What is GDPR?
GDPR, the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), took effect May 25th 2018. A European privacy law, GDPR imposes new rules on companies, government agencies, non-profits, and other organizations that offer goods and services to people in the European Union (EU), or that collect and analyze data tied to EU residents. GDPR applies no matter where you are located.
What is CCPA?
On January 1, 2020, the California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018 (CCPA) went into effect and enforcement began on July 1, 2020. The CCPA is a California privacy law that is applicable to businesses doing business in California and that meet one of three revenue thresholds. It also applies to service providers of those businesses, who are defined under the CCPA as a company handling PI on behalf of a business, for a business purpose.
Closing Your GDF Account
In the Preferences option under the avatar drop-down, the user can close their Google Developer Program forums account permanently. The user will be signed out as soon as the account is closed. Closure clears all Personally identifiable information (PII) fields in the forum. You can find more information on closing your account in our related support article.
Request Your Content Prior to Account Closure
When GDPR is enabled, Google Developer Program forums members who decide to leave the forums can make a request to obtain their content before they close their accounts. To make this request for forums content and personal information:
- Sign in to the Google Developer Program forums
- Click on your avatar to open the drop-down menu and select ‘Preferences’.
- Navigate to the bottom of the screen to the ‘Export your data’ option and click on ‘Request archive’.
- Two confirmation pop-ups will display. One will confirm that you want to request the archive and the other lets you know the process has begun and you will be notified when the collection is completed:
FAQ Regarding Data Archive Requests
Q: How long does it take to receive the data archive?
A: Typically, it takes a few minutes, depending on the size of the user’s content.
Q: Can I customize the data included in the archive?
A: No, the data archive request cannot be customized through the normal data request process. You can however send an email to the Google Developer Program forums team at gdp-forums-support@google.com with your specific request providing detailed information pertaining to specific topics and categories. There still may be limitations with customized requests.
Q: How often can I request an archive of my user data?
A: Google Developer Program forums users can request archives once in a 24 hour period.
Q: What should I do if a data export fails?
A: If a data export requests fails, please reach out to support at: gdp-forums-support@google.com
You can read more about how to view and export personal data and further information on privacy and the Google Developer Program forums in our Privacy Policy. It can be found at the bottom of the screen, in the footer of the page.
Community Contributions after Account Closure
A user’s contribution (posts, comments) and engagement (likes, solutions) will be retained in the community after account closure. They will be associated with an anonymous user account, identified as ‘anonxxxx’, that has a default avatar to distinguish it from other users.
PII Data in Posts, Replies, etc.
Users are advised not to share any personal data in posts or attachments, and the Community moderation policy is expected to enforce this. The user account closure option does not systematically auto-clear any personal data inadvertently included in posts, attachments, messages, etc. This falls under the purview of manual Community moderation, meaning that not all PII may be caught.
Account Closure ETA
The estimated time it takes to close an account is 30 days.
Recovering a Closed Account
A closed account cannot be recovered if a user changes their decision at a later time. The user can however sign up again with the same email address as well as username if no other active community account using the name or email address exists. This process does NOT recover the user’s previous community account. It treats the user as a fresh new user and none of their previous contributions can be restored.
Reusing a Username
If available, the user might be able to use the same username in the Community. However, it will be treated as a new account with no association to the previous use.