When wilk Mumsnet or MPs challenge tabloids that take site chats and publish without permission ?

[WillLokireturn]

It really worries me that this is a limited (log in or search) niche forum for relatively safe chats (limited to those that are interested) and that national tabloids steal information, publish it generically as widely, and share information that might be personal only MN site has consent to, without permission of the OP for that wider audience

It so contravenes spirit of permission for this site only and what GDPR means. Why is no one challenging them nor reporting tabloids to regulator for this?

You are publishing your posts on a public website. The hosting is irrelevant, you have put it in the public domain.

If the tabloids were posting your PMs or personal information supplied to MN and not posted on the public site then you might have a case. As it stands, you don't.

Here you go OP, MN’s privacy policy, very clear on the subject.

I understand what you're getting at. But to achieve greater privacy would require more controls on accessing the site, not being able to search for posts via search engines for example, having to have a log in, having to provide verified real contact information in order to join.

All of those things would restrict access and reduce usage. I suspect many many times more people read Mumsnet than post. Therefore more restrictions would simply discourage people from using it. Pageviews would drop, ad revenues would drop, business model would fail.

Remember: "if you're not paying for the product, you are the product."

If you want to have private chats, use the PM system, or for relative privacy and wider discussion, use Facebook or similar, where you have some control over who can see what you publish.

Head *thud
Maybe I shouldn't have asked at gone 11pm 🙄😁

Ask again in the morning if you like, I’ll give you the same answer.

What personal data has been taken without consent OP?

Where someone gets a thread taken down, it’s not because their personal data has been misused, it’s usually because they’ve over-shared.

It really worries you?🙄

Anyone can read here without logging in. It's not limited or secure in any way.

There’s no point

If you want to debate GDPR you need to understand it and you very clearly don’t.

I can’t identify you OP. Therefore what you are typing now is not personal data.

If you typed your full name, that would be personal data, however as you would have yourself chosen to make it available to 7 billion people by putting it on a public website, no one would be “stealing” it or misusing it.

@WillLokireturn - this is a question that has been asked a number of times, since lazy journalists started mining MN threads for material, and it is my understanding that MNHQ and their legal team have looked carefully into the matter, and concluded that the journalists are not doing anything illegal.

Is it morally and ethically wrong - maybe yes. Is it lazy journalism - definitely. But according to MNHQ it doesn’t contravene the law.

Flowery 👏🏼

I've asked once, I'll ask again - what are you classing as personal information OP?

Posters personal data which they provide to MN when registering is not accessible outside of MN.

couple points, every website is 'named'

posts are public, this is a public forum.

yes while under gdpr permission for some things is limited, but those things are personal details. not the content of posts. legally if you put up your address name band account an pin number in a post, the tabloids could post them and it would be 50/50 if you could actually se them, because posts are public. this is all explained in the GDPR, worth a read if your gonna talk about it.

tabloids arent bypassing anything, they are taking something in the public realm and shining a light on it. if they where publishing your private details, that would be another story

‘personal data’ means any information relating to an identified or identifiable natural person (‘data subject’); an identifiable natural person is one who can be identified, directly or indirectly.

this is why they always take pictures of the posts and blur out the name(its indirectly identifiable), then they havent put up personel data. the contents of your posts are not personal data.

hope this helps

Remember: "if you're not paying for the product, you are the product.

Yep, always worth baring in mind on a public board.

I wasn’t privy to the discussions but I would imagine any investigation into possible legal breaches when the newspapers started doing this would have revolved largely around copyright/intellectual property concerns rather than privacy.

"It really worries me that this is a limited (log in or search) niche forum for relatively safe chats (limited to those that are interested)"

There are a number of misrepresentations in this.

Anyone can read or browse MN, and anyone can register as a user.(with no verification of identity)

It is a wide-open talk site and one of the largest in UK. It is not niche - it positions itself as for parents, but is open to absolutely anyone parent or not.

There are no safe spaces on MN and, even the one topic you need to be logged in to see, they are not limited to those interested. Anyone, globally can see what is there regardless of their level of interest.

Globally published material can be used by the press. When you post on MN you are publishing globally. The press are doing nothing illegal.

There are periodic threads about tabloid use of threads (which is much deplored but not because it is illegal) and I'm pleased to see the the patience of the posters who actually know/work with GDPR or related publishing issues, in explaining it as many times as is needed.

But to put it in fairly basic, non-legal terms - never ever confuse global publication on MN with the somewhat safer space of a closed FB group

You can thud your head all you like OP, but your time would be better spent understanding the difference between public postings and private correspondence.

OP? Care to come back now it’s morning?

My name is Shitbag actually it's Clare
I live in Edinburgh.
I earn £72,000.
I am an accountant.
I have a dog called Joey and Siamese cats called George and Mabel.
My partner plays brass in a well-known symphony orchestra.
My house is worth £435,000
I am half-Polish, quarter-Irish, quarter-English by birth and was born in March 1969.

There you go OP. How's that for personal data?

Can you please tell me how you know any/some/all/none of it is true and therefore how GDPR has been breached when I have knowingly posted it on the internet, in full awareness of MN's privacy policy?

Hi there OP,

Thanks so much for getting in touch. We definitely do understand why Mumsnetters are concerned about this but unfortunately, there's not a lot we can do to stop tabloids lifting stories - they'd likely claim fair use, which would be pretty difficult for us to challenge. As other people have mentioned on the thread, Mumsnet is an open site and users are anonymous - provided they don't post including details that identify them. We always encourage Mumsnetters to change small details to avoid being identified.

Having said that, we do what we can to help Mumsnetters out in this situation. If anyone feels they've posted in too much detail, or their thread has been lifted by tabloids they can always get in touch with MNHQ and we're happy to take a look.

I got a thread deleted recently because there was a link to another PUBLIC forum......................

Unfortunately MNHQ have a conflict of interest on this.

They provide the forum to enable people to share information about themselves. If it's controversial so much the better. Without the juicy gossip, the site would be pretty dull. Any publicity they get from the Daily Fail is grist to the mill. No publicity is bad publicity as they say. So HQ probably see it as a happy byproduct if the Fail pick up on a MN Parking or NDN from Hell thread

Its 100% the responsibility of the poster what they post, the disclaimers and the warnings mean they are given Full Informed Consent at all times. MNHQ isn't holding a gun to their head!

Maybe I shouldn't have asked at gone 11pm

Maybe you should have checked what the GDPR actually says before posting?