Topic: Privacy Policy Updated (GDPR)

Hello!

Those of you in the EU will no doubt be getting countless emails regarding GDPR and updates to Privacy Policies. The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) (EU) 2016/679 is a regulation in EU law on data protection and privacy for all individuals within the European Union and the European Economic Area. It also addresses the export of personal data outside the EU and EEA. These laws come into effect on May 25th 2018.

We've always taken data protection seriously but have recently made some changes to our processes and documentation to further meet the requirements of GDPR. As part of this work, we’ve updated our privacy policy to give you more insights into how we process your personal data.

We've improved the wording of our Privacy Policy to make it easier for you to understand how we handle your personal data, and we’ve also made it more detailed and specific.

We've also removed some data fields from our system. We have removed gender, date of birth and gaming habits. We felt that this personal information was no longer required to operate the website and therefore decided to remove it. Please note that these questions may still appear in specific surveys but are no longer held against user accounts.

If you're visiting the website within the EU, you will also see a personalised adverts consent banner. If you are not in the EU you can also opt out of personalised ads by visiting the Privacy Policy page.

We hope you find the updated policy useful, we will continue to update it based on any frequently asked questions we receive from you.

Thanks!

How the hell am I going to know which gender I am now?

@kyleforrester87 sorry, that information has been deleted.

@antdickens nooooooooo...!!

We these changes to the law a reaction to the recent Facebook scandal or was this in the works for a long while.

Well, adverts for that computer mouse I bought a few weeks ago don't particularly interest me, so I selected no on that personalised ads banner.

@adf86 no, this is something that's been the works for years now but things like recent events with Facebook are a good example of why it's happening!

Gaming habits?

I know for a fact everyone here has that so I can understand its removal. It was probably after the questions can you read? Are you breathing? And Would you like Streets of Rage 4?

@themcnoisy or a bloody SSX3 remake. Seriously need to play this game again. Maybe just for 15 minutes to get it out my system. Maybe I should get a HDMI to SCART so I can hook up my PS2 at least.

@crimsontadpoles I think it's better than those adverts for those posh flats in London for sale I used to see before personalised ads came into play.

I wonder if we will have to go through this again when Brexit (I hate that phrase) happens?

I had to do an online course on GDPR in work and then a test. I passed with 88%. Woo hoo.

@kyleforrester87 I wouldnt mind a game on ssx again actually.

So forgive me for being ignorant but of course being from the States I don't follow European news and such but what does this law do exactly and why is everyone changing their policies?

@Tasuki If you've got a bit of spare time: REGULATION (EU) 2016/679

In short, it aims to give people more control over the personal data collected online and the distribution of it. If websites choose to collect and distribute data, they have to disclose it.

It means that people in the I.T industry (like wot I is) are having a ballache of a time. On the plus side, I am hoping my spam reduces after this. That said, how will I know what new pills will make me bigger and satisfy my special friends?

@RogerRoger Yeah - I absolutely love to interact with those scam emails. I've had whole conversations going back and forth. My favourite was when I was asked to help get gold out of a war torn country by giving my bank details. Instead I offered to put together a palamilitary mercenary task force to helicopter into the country and seize the gold and get it out of the country. I basically just quoted the titles to the A Team. That conversation went on for two months.

@RogerRoger Nice write up!

Ultimately we at Push Square don't hold that much personal data, but decided to ditch some of it because frankly, we've never done anything with it, which is kind of the point with GDPR (eg, Do we really need this data vs the risk of holding it?).

I like to think we're pretty responsible with the data we do hold, it's stored securely and we don't share it with third parties, therefore GDPR hasn't been too much of a problem, more just formalising what we already do.

Personally, I welcome the changes, there are far too many organisations that harvest data and don't really have robust policies in place as to what they do with it.

Happy GDPR Day

I wonder if the U.S. has similar regulations. I am a little ignorant on such things. From the sounds of it, the regulations sound favorable. The internet is an international and intercontinental industry. And like was said, the technology has developed more quickly than our common sense and ability to oversee those who desire to exploit.

@Th3solution quite possible, however, it seems the EU has been a leader in this kind of thing compared to the US. I imagine they are looking at how GDPR is adopted and issues caused before they make their next move.