Do I really have to?
I mean what’s the worst that could happen to a little ole blogger… what? a fine? HOW MUCH!!? Well, shit. ok.
So what do I store. Well, in the database that holds all the comments ever left here (and there have been at least a few) will have your name or pseudonym, and whatever email address and URL you provided, plus the text of your comment.
If you have left a comment, firstly, thanks! It’s such a rare occurence these days it’s always a pleasant surprise. You should also know that I do not, have not, WILL NOT EVER sell your personal data to any other party for any reason, not for all the money in the world*.
If you want me to delete or edit your data I will. If you want to see the exact data I hold about you, I’m sure I can dig that out of the database although as there are only two unique data points to go on I might not be able to meet that request because I think you need three unique data points to confirm a person as WHO THEY REALLY ARE and until then you are all just scammers and ne’er-do-wells.
What else do I need to do here?
I honestly have no idea.
It’s all so very confusing and if, like me, you’ve already received emails from places you didn’t even know you were a customer/member of, it’s a mass of slightly similar but slightly conflicting approaches.
“YOU MUST CONFIRM if you want us to keep in touch with you” blares my first GDPR email of the day.
“Just to let you know… YOU DON’T NEED TO DO A THING” shouts the second GDRP email of the day.
“Your new sex doll has been delivered to…” ummm hang on, that must be spam, or something. I’ve no idea how that got there….
As others have said, GDPR is a triumph of good intent versus awful implementation. I’ve been on a course about it at work and I’m still none the wiser. It’s a bit like the government announced they were building a house, and dumped some timber, a few random tools, some fixings, and a bag of mixed nails and screws and told us all to build a house by May 25th.
It came from a European Directive, so perhaps the real problem is that the Spanish are forever taking siestas whilst the French and Italians argue about who has the best wine, meanwhile the Germans are point blank refusing to have any part in building a wall, and the UK contingent are all scratching the arses and shouting lewd sexist comments at passersby.
What the rest of the world must think of us beggars belief.
Except, it doesn’t. It’s just another embarassing incident that, like Brexit, will be swept under the carpet as if nothing has happened.
I appear to have wandered a little bit off topic.
To summarise my position on GDPR and its impact on you as it relates to this blog, suffice to say that I store very very little data about you, it’s not enough data to identify you anyway, and if you want it changed or deleted, or just want to see what I have, then get in touch.
And with that, I bid Good Day to you Precious Reader!**
* Ok, maybe for a £100billion cos that way I’ll be above the law and not give a shit about you plebs
** Yeah I’m not sure this post was entirely worth the payoff. Sorry!
I had to write to a small group of friends who meet monthly, but there’s a subscription so it counts as an organisation. I said, I have their names, addresses, phone numbers and emails, because I have to, to communicate with them. Once a year, I sent out an information sheet with names, phone nos and emails. If they aren’t happy with that, though I checked with each at the time, let me know and I’ll just give the name. I thought that fitted the bill.
I think that most of us are hoping that those organisations that are desperate not to lose touch with us, but whose emails we’ve ignored, will actually delete us as they’ve said they will. Not holding my breath though.