A couple upcoming privacy policy things

[Narv]

Hi all, as part of the neverending learning process that is having a website, I've made some adjustments to privacy and cookie related things that will be taking effect soon.

First, you'll soon see one of those one-time banners pop up to direct you to a policy that explains how we use cookies. We use very few cookies on this tiny site, and no third-party tracking ones, but there is an optional persistent, username-containing cookie (the 'Remember Me' feature when you log in) which you can choose to use, or not, every time you log in (as you already could). This type of info was already in the privacy policy, but this makes it more explicit.

The second concerns GDPR, the EU privacy regulation. You'll be getting another fun one-time screen for this one, asking you to read and agree (or not). It's also quite similar to the Privacy Policy that we already have, but with some extra bits specific to what you can ask us, the admins, to do for you (eg. we'll thomass your account for you if you ask us to). Here's the text of that if you want to have a look in advance: app.php/privacypolicy/policy

Finally, as mentioned in that policy, you all have a new tab in your User Control Panels that lets you see exactly what info we have stored for your account and lets you download that info or request to have it removed.

Please get in touch if you have concerns about any of this, either here or privately by clicking the 'Contact Us' button on the bottom of the page. Thanks all and I hope you're having fun with your various plazaings

[Winddancer]

Loads of fun! <3

[Flame Fried Ent]

You might also want to look at the provisions of the CCPA, which regulates some things in California. It would only affect those people who live in California, but....

I also deal with privacy at work so if you have questions, reach out and I'll see how I can help.

[DEATH]

I WILL NOT BOW BEFORE YOUR UNENDING STREAM OF DOCUMENTATION. I SHALL BE AS A FLAME TO THE MOTH OF YOUR PAPERWORK AND IT WILL NOT END IN HAPPINESS.

[Narv]

I would hope for nothing less

(@Flame Fried Ent thanks! From what I can see CCPA won't apply to us unless I turn heel and start selling data [I won't] / we get 50000+ members / I rake in 25 million dollars, whichever comes first but thank you for the tip and for the offer - I may indeed reach out to you as I navigate deeper into the wonderful world of privacy policy)

[Allacan ob Burzum]

I'm impressed, and I'm a lawyer for a living (albeit not data-control). Well done Narv!

[Nia]

Ahh such fond memories... I don't think I've ever felt more popular than in the run up to GDPR. Emails and texts every 35 seconds from all these sites and organisations I never knew even had my data, begging me for continued access to it. I felt so needed.

Anyway this all sounds v sensible and more than happy to have whatever pop-ups you need to come my way, thanks for being so on top of everything.

Incidentally, I have noticed that on some of my devices (I think maybe just my phone actually), even when I click 'remember me' it promptly goes on to forget me if I close the window and come back later. But that's probably some weird phone cookie thing that I don't understand.

[Zôrzimril]

[Burnt Toast]

Thanks for all of this work and the updates!

[Narv]

@Nia that might be fixable by clearing your cookies on that device, as the cookie settings changed when we moved hosts - that solved a similar issue for someone else.

Everyone else (well and Nia too): the banner & screen deal are in effect - please let me know if you run into issues with repeatedly seeing them on the same device, or any other technical badness.

[Moriel]

I consented without reading it so you now own my soul or whatever.

[Dwim]

I was tempted to not consent but I didn't want to be logged out.

[Narv]

the phpBB GDPR extension does not mess around

[The Good Hunter]

tl;dr, I'm guessing I owe you my first born now?

[Narv]

tl;dr read the policy ya goobs

[Lirimaer]

We don't read things on the internet, we just SAY we did.

[DEATH]

I ATE YOUR DOCUMENTS

[Elvheimdros]

The first time I hit the accept button I got

The submitted form was invalid. Try submitting again.

The second time it worked so I'm apparently cleared to post again, but I wondered if this was happening for anybody else.

(I belong to another site that's over a dozen years old and they still haven't gotten their main site logins to sync up properly with the phpBB forum so you always have to log in twice, and that's what this reminded me of... even though it's just a forum.)

EDIT: Or maybe this is a "Bug Report"? Now I'm not sure where I should have posted this.

[Narv]

Thanks for the heads up @Elvheimdros - phpBB login/cookie stuff is definitely finicky. That error usually shows up when your session ID isn't what the server expects (eg. you load a page, then log out and back in again on another tab, then try to submit a form on the original tab - though of course that's not what happened here). I'm glad it went through on try 2 anyway - I haven't seen other reports of that on here / discord / Facebook / email so hopefully it was one-off, and I've cleared the board's cache in case it case it was holding any invalid data for people. If it causes issues for more people I'll try to get more creative.

[Nia]

@Nia that might be fixable by clearing your cookies on that device, as the cookie settings changed when we moved hosts - that solved a similar issue for someone else.

Ahh that has indeed solved it - thanks!

[Wamba_the_Fool]

I'd just like to post my sincere appreciation that you used the term "thomass" as if everyone knew what it meant. It's the little things that make it feel like it's the old days again.