Boards.ie Stats - January 2022

I already have two open complaints with the DPC so I'd prefer not to make it three.

The major disappointment for me is the lack of basic understanding of GDPR on display on this thread.

There are many options to engage the community with interesting stats, without breaching GDPR.

Absolutely. Remember those people who kept telling us that there was nothing to see here?

She'd have a little giggle at those who pretend to know everything but won't engage in details all right.

Must be tempting though, to know something that would apparently trump everything else on the thread?

You’ve spent all that time not engaging, when you could clarify everything with one short post?

Its almost as if….

You’re spoofing mate.

The ‘counter argument’ being the fact that this information isn’t in the public domain? That’s not a counter argument, that’s called “a fact”.

If your post count is covered by GDPR then presumably each user should have the right to hide their post count.

It's not strictly required for the purpose of providing the service, but it definitely adds context and alters how discussions flow.

People object to the over interpretation of GDPR rules as they can lead to reduced utility to all users with very questionable benefit to anyone

Using the slippery slope argument causes far too excessive applications of lars and regulations.

Boards absolutely should not breach things like IP addresses or sell meta data to 3rd parties. And their privacy policy prohibits this. The privacy policy absolutely does not prohibit showing trends based on posting patterns and post counts which are clearly publicly available information and are a core part of providing the service snd stimulating discussion

Our DPO insists that it is a breach of GDPR to keep someone's business card after they have done the specific task to which they provided you that card.

In other words GDPR can be used to justify anything if you are a zealot about it

Like most things in GDPR, it's not that simple. If you want to keep someone's business card, you just need to say 'can I hang onto this for ever' and you're well covered under GDPR. If you want people to keep your business cards, you should put something on your business card to say 'I'm OK with you hanging onto this forever'.

Does anyone actually use business cards these days?

Define 'in the future'?

And if the person has changed their job and employer three years later, and brought their phone number with them, are they still happy for you to be ringing them to buy widgets?

I didn't make the rules.

If you take a grape off the display in Tesco and eat it as you shop, you're a thief. You're not going to be arrested and thrown in the joy, but you're still a thief.

Andrew, what is the difference of Boards publishing top 10 lists and the Irish Times doing the same?

Eg Top 10 Boards posters/thread starters, vs top 10 TDs expenses/printing/worse attendees.

Boards User: Anonymous middle aged male public employee. :-)

TD: Public representative, elected by citizens of Ireland.

Both are 'entities' in the public domain.

The difference is that TDs are professionals, paid to do the job.

Boards.ie posters aren't paid, but they could end up being fired as a result of publication of a list like this.

You don’t need to reveal personal data to show how popular Boards.ie is. You could present that same list with user details anonymised to show how popular boards is. That’s what happens when you start doing security by design. You start thinking about the purpose of information (to show how popular boards is) and how to achieve this purpose without breaching confidentiality.

GDPR is no pox on these scenarios. Sloppy management of information is the pox on these scenarios.

If you want a definitive legal silver buller, you can go pay a lawyer €400 an hour to produce one for you. There’s nothing unusual about that, of course. It happens in traffic law, tax law, contract law , IP law. No law can cover every possible scenario. GDPR is no different to other bodies of law.

Dunno what the conference issue you mention was all about, but it sounds like something that could easily be sorted with clear consent.

Interesting to see you moving the goalposts on the purpose of the top ten list from “show how popular” to “bringing people together”; two very different things. That’s exactly the kind of thinking that GDPR drives; being clear about purpose.

Doesnt really matter where the flaw lies. It’s not a good idea for Boards to be publishing information that could get people fired, or get them divorced, or get them kicked out of their party. If boards really, really thinks that it IS a good idea to publish this info, then it just has to get consent. No biggie, no drama.

If you still think GDPR is a pox, have a look at what happens without GDPR - where anyone can buy the data to track YOUR movements, day or night.

But hasn't it always been the case that you could see individual post counts and things like posts per day here for users since the very beginning. I don't really see how a top ten list is such a drastic departure from that. In actual fact it used to be far easier to search and work out exactly how much posting a particular user had been doing since they'd joined the site - it's possible still, but much more of a pain in the arse because boards is broken, even the feature of "posts per day" has dissapeared, as far as I can see.

I honestly think a mountain is being made out of a molehill here.

Meant to say, thanks for this. I think it's the right decision.

The argument of “we’ve always done it this way “ doesn’t really stand up. It doesn’t matter what we’ve always done.

The alternative to paying for expensive lawyers is to not publish information about your users where you don’t have a legal basis and you haven’t covered it in your privacy policy. It’s not a terribly high bar.

Dramatic much?

No, quite the reverse.

Some awful nosey feckers around here.

See if you can join the dots and see who is actually protecting Boards from being shut down.