Profile Privacy on Boards

#1 · 17-07-2021 9:32am #1

How does one enable profile privacy on Boards? I can see two options - one where email can be displayed to everyone and one where "authorized users" can access it. Would "authorized users" include all the "moderators"? As a user with GDPR concerns, would my account be better protected by not ticking any box? Thanks

quickbeam · 17-07-2021 9:33am

I'm not sure who authorised users are, but I'm a mod and can't see your email address, if that helps.

Cookie_Monster · 17-07-2021 9:41am

what GDPR concerns? People seem to say this a lot without ever mentioning the specific issues that bother them, can you elaborate?

RangeR · 17-07-2021 9:45am

https://boards.ie/discussion/comment/117623153#Comment_117623153

Isn't this server now hosted in US or Canada? That would be a data issue to me, personally. Name, DOB, email address etc. I rarely post so not too bothered by that.

Johnboy1951 · 17-07-2021 9:53am

https://boards.ie/discussion/comment/117623170#Comment_117623170

I wondered why this Canadian hosting was chosen in light of the GDPR regulations.

It must surely make more work to ensure compliance. Is there some admin post that addresses this?

[Deleted User] · 17-07-2021 1:12pm

https://boards.ie/discussion/comment/117623135#Comment_117623135

Thank you quickbeam.

[Deleted User] · 17-07-2021 1:37pm

https://boards.ie/discussion/comment/117623153#Comment_117623153

There was lots of chat at the water cooler last week about Boards new platform and the issues surrounding the transition. IT guys think that there's some GDPR reasons for the changes. Most of them are on Boards and have been saying that they have seen lots of examples of data breaches. They have been saying this for a good while now. The rest of us used to laugh it off but when colleagues from the legal department joined the conversation with their take on Boards, the conversation veered into other territories such as hate speech, defamation, etc. Getting back to my original post, it is reassuring to see that moderators don't have access to email addresses (thanks quickbeam). Would anyone know who "authorized users" refers to?

Maybe I should have posted on the Conspiracy forum ... if I could find it 😂

Spook_ie · 17-07-2021 1:41pm

try here

https://boards.ie/categories/conspiracy-theories

Zaph · 17-07-2021 1:50pm

On the old platform the only people to whom users' e-mail addresses were visible were Boards staff and admins. Mods and CMods did not have access to this information. I don't know what the admin set-up is now, but I would imagine that it's similar, or possibly even more restricted on the new platform.

[Deleted User] · 18-07-2021 9:09am

https://boards.ie/discussion/comment/117623927#Comment_117623927

Thanks Zaph

[Deleted User] · 18-07-2021 9:10am

https://boards.ie/discussion/comment/117623885#Comment_117623885

Thanks Spook_ie

I've found my tribe

😂

[Deleted User] · 18-07-2021 9:13am

https://boards.ie/discussion/comment/117623197#Comment_117623197

Good point Johnboy1951. I'd be interested in an admin post addressing this GDPR concern also.

Hotblack Desiato · 20-07-2021 11:27am

Pinging www.boards.ie just gives a Cloudflare IP, so it's not easy like it used to be to see where it's hosted, but the bottom of every page still says it's hosted by Digiweb (i.e. in Ireland) and migrating to a new platform isn't in itself a reason to change that.

The developers of the new platform are in Canada - doesn't mean the site is. In any case Canada's data protection legislation is regarded as GDPR compliant. I don't know if the staff/admins have made a definitive statement anywhere about where it's hosted currently, and using search turns up threads from 2008...

[Deleted User] · 20-07-2021 11:58am

One major irritation with profile privacy, is anyone who has set theirs to private can not be PM'ed

Difficult to contact a mod in that case as I found out

itchyfinger · 20-07-2021 11:14pm

https://boards.ie/discussion/comment/117636361#Comment_117636361

Upload a photo to the site, right click it and open in new tab, its aint hosted in Ireland or EU thats for sure

https://us.v-cdn.net/6034073/uploads/UWSOB1XGH12K/98677794-gettyimages-486869012.jpg

[Deleted User] · 20-07-2021 11:17pm

https://boards.ie/discussion/comment/117636361#Comment_117636361

I believe it may be hosted in AWS now, not sure why but Vanilla is usually a cloud hosted forum platform. Some clarity would indeed be appreciated in this matter. Where is my data stored?

itchyfinger · 20-07-2021 11:19pm

https://cdn.net/

Boards not hosted in Ireland or EU Confirmed??? What are the GDPR consequences of this for users?

