Popular Post LUF Admin Posted May 28, 2018 Popular Post Share #1 Posted May 28, 2018 Advertisement (gone after registration) The subject of General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) has caused in recent weeks for discussion and uncertainty. It also affects our forum and photography in general, so I've compiled a summary for you:What it's about: DSGVO or GDPR At the end of last week, the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR, in German DSGVO / Datenschutzgrundverordnung) was activated. It affects not only "normal" customer data in the form of databases or Excel files but also photos of people.The GDPR has a noble goal: It's supposed ensure the protection of personal data and guarantee the right to "informational self-determination" of every EU citizen. You have a right to know what data is stored about you and to have it deleted. Regarding the processing of your personal data, I have to be "data sparing", inform you on request and document how this data is processed.This concerns the forum in several respects, for example: The forum software stores data defined by the law as "personal", e.g. your email address and IP address that you use to access the forum. We need this information to confirm your accounts, send you notifications and ensure the security of the forum. I co-operate with some partner companies who get in contact with this data, e.g. my provider Host Europe, Google Analytics, to analyze the use of the forum and service providers to send out e-mail notifications and newsletters. It is not yet clear in detail if storage and display of portraits are also regulated by the GDPR, but this can have dramatic effects on our image forums. Over the last two months, I have been working on the subject, defining tasks for myself and implementing them step by step. Of course to comply with my legal obligations, but also because I feel personally responsible to handle your data carefully.To put it bluntly, I am not sure that I am complying with all rules - which is less due to my inability, but because of the vast scope for interpretation and the technical flaws of the legislation. Right now we see a big confusion and conflicting expert opinions (data protection lawyers, professional associations, legislative, executive and jurisdictional bodies and data protection officers) about the interpretation of this law. Only the actions of the regulators and subsequent case law will provide some clarity over the next few years.But back to the concrete upcoming changes ...What's changing in the forum For you will change in the forum rather little, for example: The Privacy Policy was completely rewritten and is linked from all forum pages. It contains (in paragraph 9.7) a link that allows you to stop tracking through Google Analytics. As of May 25, I have temporarily disables Personalized Advertising. Whether it will be reactivated depends on information provided by my advertising partners and the development of the legal interpretation by the data protection authorities - and last but not least on the financial losses that I expect to occur. A few days ago I disabled Tapatalk because the US company could neither prove its compliance to privacy regulations nor offer a processing contract. A lot of things happened behind the scenes. One of the results is a thick folder on my desk: Exact list and exact description of all data processing activities regarding my communities Contracts with my hosting provider and other service providers Confidentiality agreements with my employees … and more Photography & GDPR An important topic in the GDPR for the forum and for the internet in general is the photography of people as portraits and especially street photography. At the moment, there is great confusion and disagreement on this topic - not only among the professional and amateur photographers involved, but also among professional associations, specialized lawyers and official bodies.As of today, even the parliamentarians who have passed the law, the German Department of the Interior, and the Conference of Data Protection Officers who are responsible for prosecution of violations are in conflict.In the face of this uncertainty, some operators are switching off their blogs and online shops, as they can not properly assess the legal and financial risks. I do not believe in the end of photography on the internet, not even street photography.Nevertheless, I ask all forum members, when publishing portraits and street photos to exercise particular sensitivity. This was true in the past, but has gained urgency - especially since I have to bear the consequences of violations.Personal Remarks If you have read this far, you can understand that the GDPR means a huge effort for me, keeping me busy over the past weeks and months: Search for the new regulations Finding the right interpretation Definition of the necessary measures and their implementation Last but not least, maintaining discussions in the forums, as many of you are wondering if it's still allowed to publish pictures - or even allowed to take them. You as forum members discussed here in the forum anonymously, I am the only one in the imprint with name and postal address as a contact for any complaint. Therefore, every data protection authority, each lawyer trying to sue me will contact me first, if a violation, suspected or assumed, was found in the forum.Since last week, I have to bear some new risks: Liability risks if I do not properly interpret my legal obligations or misrepresent them Liability risks for misconduct of individual users acting anonymously Lawyers who use gray areas of the regulations to launch mass warnings in order to make money In addition to the immense amount of work and the new risks, the GDPR will probably also have significant financial implications for me: As written, I temporarily switched off personalized advertising until the legal situation has become fairly clear. I do not know yet how it will affect my income: advertising revenues make up a large part of my income.My request for support: Support the forum as a Premium member!€ 40 per year (first year, later 48€) makes us more independent of advertising and gives us a little more scope to continue to actively work on data protection, data security and member support.» Premium Membership Details 29 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Advertisement Posted May 28, 2018 Posted May 28, 2018 Hi LUF Admin, Take a look here GDPR – How it affects the Leica Forum. I'm sure you'll find what you were looking for!
