The data protection act and privacy act

[RawSubDad]

On 3/10/2024 at 2:19 PM, JamesL100 said:

Given the nature of your complaint, I'm surprised you have signed with your full name to remove any ambiguity or anonymity.

In my opinion, it takes courage to stand before a group under your own name and make a complaint. It’s easy to hide behind anonymous usernames under an account made for that purpose. I also personally believe that, in all but the most serious allegations of wrongdoing, anonymous complaints aren’t worth the electrons they’re written with (same for anonymous compliments).  If you need proof, look at online reviews of new business (Yelp comes to mind but I’ve seen it on Google reviews as well), where you’ll frequently read identical or nearly identical reviews published under different usernames, each with minimal or no other reviews in an attempt to pan or promote the business by “stuffing the ballot box”, so to speak,

Wikipedia also understands the importance of accountability through transparency and identification.  Anyone may edit a Wikipedia page but do it under a registered account and you can be identified TJ’s way you want - either as you or under your chosen pseudonym.  However, choose to edit without registering and any anonymity you hoped for is dashed as your IP address is becomes permanent part of that page’s edit history, available to all who want to see who i/ responsible 

 

I don’t have an opinion on the underlying complaint and it’s merits but I respect the decision to openly articulate his concerns and do so I a way that could expose him to the ridicule a scorn which we all know can be brutal.  I think we should encourage less anonymity and more openness and transparency, even if we disagree with the message.
 

[cub84]

As someone with a fair bit of DPA/GDPR experience in the UK I thought it might be useful to give my take on the situation.

First the legal position, caveat here I’m not a legal professional but have worked with closest with data protection specialists:

1. Breeding Zone as a forum site is a platform not a publisher, users are the publishers and are responsible for what they do and don’t post.
2. Depending on where they are based platforms have different requirements to comply with regards data privacy.
3. Just because you can access a website on the internet does not automatically mean that the laws in your country apply to that site. It’s not quite the same, but the easiest way to think about it is to take a physical world analogy, if you go on holiday to another country then the laws of that country apply not the laws of your home country.
4. That being said the GDPR was drafted to apply to any website that provides a service to residents in the EU (and UK). In theory, sites based outside have to comply with the law if they have users based in the UK/EU. In practice, if a website is based outside of these jurisdictions then you have little to no chance of ensuring compliance if they are in breach of the law.
5. Breeding Zone has no presence in the UK or EU, so even where there are laws that apply to internet platforms, unless there is a legal entity in those jurisdictions there’s little you can do even if you think there’s a valid complaint. The big tech firms have a presence in the UK/EU because they actively do business in these places.
6. Websites based outside of the UK/EU tend to apply one of two approaches: (i) block access from those locations, or (ii) implement cookie controls and account deletion policies. Breeding Zone has taken the second course of action.
7. Adopting this second approach makes Breeding Zone compliant with UK/EU law on data protection and privacy.

Second let’s consider the specifics:

1. You allege that Breeding Zone has published your personal data. As per point 1 above, you are the publisher not Breeding Zone. Just because a platform gives you the ability to publish information does not mean you have to publish information.
2. Before you register for an account it is quite obvious that a lot of content is publicly available. Breeding Zone does not deceive any one of this fact.
3. You do not have to use your real name, you do not have to publish your date of birth (you have to provide a date of birth so the site is compliant with adult content regulations but that information does not need to be publicly available, you can change the viability of it at any time), you do not have to publish your contact details, you do not have to publish identifiable photos of yourself. Ultimately, you have chosen to do all of these things.
4. Even if everything were private (ie you could only see content if a registered user and logged in) the legal position would be unchanged.
5. Not having read the terms and conditions has never been a valid defence in a court of law.
6. As far back as 2019 you have posted on this site: “I am confident of my experience of this website and sure,I have not so sure moments,but I firmly believe that,the best path is to 'wash your dirty washing in public'.Nobody can surprise you then.   I have  four accounts registered here. I cannot delete the memory,so why agitate myself.Life is too short.”
7. I don’t repeat that out of malice but to indicate that you’ve been aware of the public nature of this site for quite some time. You could have stopped posting or interact with this website at that point in time but you did not.

I’m not intending this to come across as rude or condescending, we all sometimes do things that in the future we’re not at always happy about. Regret about past behaviour and any impact that has on us in the present can be painful. You might not be comfortable with what you have previously published here, but it is not Breeding Zone’s fault and they have not broken any laws.

[BootmanLA]

20 hours ago, RawSubDad said:

In my opinion, it takes courage to stand before a group under your own name and make a complaint. It’s easy to hide behind anonymous usernames under an account made for that purpose. I also personally believe that, in all but the most serious allegations of wrongdoing, anonymous complaints aren’t worth the electrons they’re written with (same for anonymous compliments).  If you need proof, look at online reviews of new business (Yelp comes to mind but I’ve seen it on Google reviews as well), where you’ll frequently read identical or nearly identical reviews published under different usernames, each with minimal or no other reviews in an attempt to pan or promote the business by “stuffing the ballot box”, so to speak,

Wikipedia also understands the importance of accountability through transparency and identification.  Anyone may edit a Wikipedia page but do it under a registered account and you can be identified TJ’s way you want - either as you or under your chosen pseudonym.  However, choose to edit without registering and any anonymity you hoped for is dashed as your IP address is becomes permanent part of that page’s edit history, available to all who want to see who i/ responsible 

 

I don’t have an opinion on the underlying complaint and it’s merits but I respect the decision to openly articulate his concerns and do so I a way that could expose him to the ridicule a scorn which we all know can be brutal.  I think we should encourage less anonymity and more openness and transparency, even if we disagree with the message.
 

I think the point being made was that if you're concerned about one's own personal information being made public, a rather peculiar way of showing it is to register for a site like this using your own personal information in a way that it can clearly be seen by anyone who looks at (not even joins, just "looks at") this forum.

[PaganzofLA]

I'm much more skeptical of the OP's intentions, if genuine, ok you're a whiny little b and I suppose can be forgiven (lets see ur ass) and while you may very well fain being ALL butthurt nobody here is playing with a marked deck, we are ALL subject to the same liberties as well as the same potential consequences. so, therefore you must deal. I don't buy the sincerity, at all. bullshit seems to be trending.  

[RawSubDad]

On 4/5/2024 at 6:42 PM, BootmanLA said:

I think the point being made was that if you're concerned about one's own personal information being made public, a rather peculiar way of showing it is to register for a site like this using your own personal information in a way that it can clearly be seen by anyone who looks at (not even joins, just "looks at") this forum.

You  should probably put in a little work on reading comprehension. Re-read the post from JamesL100 who I quoted and whose position promoting/encouraging anonymous complaints, I was refuting. I’m aware of the main argument as I said in my response, I’m simply not qualified to express an informed opinion on the subject. I was addressing a secondary point. Some subjects are complex and conversations about them require participants to follow multiple points in order understand what’s being discussed. This is one of those conversations. 

[UKFFBBBtm]

On 4/15/2024 at 5:26 PM, keith55 said:

x

So you complain about your data not being secure and that your pictures and name can be found, then you decide to repost all your pictures. 

So the whole post was just for attention. Gotcha