Attila_G Posted August 21, 2018 Report Share Posted August 21, 2018 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! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChrisDen Posted August 22, 2018 Report Share Posted August 22, 2018 Geocaching HQ sets the requirements that partners have to comply with, especially with regard to the use of data. I agree this is a bit extreme so I am sure we will see a relaxation in the future. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rragan Posted August 22, 2018 Report Share Posted August 22, 2018 Fines for GDPR violations are huge so I can understand companies being cautious until this recently enacted set of laws is well understood. Erring on the side of caution is prudent albeit a pain for us. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Attila_G Posted August 22, 2018 Author Report Share Posted August 22, 2018 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". Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Attila_G Posted August 22, 2018 Author Report Share Posted August 22, 2018 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 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nic Hubbard Posted August 22, 2018 Report Share Posted August 22, 2018 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 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Attila_G Posted August 22, 2018 Author Report Share Posted August 22, 2018 Ok, this means that Groundspeak does not allow the friends list in the app and it has nothing to do with the GDPR... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nic Hubbard Posted August 22, 2018 Report Share Posted August 22, 2018 3 minutes ago, Attila_G said: Ok, this means that Groundspeak does not allow the friends list in the app and it has nothing to do with the GDPR... If you have specific questions about this I would talk to HQ. Very sorry about having to remove Friends. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Attila_G Posted August 22, 2018 Author Report Share Posted August 22, 2018 Thank you Nic. I sent my question to GS. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Attila_G Posted August 23, 2018 Author Report Share Posted August 23, 2018 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. ChrisDen 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nic Hubbard Posted August 23, 2018 Report Share Posted August 23, 2018 9 hours ago, Attila_G said: Nic, I'm sorry about the initial accusition against Cachly. Thank you. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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