[Omniscient]

In an effort to make adjustments for the GDPR law compliance I have removed birthdays from profiles. I have manually set all users to hide their age and birth year. Going forward we're going to make continued adjustments but things like birthday celebrations will not be allowed.

Also GDPR requires consent age to be 16. Some countries can lower it to 13. I think for the purpose of HF we're going to disallow all accounts from anyone not at least 16. Currently we require you to be 13 so it's not a huge change to require 16 imho.

There will be a new ToS in place that members will have to agree to by May 25th.

[TB12]

Damn that's a shame, but I understand it has to be done. Thanks for the update

[❤️BowmanBot❤️]

I am glad the changes are doable, so far.

Thanks for the update Omni!

[Blazin]

Do what you need to do to comply and keep HF afloat. We don't blame you one bit.

[Omniscient]

I got a list of policy changes I plan on implementing. Some users will like and some they won't. Already redid the cookie Help Doc today.

Site Cookie Policy

[Bluffer]

Ugh I really hate this change even though I know it's necessary. :(

Damn governments censoring shit.

[SIM-964740]

Holy shit this GDPR fuckry is annoying as.

[lol]

Oh ffs Governments, they can kiss my ass.

[Omniscient]

Holy shit this GDPR fuckry is annoying as.

It's going to get worse over the next couple weeks as I make a lot of policy changes to adhere to this law for our compliance.

[Mr.Magnificent]

Every company/website needs to do this. Good to see that you're doing it on time.. hate to see you get lawsuits.

Good job Omni!

[Vitani]

If you ask me the most annoying thing about GDPR is that in order to be compliant, you may have to ask users for even more personal information such as passports.

Question, if you require someone to send you their passport in order to verify their age, what stops them from sending you someone elses passport?
Wouldn't you need to make members attach their real information to their account so you can verify if the information on the passport matches that of their account?

[Nuworld]

I have been following this GDPR issue and some of it sounds very valid and warranted.
However i have a few questions.

Also GDPR requires consent age to be 16. Some countries can lower it to 13. I think for the purpose of HF we're going to disallow all accounts from anyone not at least 16. Currently we require you to be 13 so it's not a huge change to require 16 imho.

Does this apply to our current member base or only to future new members?
Meaning do current EU members on Hack Forums under the age of 16 risk there accounts being closed?

My next question:

There will be a new ToS in place that members will have to agree to by May 25th.

 

Seeing how the 25th is only 10 days away.
Will we receive an PM from you and or other staff member to reply to said new TOS?
Or will the announcement be made public and it would be the responsibility of all members to reply to the new hack Forums TOS?

---

If you ask me the most annoying thing about GDPR is that in order to be compliant, you may have to ask users for even more personal information such as passports.

Question, if you require someone to send you their passport in order to verify their age, what stops them from sending you someone elses passport?
Wouldn't you need to make members attach their real information to their account so you can verify if the information on the passport matches that of their account?

And yet a very good question indeed.
Who's to say that said passport is indeed the current HF users passport?

This could very well come down to video validation and could take up time and resources of the staff.

[Angel]

Thanks for the update boss, keep us updated 🙂

[Omniscient]

If you ask me the most annoying thing about GDPR is that in order to be compliant, you may have to ask users for even more personal information such as passports.

And this is true. I've technically never had reason to request or require proof of identity before. Now, I'll have to have in-place a policy to do so which imho is more of a security risk to privacy than anything else.

Question, if you require someone to send you their passport in order to verify their age, what stops them from sending you someone elses passport?

Excellent question. Which is why I'm trying to create global policy that will not require me to confirm EU residency.

Does this apply to our current member base or only to future new members?

I will likely have to have all accounts accept a new ToS or else the account will be locked. The new policy will require you to update your Birthday if it's not accurate and accept that you're not in EU if you're currently under 16. If you by chance mark you are in EU and under 16 then your account will be closed instantly and permanently.

My guess is that I'll logout all members, then do a GDPR check with login and require acceptance of terms.

What's crazy is how I'll have to handle IP logging going forward. The practice of keeping logs is going to drastically change. I can think of a number of drastic choices I am forced to make for this.

[Voxfames]

Personally I think this GDPR law is crap. I mean it has some good ideas in it but the implementation is horrid. I wish instead of complying big companies like Google, Amazon, Etc. would just say no instead we are blocking uk users from our sites so we dont have to worry about your stupid law.