My data has been breached

[Simbaya]

Respond please.

If this was a tiny forum I would agree. But why are people stupid if they think they can trust MN to adhere to a very basic level of GDPR?

I think this is a general issue around MN, particularly for very long-term users. Sometimes the ‘Glory days of Mumsnet’ phenomenon creeps in, leading people to treat it like a cosy little corner of the internet where you can enjoy a nice chat with like-minded parents. You can see this from the number of posters who refer to or directly address ‘Justine’ as if she was a) their mate and b) struggling to moderate all on her own.

The reality is that MN has been a huge business operation for many years now, and Justine Roberts is a multi-millionaire CEO. I’m not questioning or criticising the motivation behind the business, but boundaries seem to be getting a little blurred - on both sides. MNHQ is a huge team, and if posters are angry about a data breach, MNHQ should be left to deal with that without other posters ‘sticking up’ for them and trying to claim it doesn’t matter. I think taking things a little less personally might be a good idea on both sides.

Slightly off topic but most websites offer the ability to change your email in your profile at any time. Why doesn't mumsnet offer this feature as standard?

I think taking things a little less personally might be a good idea on both sides.

Perhaps it would be easier to take it less personally if said multi-millionaire CEO didn't personally post on the thread in a way that was completely unnecessary, in order to attempt to deflect attention away from said CEO's company's appalling data breach and encourage judgement of the OP's posts.

(Also slightly ironic to reference the 'huge team' when Justine's begging letters for people to sign up to Premium highlighted that the single biggest staff costs within the team were for IT...not exactly looking money well spent these days, is it?)

I've changed my email in my account exactly as you say. Just go into settings.

This thread is absolutely crazy. How can someone’s email address get sent to not one but THREE people? And it wasn’t even a glitch, just something caused by human error.

Also, Justine’s comments on this thread??? It’s as if she has some personal vendetta against the OP. How can you be the CEO and sound so unhinged?!

Am I the only one who doesn’t see what’s wrong with the OP’s comments? If I would have seen that commented then I wouldn’t have reported or even thought twice about it. Maybe more context is needed but I don’t see the problem. Definitely don’t think it’s cool for Justine to just drop the comments in a ‘this justifies your email address getting sent out’ way😕

I obviously haven’t explained myself very well. I’m not saying the OP shouldn’t be upset or angry - I know I would be. In terms of boundaries being blurred on both sides, I mean MNers acting like they have to stick up for MNHQ, or specifically Justine Roberts, as if she were a friend, and her responses straying from the professional to the personal.

You can change your email at any time.

However, once I'd done this I received an email from MN to my previous email address many months later. I wasn't the only one and we were informed that the email had been sent to the 'wrong mailing list'. As far as I'm aware, none of us received a satisfactory answer as to why previous email addresses were still being held in any database although I was assured it had since been deleted.

Sloppiness with personal data at every turn.

@Ffoxx and @LemonRedwood oh okay thank you! Now I am even more confused with people saying they are using a new account with a burner email. If you can name change freely and also change the account email then why?

Anyway, I hope the op is getting more/better support behind the scenes from mnhq

If you can name change freely and also change the account email then why?

Because, as people have described on this thread, MN's treatment of data is such that previous email addresses did not get deleted from their account, but are stored as previous email addresses. So the same problem that exists with your personal email address being associated with your account and your posts and your username, potentially remains.

If you delete your account they get rid of everything apart from your posts and usernames, this is why it is wise to delete and rejoin every so often.

Do they though?

It's already been shown that they retain old email addresses (or have done in the past anyway, with no satisfactory explanation), so who can actually be sure?

They don't delete it as I've had emails from them after accounts were "deleted".

Email addresses seem to be there if you change it but that may be if you are signed up for emails because when I changed my email I still got emails to my old email because of this, it must be a separate bit so you also need to go in and delete all notifications like newsletter and mumsnet offers. When you delete your account there is a list of things MN get rid of so one would hope that is right. Apples hide my email is quite useful to use if you have Apple.

I can't remember if I still got the marketing emails after I deleted my account, I certainly got them when I changed email

I never signed up for emails but I started getting them to an old address "deleted" years ago when they launched the fewer ads Mumsnet premium

So they probably don't delete them properly, fortunately the only proper email I have ever used is an old defunct Tesco one, I have never wanted to use the same one for stuff like MN and Twitter as banking and important stuff.

Hi @MNHQ @JustineMumsnet

Are you able to confirm the number of people affected by this yet?

And also that reporters' own email addresses being exposed in replies is being fixed.

There is absolutely no reason to expose reporters' email addresses in replies, any half way thought through contact system should be masking contact details for customer/reporter, respondent/moderator and any third parties so that nobody in the conversation has personal details exposed.

This new system has exposed all three when all three should be concealed.

Are we just ignoring this all in the hope that it will cease to have happened?

There’s a ten-page thread about it. It’s hardly been ignored.

C8H10N4O2 - Apologies if I have become confused by the issues mentioned in this thread.

Has Mumsnet said that "reporter" email addresses have been exposed to the person reported, ie. as well as the "reporter" being sent the email address of the person they have reported in "about 20 cases"?

I am still in touch with a Mumsnetter who was banned last year. She suddenly started getting automatic emails about a year after she was banned,. They were notifications of threads she had been watching.

Maybe it was part of the weird time-machine thing where deleted PMs from years ago have been suddenly reappearing in Inboxes?

I assume that when an account is banned and closed by Mumsnet that the email address is retained in order to identify ex-members who rejoin after being banned? However, Mumsnet should not be spamming ex-members with "Watch Notifications". Rubbing salt into the wound if the member has been banned.

It makes me wonder if Mumsnet retains account details if someone has closed their account voluntarily?

I think the ICO needs to take a good hard look at these issues for everyone’s sakes.

And MNHQ should hire a data protection professional to do a thorough investigation.

(I still find it hard to believe a single staff member was able somehow to ‘add in’ posters’ email addresses accidentally.)

MN absolutely assured everyone, some time after Jeffery-gate, that old email addresses had been permanently deleted if users updated to a new address, as they put forward no business reason for retaining then.

I changed addresses then, and will be absolutely furious if

a) retained anywhere my old email address, and therefore

b) have reneged on their assurances that they were deleting all old eaddresses.

And b is the reason for the furious response. If that had happened it would clearly indicate untrustworthiness, and a bad attitude to their community (tell 'em one thing, do another - they're not worth straight dealing)