A website I subscribe to has a chat room which is mostly full of tulipe, has a few arguments/other popcorn, the odd racist outburst, and the occasional gem etc etc. It's basically just a linear log going back to 2009 to the present day. The chat archive isn't searchable, but you can go to any given point in time and read that page, so in theory, a determined person with sufficient time could start at the beginning and copy and paste to make their own local copy of the log.
The site owner is proposing clearing the log down to the last 30 days - he's said if anyone wants a copy of the archive he could provide one.
Given that most people are using their real name (and some are/were minors too) is that a data protection issue? The end result is no different to someone paging through it and making a copy, but it feels different to me?
Was gonna stick my oar in to the discussion (as is my wont) but would be good to get some expert opinion so I'm not talking complete crap
The site owner is proposing clearing the log down to the last 30 days - he's said if anyone wants a copy of the archive he could provide one.
Given that most people are using their real name (and some are/were minors too) is that a data protection issue? The end result is no different to someone paging through it and making a copy, but it feels different to me?
Was gonna stick my oar in to the discussion (as is my wont) but would be good to get some expert opinion so I'm not talking complete crap
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