Yesterday new data privacy laws took hold in the European Union. These laws, known as the “General Data Protection Regulation” or, GDPR, very basically, and I do mean in a very basic form allow European Union residents to demand a company they have data with get rid of said data at that users request (or so my understanding of the law goes in this case.)
Given the track record many companies have for poorly securing data of both active and past customers / users / whomever, this is obviously pretty good for the individual, and while companies certainly won’t like the added upkeep of cleaning databases and having to *gasp* actually be accountable for the security and maintenance of their user databases for once, at least people in Europe have a (legally backed) way to keep companies known for harvesting data, like Google and Facebook, in check on a personal level.
Or, again, so my understanding of what’s going on here goes. See this random post for a bit of an explanation, including video.
I’m in the United States. This website is also, technically and legally located in the United States, hosted on server in Houston, Texas. The GDPR, sadly, does no directly apply to me, but the effects of it are being seen by both me, and everyone else, in the fact that virtually every single service we all use is being updated to reflect the new GDPR rules, since any major company that’s out there certainly does business in the EU and thus is subject to complying with these laws. This does help me as an American as this fact alone makes it likely the GRPR laws will become a new standard in data policy. This of course also shows the weakening power of the United States and US based Mega-corporations on a global scale, but that’s another topic for another time.
For now, I’ll say this much:
I don’t give a damn about your data. Really, I don’t. I mean that in the best way. Unless you’re some troll or otherwise undesirable user who I wish to IP block from the server, I could care less about who you are or having any information of yours on the site. I don’t actively collect any data myself, and only request as much as the software I use on this website requires to provide a user account or subscription to email updates.
To that end, of course, I cannot speak for the software used in hosting and operating this blog, and their own data retention policies. Within my power as the owner and administrator of this site, however, if you request data removal (whatever pathetic amount there is on the site)I will do my absolute best to eradicate it from every area of the site I can, within reason.
Update: After writing this article, I noticed that WordPress now offers personal data options, and lets you know they are there quite directly, as I expected the service to, so that covers that.
I don’t like sites holding on to data any more than necessary, and I don’t like sites of any type needing more data than the absolute minimum to accomplish what services they wish to provide, and only for that end. Xadara is meant to be read, consumed, sometimes interacted with via comments if someone wants to (which I’m considering changing, honestly) and to that end, as I said, I have no need or want for your data.
There. There’s my “terms of service” update which really isn’t a change to anything – I’m just being a bit more public about it, if only for a bit of fun. Take it for what you will, but I am serious about the whole data thing.
Sarcasm. This post is full of it. Or not, I can’t even tell anymore.