Jump to content

No more friends (GDPR...)


Attila_G

Recommended Posts

I was shocked when I read today that Cachly has also removed the Friends feature!

Above all, I do not understand why this violates the GDPR? 
1.) The cachers who were affected accepted all my friendship requests. So they all agreed to let me see their "data".
2.) Even then, each one can block the API access to the public profile data in its profile.
3.) All the data you see in Cachly can also be accessed normally via a user's public profile (even if they are not "friends").

So why does Cachly have to block this function under the excuse of the Data Protection Regulation? 

And where exactly is the data protection regulation violated in this case? If that were the case Groundspeak would have to take all log entries off the net immediately and no user profile would be public anymore. Also Groundspeak should no longer show which friends logged which caches in the dashboard. Please explain why this step became necessary!

:angry:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I know the possible fines regarding GDPR (I live and do business in Europe) but if so Groundspeak would be asked to pay first!! They store, control and make the data publicly available. They are the big player. But for Groundspeak it is obviously no problem to keep all this information public. So I don't understand why Cachly's blocking that information now. Cachly does not store any personal data! Only the public data of Groundspeak is displayed in the app. That's a big difference.

This is about the simplest log and statistical data, which were published under a pseudonym. It's not like publishing someone's medical records with a full name. Should we not simply use common sense?

By the way: The big fines are primarily directed against companies like Facebook, Google and other monster players. No small company has to expect a million-dollar lawsuit, and certainly not in the USA. No arm of Europeans has been that long. Moreover, it would never pay to seek an international trial for a small sum! 

Let's think a little further:
If you really cared about data protection, then all logs would have to be blocked for public access! Only the cacheowners are allowed to see them, because the logs are directed to them. Of course, the statistics should no longer be accessible to anyone! Or just anonymized so you don't know who it belongs to anymore. In the future there would be no more phone jokers and no more hints in the (non-public) logs. Cool yeah!

Quite insane, isn't it? After all, that's exactly the part of the game. 

I am fighting against this absolutely mindless implementation of data protection regulations. This was never in the spirit of the legislator! That is why no European court will deal with such kind of "violations". 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

To give a much more important example:

The website Cach.ly uses Google Analytics and Google Fonts. For me as a European customer, it is precisely this information that needs to be listed in the website's privacy information, because every time I access this website my data is transferred to Google without my knowledge of it. This is an absolutely essential part of a website and exactly because of such violations companies in Europe are being sued. But on Cach.ly I can find neither an imprint nor the information about the person who is responsible for data protection and also no other data protection regulations. This would be much more important than the friends list in the app and above all it is a 100% violation of the GDPR. 

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=gdpr+in+the+usa   ;)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Cachly is a third-party partner is Geocaching and therefore we are bound by the API license agreement. This isn't something that anyone wanted to do, but it needed to be done.

If you have any additional questions please refer to Geocaching HQ through their contact form: https://www.geocaching.com/help/index.php?pg=request

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Here is the answer from the HQ:

Quote

With the arrival of GDPR, we've had to implement some changes to protect the privacy of users. Therefore, API partner applications that have friend functionality were affected by this. We need to ensure that users being followed on partner applications are aware they are being followed. There needs to be a "request to follow" and accept action within the partner application above just being friends on Geocaching.com in order for us to allow that functionality. If that functionality exists, we could consider it with an API partnership. 

I hope they will implement this "request to follow" option soon. Interestingly, the opposite option "Do not allow Authorized Developer applications to access my public profile information" already exists in the profile. So it's a bit confusingly solved, but at least there's hope that the friends list will come back sometime.

Nic, I'm sorry about the initial accusition against Cachly. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
×
×
  • Create New...