Handling of User Data & Terms of Service. Discuss
-
We have been brainstorming about the terms of service for our site with Buddypress. In order to build trustworthy community sites, I think transparency about how user data will be stored and handled is not only legally necessary but also essential for the credibility of the project. This thread is to encourage a discussion about terms of service and the handling of user data.
We would like to provide our users with maximum control over the data they store on our plattform. Ideally that means:
- provide complete transparency about what data we store why
- no lock-in: export of content that has been created
- complete deletion of user data when users unsubscribe from our platform
To execute this control does not seem to be trivial with Buddypress.
We identify (at least) three types of data:
- private information that embellishes the user personality such as the profile fields name, place and interests but also private fotos or videos that can be uploaded to the profile via upcoming plugins;
- data that is created by interaction on the platform, such as comments, the activity feed, private messages or the friends network;
- and the content they generate – in our case less blog posts than event posts
Two major questions arise from this:
- Is it technically even possible to erase or export all user data at once a) for admins and b) for users on a Buddypress site?
- Which data do you think should be excluded from user control in order for a community site to keep working properly, i.e. comments or events? And would it be a good choice to set creative commons licenses for certain types of data?
I would love to hear your thoughts and approaches!
- The topic ‘Handling of User Data & Terms of Service. Discuss’ is closed to new replies.