Leica Guy Posted May 28, 2018 Share #2 Posted May 28, 2018 I am a Premium member and I greatly appreciate your work to sort out this confusing area. This forum is an unusual one in how well its run and the quality of people participating and images shown. That’s why I stay active on it. Thanks. 6 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
chris_tribble Posted May 28, 2018 Share #3 Posted May 28, 2018 Ditto! 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
chris_tribble Posted May 28, 2018 Share #4 Posted May 28, 2018 Although strangely I no longer seem to be a premium member! I'll contact Andreas directly! Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
zeitz Posted May 28, 2018 Share #5 Posted May 28, 2018 I will be signing up as a Premium member. GDPR resulted from the absolute disregard of an individual's privacy by many web companies. I am personally concerned about the activity of Google Analytics, a known privacy offender. I am a resident of the United States and appreciate the positive impact GDPR is having globally because the US Congress is too gutless to do anything. 2 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
jaapv Posted May 28, 2018 Share #6 Posted May 28, 2018 I wonder about VigiLink - blocking it results in links not working on this site. Google Analytics have been blocked for years on my computers, I don't trust anything coming from that Moloch. Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
farnz Posted May 28, 2018 Share #7 Posted May 28, 2018 Advertisement (gone after registration) Andreas, Thank you for the hard graft you've been putting in behind the scenes on our behalf to ensure GDPR compliance. I sincerely hope that GDPR does not spell the end for posting portraits or street pictures on the forum. I work for an organisation that is heavily affected by GDPR and has provided training in compliance. None of the training indicated that GDPR includes facsimiles of people or photographic portraiture unless it's 'tagging' of people through social media sites such as FaceBook where an individual's name can be added to an automatic 'balloon'. I understand that it is now possible to prevent tagging of yourself by others through the site's Privacy settings. I personally would not, and have not, identified anyone in pictures I have posted on the forum without their consent, particularly at meetings of forum members, out of politeness and common decency and because I would not wish them to identify me other than by my forum name. Might I suggest new forum guidance or perhaps a 'hard rule', if one is appropriate, preventing people from identifying persons in their pictures where they don't have consent? That might just tip the balance in favour of GDPR compliance or at least help you show you are doing your best to stay on the right side of the Regulations. Pete. Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
tollie Posted May 28, 2018 Share #8 Posted May 28, 2018 (edited) Andreas, I apologize if this question is repetative or has been asked and answered in other parts of the forum. You mention that when "publishing portraits and street photos to exercise particular sensitivity". I wonder if there is some additional clarity. For example, a photo of a child amoung others in a playground. A photo of a street scene which includes a variety of people... perhaps with two of them kissing or otherwise displaying affection in public. Photographs which might otherwise be newsworthy of for example civil disturbance. I understand that there may not be good answers to these questions which protect the Forum and yourself. I value highly the work you, the moderators and all posting members do and want to see this forum continue. Any guidence would be apreciated. Edited May 28, 2018 by tollie Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
pico Posted May 28, 2018 Share #9 Posted May 28, 2018 Thinking back to the earlier internet, about 1990, we were optimistic regarding its benign philosophy, "Share what you know, ask when you do not." There were so many ways to scour sites for users with things like 'finger', 'who' (one version I wrote very early on), and even Altavista had a hole you could drive a truck through, dumping all DEC employees' names. Damn. What were we thinking? This leads me to wonder about our user list. Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
davidmknoble Posted May 28, 2018 Share #10 Posted May 28, 2018 Like many things, progess is hardest on those in business. I am grateful for this forum (and especially the connected wiki), so I will be also contributing as a premium member. Not only for good information, but the ability to share information and experiences we all have. Thanks Andreas! (As a side note: I would love to help contribute images and information to the wiki, how can we do that??) Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
