Merging forums and privacy

[Shivan]

Apologies if this is a stupid question but if you were to merge an older forum with a newer one how does it work in terms of data protection and privacy? Do you have to get permission of each member before migrating posts to the newer forum?

 

[duderuud]

That mostly depends on your own terms and the laws in your country.

 

[Mr Lucky]

depends on your own terms and the laws in your country.

I can see how that would affect things. They signed up to one forum with a set of terms and privacy policy, then suddenly find they are in a different for with different terms and privacy policy they never signed up to.

I would not be happy if I didn’t consent to something like that in advance.

 

[avalanch]

I think the best way to go about it would be to leave a notice about the upcoming merger. Let them discuss it, then plan for the merger to happen, at which point you can also plan when to shutdown the old board or archive it.

 

[JohnWD]

My recommendation would be to setup a notice on the old forum (the one to be merged) and pop out an email to all users advising them the board is closing and will be merged. Put a date on it, say 30 days from when the emails are going out. Advise them if they don't want their data to be merged to contact you back by email and then you can choose to anonymise it. Remember that it's only really personal information that's at stake. The user's posts should still be mergeable as long as they don't contain personal information.

 

[Mr Lucky]

Best thing would be to change the terms and privacy (to line up with the terms of the new forum and accept change of forum) before doing the merge and ASAP. Then do a force agreement to both.

 

[JohnWD]

Best thing would be to change the terms and privacy (to line up with the terms of the new forum and accept change of forum) before doing the merge and ASAP. Then do a force agreement to both.

This would actually be a far better idea for the OP but he'd still need to align for the backlog of refusal to accept these terms and closure/anonymisation of accounts. Either way I think this is a better way to go, aligning both TOS together.

 

[Shivan]

Thanks for the responses, everyone.

What would the advice be if the old forum has been deactivated for new posts years ago and remains online as an archive only (and even then barely working)?

 

[JohnWD]

Thanks for the responses, everyone.

What would the advice be if the old forum has been deactivated for new posts years ago and remains online as an archive only (and even then barely working)?

I would personally update the terms of the website and then send out an email through the built-in mass email system informing users that the forum will fully close down from its archive state and merge into an active forum website. I would then give users the right to anonymise their personal data if they choose to and schedule the merge for 30 days' time to allow people time to contact you. After this time, I would perform the merge and if someone wanted their old data removed/anonymised would then need to follow your existing forum procedure for this.

 

[Mr Lucky]

I would personally update the terms of the website and then send out an email through the built-in mass email system informing users that the forum will fully close down from its archive state and merge into an active forum website.

That's a good idea, unless there are a large percentage of bounces and a smtp provider was to penalise you for this.

If the old account is dormant then I would just merge and as above force the T & C and privacy. If old dormant members wake up they'll either accept or not. There isn't much you can do about that except to not have those policies.

 

[Shivan]

Thank you!