UK (HQ)

68-80 Hanbury Street

London

E1 5JL

Tel: +44 (0)800 158 8600

US

6975 Union Park Avenue

Suite 600

Cottonwood Heights

Utah

84047

Asia-Pacific

1, Jalan Emas 6

Taman Megah Mas

47301 Petaling Jaya

Selangor

Malaysia

itchyfinger · 20-07-2021 11:21pm

https://boards.ie/discussion/comment/117623170#Comment_117623170

https://boards.ie/discussion/comment/117639465#Comment_117639465

cdn.net by the looks of it

Graham · 21-07-2021 12:04am

That looks like a content delivery network for serving static files like images, css files, javascript files etc. It's there to speed the sites up. It doesn't give you any hints where the site itself is actually hosted.

RangeR · 21-07-2021 9:15am

It’s been pointed out by Community Manager Niamh that Canada’s data protection is on par with GDPR so it shouldn’t be an issue.

https://boards.ie/discussion/2058199747/gdpr-post-the-migration-to-vanilla

[Deleted User] · 21-07-2021 9:40am

https://boards.ie/discussion/comment/117640161#Comment_117640161

I still have a right to know, especially if it's been moved abroad without my knowledge. If it's in AWS, then it's an American company and all bets are off. I also see new Boards conveniently doesn't have a Privacy Notice which would answer all these questions.

RangeR · 21-07-2021 9:43am

https://boards.ie/discussion/comment/117640268#Comment_117640268

Yup. Totally agree. Sorry, I re-read my post and it sounded like I was saying it should be ok. I was quoting from the linked post. I'm certainly not happy about it. I want to know, in a full transparant manner, why boards felt the need to move from Irish hosting to Canada/US hosting. Absolutely don't want my data in US. Canada is a little better but there is no techincal need for our data to be hosted that far away.

There seems to be a huge amount not considered while migrating the site to a new vendor.

funkey_monkey · 21-07-2021 12:36pm

Is Boards not hosted on Digiweb - as noted in the bottom corner of the main website view - which is an Irish site?

q2ice · 21-07-2021 12:59pm

When you paste an image into the comments section it gets uploaded to Vanilla's servers. Strange. You would think this would be on the boards server and not transferred over there

Edit: Boards now runs on a cloudflare server

while Digiweb runs on an Apache server

Looks like its no longer hosted by Digiweb

Hotblack Desiato · 21-07-2021 2:34pm

Cloudflare is really just a CDN itself, and it was in place before the move to the new site (since a big DoS attack a few years back)

Boards.ie: Niamh · 21-07-2021 4:08pm

Hello all. Apologies for not getting to this thread before now, our primary focus has been on bugs and missing features so far.

We're working on a post re: GDPR and data processing on the new site. We are also working on getting the Cookie Policy and Privacy Notice back up as soon as we can. Vanilla were added to the list of third party cookies being used on Cookie Policy and to the list of Third Parties we work with on the Privacy Notice, I don't think anything else has changed from our previous Cookie Policy or Privacy Notice.

When we have a comprehensive post for you about data, hosting, GDPR, we'll post it here and in the other thread re GDPR or post in one, link in the other.

Thanks!

[Deleted User] · 22-07-2021 8:13am

https://boards.ie/discussion/comment/117640268#Comment_117640268

https://boards.ie/discussion/comment/117641344#Comment_117641344

Interesting ... thanks for sharing

[Deleted User] · 22-07-2021 8:26am

https://boards.ie/discussion/comment/117642570#Comment_117642570

Looking forward to seeing this very soon. I can see that I'm not the only member with GDPR and privacy concerns and would be disappointed if these concerns were not addressed. GDPR and privacy policies are central to the running of any organisation/club.

Boards.ie: Niamh · 26-07-2021 1:07pm

I've posted a new thread about GDPR and privacy here: https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058200779/gdpr-boards-ie-and-vanilla-how-does-this-work#latest

Profile Privacy on Boards

Comments

UK (HQ)

US

Asia-Pacific