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Just a quick heads up, I'm going to be taking the board down tomorrow night around 10pm-ish for a bit to run an update that is going to bring the site up to date for the upcoming GDPR compliance requirement people who own a forum like me are up against.
After the update, you'll see pop-ups prompting you to confirm your consent for the normal things like cookies, etc. The goal is to make users aware of how their data is used and the reasons cookies, etc. are implemented, so I'll make it simple and explain every bit of data collected on here, which will be included in the upcoming privacy page that I'll be updating.
Cookies:
1) The only cookies I've coded are used in just two applications on this site:
Data Storage:
1) The only data stored here is your username, your selected password, email, and date of birth (which is required to prove you're over 13-years old - and is for a different compliance) and your IP address (used to prevent spam, abusive users, etc.). Also stored are your selections if you've enabled/disabled different boxes in the upper-left slideout menu, which control what you want to see along with your selections of reporters you do/don't want to view in the Twitter channel. The system obviously also saves and counts your likes, dislikes, winner, funny, etc. ratings. Your other profile settings and fields are also saved, and obviously not shared with anyone.
2) If you've saved any links in the link library, those are stored along with any additional information you've entered for them.
3) If you've signed up for our newsletter, which is powered by MailChimp, your name, username and email are stored and you can obviously opt out at any time.
Storage/Sharing of Data by Me:
No one else has access to your data, except for me. Site contributors for the blog at PatsFans.com only have access to the content they create and have no server access whatsoever beyond that. I have no one that assists with coding - it's 100% me. I do not share your data with anyone and have always done everything within my power to ensure that your data remains as secure as possible. I cannot guarantee catastrophe would not prevent something from ever happening, but I can guarantee that there are constant efforts to ensure that doesn't happen.
But otherwise, when the windows pop up asking you to "agree" or "consent" after the update, that's what those are addressing. For me to be in compliance, you'll have to consent that you're aware of it and agree to it. If you don't, it won't allow you to proceed, so you'll need to click on it and then your consent will be stored for legal reasons because of this new guideline. You're going to start seeing this everywhere starting Friday, but I wanted to make you all aware of this before it's implemented here.
This update will not reflect the new version of the forum that is coming. I'm still working on that and had hoped to have it done for this week, but it's going to be a bit longer while I finish some things.
Edited 5/24 - Added that IP addresses are also stored.
After the update, you'll see pop-ups prompting you to confirm your consent for the normal things like cookies, etc. The goal is to make users aware of how their data is used and the reasons cookies, etc. are implemented, so I'll make it simple and explain every bit of data collected on here, which will be included in the upcoming privacy page that I'll be updating.
Cookies:
1) The only cookies I've coded are used in just two applications on this site:
- The forum software sets one after you login to keep your session active.
- If you have the "new post" notifications enabled, a cookie is updated and logs that you've closed it so it doesn't pop up until the next time a post is changed. Otherwise, it would continue to pop up each time it's polled.
- The newsletter popup on our blog has one, which is to save your setting for the remainder of your session if you (x) out so it doesn't pop up again.
Data Storage:
1) The only data stored here is your username, your selected password, email, and date of birth (which is required to prove you're over 13-years old - and is for a different compliance) and your IP address (used to prevent spam, abusive users, etc.). Also stored are your selections if you've enabled/disabled different boxes in the upper-left slideout menu, which control what you want to see along with your selections of reporters you do/don't want to view in the Twitter channel. The system obviously also saves and counts your likes, dislikes, winner, funny, etc. ratings. Your other profile settings and fields are also saved, and obviously not shared with anyone.
2) If you've saved any links in the link library, those are stored along with any additional information you've entered for them.
3) If you've signed up for our newsletter, which is powered by MailChimp, your name, username and email are stored and you can obviously opt out at any time.
Storage/Sharing of Data by Me:
No one else has access to your data, except for me. Site contributors for the blog at PatsFans.com only have access to the content they create and have no server access whatsoever beyond that. I have no one that assists with coding - it's 100% me. I do not share your data with anyone and have always done everything within my power to ensure that your data remains as secure as possible. I cannot guarantee catastrophe would not prevent something from ever happening, but I can guarantee that there are constant efforts to ensure that doesn't happen.
But otherwise, when the windows pop up asking you to "agree" or "consent" after the update, that's what those are addressing. For me to be in compliance, you'll have to consent that you're aware of it and agree to it. If you don't, it won't allow you to proceed, so you'll need to click on it and then your consent will be stored for legal reasons because of this new guideline. You're going to start seeing this everywhere starting Friday, but I wanted to make you all aware of this before it's implemented here.
This update will not reflect the new version of the forum that is coming. I'm still working on that and had hoped to have it done for this week, but it's going to be a bit longer while I finish some things.
Edited 5/24 - Added that IP addresses are also stored.
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