment_117718000

100% what you wrote. But this isn't just a Boards issue, but probably with a whole bunch of websites/companies/platforms handling your information.

Also, exactly why GDPR is a good idea.

Leg End Reject

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117718261#Comment_117718261

I hope they checked they had the right to wipe user's data, at least one poster wanted to keep some old PMs.

the_pen_turner

im shocked at this.

this isnt a small issue like the rest of the F UP they made of the move.

this is a total wholescale and complete disregard for users personal information . odhran has prity much shrugged his shoulders at this . he is at the head of a company that has been breaking the law since gdpr was made law and probably well before that since most of it was law anyway.

now all they are doing is blaming the one party that is not responsible for this . vanilla. this issue was there well before they did anything.

it is crazy that now the situation is made worse that all that illegally stored data is now being exported to canada and god only knows where.

delete PM now is a waste of time. the damage is done.

the site should be taken offline until it can be made compliant.

Tork

They had to do this before Vanilla closed up for the weekend I assume?

Leg End Reject

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117718261#Comment_117718261

*double post*

fritzelly

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117718277#Comment_117718277

I can't set this as a quote (the popup just keeps moving)....

"I hope they checked they had the right to wipe user's data, at least one poster wanted to keep some old PMs."

I'm pretty sure there is no legal implications in deleting anything unless there was some requirement to retain them by the law enforcement prior to the deletion

Leg End Reject

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117718298#Comment_117718298

Thanks, I don't know all the ins and outs so was curious.

fritzelly

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117718303#Comment_117718303

Just double checked and yep your data can be deleted without your consent with the same proviso

McBain11

I'm not technical at all in regards to all that's going on.

Happy to see that PMs that I had deleted over 5 years ago seem to be deleted again.

As I'm not technical minded in this regard though, are these PMs just sitting somewhere else now where somebody can see them/restore/share them someday if they see fit?

Or have they been permanently deleted from all storage sites never to be available to anyone again?

I know that I'd be a lot more comfortable if the latter is what is happening.

fritzelly

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117718328#Comment_117718328

Only @Boards.ie: Odhran can know that - I suspect they have just amended the code to only show the last 30 days, time will tell if PM's only "survive" for 30 days hereafter

teachinggal123

The value in this site is the data.

Absolutely nothing has been hard deleted, and you can bet the farm that the current owners will sell all data to the highest bidder if/when the site goes t1ts up.

Mimikyu

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117718328#Comment_117718328

Everyone thought they were deleted when they chose to delete their PMs the first time. I suppose we just have to take their word that they’re deleted for good this time and not just sitting on a server hidden from view.

Could you imagine the shîtstorm if users logged into their Gmail/iCloud/Outlook accounts and emails going back over a decade that where deleted showed up. And the only response in relation to it was a couple of paragraphs from someone in the company stating all messages over 30 will be wiped. Crazy. What about people that kept PMs for informative or sentimental reasons? Are these just gone now?

MrMusician18

I presume that this has happened due to the way boards closes accounts or at least used to, by scrambling passwords rather than deleting them.

McBain11

I get that data is kept. I get that's it's stored in a lot of places never to really ever be deleted.

I'm not technical in this regard at all, but I get that when I deleted PMs on here years that those messages were probably stored in the backarse of somewhere on a storage system.

The problem here is trust around that storage. Between the email addresses being visible and the PMs reappearing, my faith in boards minding my personal data (specifically email address, PMs with personal info) is completely gone. Out the window.

A hard deletion of all older PMs would be the only way to restore any semblance of trust imo. Would people here trust boards to mind all that personal info otherwise going forward after the recent issues?

fritzelly

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117718361#Comment_117718361

Unless you request "forget me" then no site has any responsibility to actually delete your data and would be quite common to store all data but just not show what you don't want to see

Don't take this as any kind of boards.ie sympathy or support - I would have expected PM's to be outside the extent of retention beyond a reasonable amount of time (like months...)

Scot_in_Dublin

I'm a member of Boards for some time. I don't overly post, more of a long term lurker but do comment on things here and there. I've worked in IT in one shape or form for the past 20 odd years, including full site migrations, data migrations, partial upgrades, written PRD's, managed dev teams, investigated internal and external breaches of data etc. Boards as was doesn't exist any longer. In the choice of provider for the new services they needed for the site to me, they didnt complete enough due dilligence. The first alarm bell was the length of time for the migration. The second was functionally as it was given back to the community. The third is now the privacy issues.

The main project manager for this should have seen there was going to be issues as soon as the timeline was pushed out. What level of testing was done, on the new platform by QA engineers, and for how long before it went live? Updates to privacy policy etc on where data was going to be stored should have gone out to all members in a reasonable amount of time before it happened to allow members to opt out and close their accounts if they did not agree with it.

The re-emergence of what were thought o be delete PM's, particularly between members and Talk To services, is sloppy at best.

It's a mess folks, and the silence from the office staff is really not inspiring confidence in either the office staff or the new providers who are hosting ALL of our data.

batistuta9

I don't think the old PMs reappearing is that big a deal. You just deleted the copy from your account, these PMs still existed in the recipients inbox. Looks like with the change to vanilla if the recipient hadn't deleted them, it was linked back to the sender.

The talk to. accounts not deleting the PMs with personal data is the bigger issue & That's on them not boards to be fair.

Scot_in_Dublin

As a side note, if the office staff or any of the admins would like to confirm my chops on what I said above, let me know.

Scot_in_Dublin

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117718392#Comment_117718392

I think that's somewhat of a 'lazy argument'. Not saying you are being lazy on that at all, so please dont take it that way. If, as a site, you have the functionality where by your members are sending a lot of personal info between them and another party, that should at the very least be deleted after a short period of time. Think like when you log into your online banking. How long does your account take before it boosts you off and asks for your password etc again?

fritzelly

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117718392#Comment_117718392

It's a reasonable assumption that if you delete a PM its gone, gone for you and the recipient - if you delete a post it's gone for all (well if you could delete a post) and maybe an archived version of it which is within the realms of acceptability for when someone is trolling and deletes the post a little while later for example

Scot_in_Dublin

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117718408#Comment_117718408

For sure.

batistuta9

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117718408#Comment_117718408

It's not a reasonable assumption to make at all fritzelly. You didn't think that did you?

fritzelly

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117718410#Comment_117718410

Not sure what you mean

batistuta9

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117718406#Comment_117718406

That's all on the talk to. companies, they should have been deleting the pms after they were dealt with.

you hardly wanted boards to be snooping on private PMs between users/users-companies.

batistuta9

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117718415#Comment_117718415

Say you sent me a PM, I've now got a copy of it in my inbox. Just because you deleted it doesn't mean it's gone for me too

fritzelly

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117718419#Comment_117718419

Nope - boards should have had systems in place to auto delete them, as for boards (authorised) staff seeing them - if you really thought your PM's were only visible by you and the Talk To member then you are a fool