How do I delete my account

[armanschwarz]

How can I have my account permanently removed from this forum? I can't see to find this option in the settings. Thanks.

[FDibbins]

Thats because there is not a setting for that. We generally dont delete accounts unless there is a very compelling reason?

[odie20xx]

Well, the right to be forgotten (part of GDPR) is one.
But personally for me, I don't want to get the birthday e-mails anymore

[alansidman]

@odie
Remove your birthday from your profile. Then no more birthday emails.

[TMS]

@Alan: as far as I can see, you cannot remove your birthday. Year is optional so you can delete that but I guess that wouldn't prevent birthday emails.

[alansidman]

@TMS. Well I guess that you could then block emails from EF or just send them to spam. Oh well. thanks for the info.

Trevor, a question for you since you live in the UK. Since this site is owned and operated by a company in India, is it subject to the rules and regs surrounding GDPR. We don't have such regs in the US. Just curious.

[FDibbins]

As far as I am aware, everything on this forum is public domain, and as such it belongs to everyone. If there is proprietary information, then we will of course, take that down .

From what I have seen in you (one and only) post other than this 1, you asked a question, then answered it yourself. There was no private, confidential, proprietary or otherwise, data there that could possibly fall under any protected data anyway.

[TMS]

@Alan: in all honesty, I don't know. But, for a crash course in GDPR, see https://gdpr.eu/what-is-gdpr/

I suspect that, by joining the forum, you implicitly agree that your information can be stored. That said, the information provided seems, to me, very limited and necessary to manage the forum. You need to create a login ID and password, and provide an email address which can all be fairly anonymous. You only know my name because I have chosen to share it. A location is required but it is not necessary to provide anything specific . . . continent is probably near enough, though country and/or city is probably the norm. Not sure why a birthday is requested other than for the niceties (of birthday greetings).

Extracts:

Scope, penalties, and key definitions

First, if you process the personal data of EU citizens or residents, or you offer goods or services to such people, then the GDPR applies to you even if you’re not in the EU. We talk more about this in another article.



Below is a rundown of data subjects’ privacy rights:

The right to be informed
The right of access
The right to rectification
The right to erasure
The right to restrict processing
The right to data portability
The right to object
Rights in relation to automated decision making and profiling.


I believe that any individual should be able to delete their account, should they so wish. Not sure why it is an issue though, as you can just stop email from the forum, block contact.


Anyway, I’m no lawyer, this is all just for information. Hope it helps.

[jolivanes]

If it would be possible to do that, would that mean that all posts would go with it?
I presume not or should say, hope not.

[AliGW]

Unfortunately, yes - all posts would go. And to be honest, given GDPR, they would have to.

I think that accounts can be anonymised to preserve posts, if the person asking is OK with that.

[TMS]

If people have uploaded workbooks, there may be information about the user in them other than the data itself. I think that it would be a difficult task, if not impossible. Hence, all or nothing.

That said, the users asking to have their accounts deleted tend to have a low volume of posts (in my observations) so it's not likely to be a big issue. Their one-off question, maybe, and an answer. Different problem if it were me, say.

Looking at the registration process, there really is very little to compromise an individual's privacy so I’m not even sure GDPR applies. And you could register with a one-time email account. I registered with an email account I set up specifically for use on these forums.

[AliGW]

Yes, I agree. I have mentioned GDPR in the past, as I know it does apply here as well, but those senior to me are from the US and have always disregarded it.

Having said this, anyone can filter to their own threads and go through and remove attachments: I am pretty sure that there is no limit to the editing of posts for any member (I think we tested this over on the Moderator forum a while back), so they can sanitise their own content. Generally speaking, it is members who have rarely posted here who tend to ask for account fremoval, though: it's rarely someone who's contributed a lot.

[Glenn Kennedy]

They can remove attachments in their OWN contributions in their OWN threads, but not those which have been posted in reply to their questions.

[TMS]

@Ali: sorry, pressed send too quickly and the edit crossed with your response. I agree, low volume, no issue. Let them go if they don't want to be here. Interestingly, the discussion in this thread would go too .

[AliGW]

I think only their posts would go, actually, although I haven't tested that theory!

They can remove attachments in their OWN contributions in their OWN threads, but not those which have been posted in reply to their questions.

Yes, that's true, and as discussed over on the Moderator forum, deleting them becomes our responsibility.

[TMS]

I think you need to take this case by case. Low volume user, just delete it and let it go. High volume user, consider your options.

[AliGW]

That's what we do, effectively, but we always try to dissuade if there's considerable content for the reasons discussed above.

[ByteMarks]

These seem to be the pertinent points.

https://ico.org.uk/for-organisations...ht-to-erasure/


https://ico.org.uk/for-organisations...gdpr-apply-to/

[FDibbins]

What I have done on literally dozens of occasions is to to change the ID to a bunch of random numbers and letters. Even the OP wont know what they have now become.

[FDibbins]

In hindsight though, what really IS the big deal with deleting an account??

I have just been following what has always been done in the past. There is no rule - that I am aware of - to prevent a deletion, and even if there was...who makes the rule here? We do.

So if it is a low volume member, with few posts, I am going to delete their ID from now on.

[TMS]

Good choice.

[ByteMarks]

Not sure what's possible, but on other platforms such as reddit, posts of deleted users remain but without the username. This is probably what people have in mind when requesting this. From a forum point of view, it would be sad to lose posts, especially if they offer a solution.

[FDibbins]

Not really sure how a European law like that would be enforceable in other counties, but be that as it may.

My approach from now on will be - if the user has only a few simple posts, their account will be deleted. If they have a fair amount of threads that will be of benefit to the forum, I will anonymize their ID

[Pete_UK]

In deleting their accounts, would their posts be deleted as well, or just anonymised as "Deleted Poster" for example?

Pete

[AliGW]

See posts #14 and #15: as far as I am aware, their posts are expunged completely. Certainly this is what happens when you ban a user and select to have their content removed.

[AliGW]

This is probably what people have in mind when requesting this.

Changing the user name to anonymise the account is certainly possible, as already mentioned - however a user name has to be unique.

[TMS]

"Deleted User " + date + time maybe.

[Pete_UK]

Or "Deleted User " & Serial_number,

but then someone would need to keep track of what the last number was.

Pete

[TMS]

Hence, date and time ... unique, no effort