geegeez.co.uk, GDPR, and You: An Outline
Hi, it’s Matt here with a geegeez update on GDPR, the big new privacy rule you’ve likely heard a lot about lately. Specifically what it means for you as a visitor to geegeez.co.uk...
Data protection: Why you're getting so many emails about privacy
You'd be forgiven for thinking those privacy emails you've been getting are all because of the recent Facebook scandal - but you'd be wrong.
From Facebook to booking.com, your favourite restaurant to your internet or broadband provider - you will have noticed they've all been in touch.
That's because a BIG new statute is about to become law.
The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), passed by the EU and applicable to all businesses operating in that collective, was scheduled long before the Cambridge Analytica bombshell hit the news.
Why am I getting these emails?
Ppretty much every email list you've signed up to (including this one, if you were directed here via a geegeez email), ecommerce shop you've bought from, or website you're part of (including geegeez.co.uk) stores information about you.
In almost all cases, there is nothing sinister about this: it absolutely doesn't mean they've done anything with your details that they shouldn't have. Geegeez obviously hasn’t. But this new regulation, which replaces the Data Protection Act 1998, is designed to give you, the customer, better control over who has what data.
In a nutshell, you have the following rights as an individual:
the right to be informed;
the right of access;
the right to rectification;
the right to erasure;
the right to restrict processing;
the right to data portability;
the right to object; and
the right not to be subject to automated decision-making including
profiling.
These emails you've been receiving - and this article - are essentially telling you that they've rewritten their terms and conditions to account for the above rights of the individual, i.e. you.
What's new?
Those labyrinthine terms and conditions pages that you probably scrolled straight to the bottom of, because they are really long and legalistic, now need to be written in language that's easy to understand. Geegeez's terms have always been pretty clear, and can be found here.
You, as the individual, must also specifically 'opt in' to receive emails, or to allow your data to be shared, and can ask for it to be removed at any time. Given that every email on our mailing list was permission-based, i.e. you opted in if you're on there, and given that in ten years online we have never shared and will never share your data, there is nothing new from a geegeez.co.uk perspective except to tell you about GDPR and our obligations.
There's lots more information on GDPR here if you want it.
Do I need to do anything?
No, unless you want to. It's obviously worth knowing which businesses are storing your data and the emails you’ve been receiving are a solid pointer to that.
Plus, it's a really good time to spring clean your inbox. If you're getting emails from people you don't much care for any more, then take the opportunity to unsubscribe.
Naturally, we hope you’ll remain part of the geegeez community, but you retain the right – as you’ve always had – to opt out by clicking the link at the bottom of each email we send you.
All fine, but what data exactly do geegeez.co.uk collect?
Good question, and the primary purpose of this article, in fact. Apart from the more obvious data such as your email address (provided by you for the purpose of communicating) and your user account details (provided by you for the purpose of accessing permission-based content, i.e. member services, on geegeez.co.uk). we also store the following:
- Your Gold preferences (so you see the views and data you choose to see)
- Pages you visit on geegeez.co.uk – we use this in a general sense, via Google Analytics (i.e. not specific to you) to understand content that is hot (we’ll produce more of that in future) and content that is not (we’ll produce less of that in future)
- Facebook pixel – from time to time we advertise some of our content on facebook. The idea is to introduce geegeez.co.uk to people who may not have heard of it – there are more of these guys than you might think! But we do not follow you around the internet, like some companies do. I can’t honestly say we’ll never do that, but I can say there are no plans for us to do it, and we certainly won’t be doing it in 2018. Clearly, if this position does change, it will be broadcast and our terms amended accordingly.
- Social media connections – we use a bit of code to make it easier for you to share our great content with your mates on social meejah. It connects, with your permission, to your preferred social account(s) and posts, when you click send/post/like, to that account.
What if I don’t want some or all of that to happen?
Here at geegeez.co.uk, we take your data privacy very seriously. We always have. I personally operate on the basis that I don’t want to waste people’s time who don’t consider hanging out with me/us/geegeez a pleasurable way to spend time.
That’s why we’ve always had opt out links in our emails; and why users can request deletion of their unwanted geegeez website account(s) (we purge unused accounts after two years, also).
Those elements listed above are the only data we store on our servers. Payment information is not stored by us but, rather, by our payment partners at PayPal.
Cookie info is stored on your machine locally, and you can delete that at any time via your browser’s privacy settings.
Ultimately, we have always looked after our subscribers’ rights, and we always will. You continue to have complete control over your data, and if you have any questions about anything in this note, please do contact me/us. We’ll be happy to help clarify anything.
Thanks for reading this. It may be a little 'boring' in one sense, but the behaviour of some of the biggest digital companies in the world in recent years has fully justified, indeed necessitated, it. As a matter of fact, I was so incensed by what facebook did that I changed my profile to be a 113-year-old woman with no other personal data stored (except for a link to geegeez.co.uk, and an obligatory email as a means of having an account there - see image below) - I get very few ads on there now, and those that are presented to me are... interesting (see below below).
geegeez.co.uk ain't no facebook. And, happily, nor are most businesses whose profit can be measured in smaller denominations than billions. But the GDPR is a good piece of legislation in my opinion, which will help protect us all from automated scumbaggery by the mega-wealthy autobots.
Matt
Interesting profile...
These are the ads that get served to me...
Yup, as a 113-year-old I'm keen to better understand my mood... and I'm certainly keen to "feed my fashion hunger"!
Other Recent Posts by This Author:
must try that on facebook, perhaps if I am 115 year old man we could hook up sometime
Nice image, Sid, thanks! Centurion tea dances may be the way forward…
Matt
I will be writing to various bodies informing them they do not have my permission to pass on any of my details to other agencies including banks, credit reference companies, government agencies, etc unless I am asked first and only if I grant that request. (Gee- geez is not one of them!)
The ‘if you have nothing to hide’ argument is nonsense. It is used by a whole host of people and organisations to gain at another’s expense.
I was drowsy after the first few lines then went to sleep.
Think I’ve got the gist of it but shouldn’t I be signing something to say I’m happy to go on receiving your stuff, Matt?
Tony
Hi Tony
Sorry, I tried to keep it interesting!
Re signing something to say you’re happy to go on receiving emails, No is the answer. The reason is because we already used permission-based opt in (and, in most cases, double opt in) for our entire email list. That is sufficient to satisfy GDPR requirements.
As I say, we also include unsubscribe links on every email we send, so it’s all rosy.
Matt