LUF Admin Posted May 28, 2018 Author Share #11 Posted May 28, 2018 You mention that when "publishing portraits and street photos to exercise particular sensitivity". I wonder if there is some additional clarity. […] Any guidence would be apreciated. Difficult… First of all, we are talking about German law under which the Leica Forum is operated. The legal situation until last week was complicated but had a long history of court decisions. Thus you had a fair chance to understand what is OK: Do not publish images of people, except… - You have consent from them - People of general interest - People as part of public demonstrations etc. - Displayed people are not main topic of the image Big playground for lawyers to discuss, but not too complicated Now we have a new law… After an uproar by different professional associations (photographers, public relations people) some politicians tried to clarify that the old law is still in place and the new law does not apply. But the new law is not enforced by politicians but by independent data protection officials. And it looks as if these have another view on photography... My guess: No big change to come... To make clear what I meant by „to exercise particular sensitivity“: Don't try to understand a law that nobody understands fully - especially not the last consequences in court. But try to avoid that anyone starts to complain about your images. I'm definitely not interested in winning legal battles after years Sorry for the lack of guidance ... Andreas 4 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeterD Posted May 28, 2018 Share #12 Posted May 28, 2018 You do a great job, Andreas. I am afraid that the GDPR will add substantially to your load in the short term at least. It really would be a great problem if images of people were to be banned. Getting model-release from a crowd would be difficult. I was looking Wily Ronis' picture of the Strike at the Citroën factory; or for that matter HCB's crowd shots and wondering...if someone in that crowd wanted to be forgotten would the image have to be deleted? The problem isn't trivial and will take a long time to resolve Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
farnz Posted May 28, 2018 Share #13 Posted May 28, 2018 ...if someone in that crowd wanted to be forgotten would the image have to be deleted? The problem isn't trivial and will take a long time to resolve Or would we end up with very unappealing pictures of crowds of people with pixelated faces ... ? Pete. Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
jaapv Posted May 28, 2018 Share #14 Posted May 28, 2018 There have been discussions about that aspect on the German side. Consensus appears to be that our type of photography is not affected. 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
LocalHero1953 Posted May 28, 2018 Share #15 Posted May 28, 2018 You have my deepest sympathy, Andreas, and great respect. I'm working through GDPR for a musical group (a choir). Our problems are small compared to a public forum such as this, and we have good guidance from a national arts co-ordinating body. But it is clear that photography (e.g. of the audience at a concert) is a sensitive area, and, as you have found, it's going to have to wait for case law to become established before we know where we stand. But I think this is short term pain - once the systems are in place, the long term overhead workload should be minimised. Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeterD Posted May 29, 2018 Share #16 Posted May 29, 2018 Or would we end up with very unappealing pictures of crowds of people with pixelated faces ... ? Pete. :-) Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
tollie Posted May 29, 2018 Share #17 Posted May 29, 2018 Difficult… My guess: No big change to come... To make clear what I meant by „to exercise particular sensitivity“: Don't try to understand a law that nobody understands fully - especially not the last consequences in court. But try to avoid that anyone starts to complain about your images. I'm definitely not interested in winning legal battles after years Sorry for the lack of guidance ... Andreas Actually this is helpful indeed. Kindest reguards... 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
thebarnman Posted May 29, 2018 Share #18 Posted May 29, 2018 It seems as like you say; nothing much will change. I think the only time someone will complain is if someone objects to their own likeness in a image posted here or almost anywhere else (not likely.) The only issue I see is if a forum member complains that someone posted pictures of people on this forum without the consent of those pictured...only then I feel is when it could become a problem mainly because someone might work hard to adhere to the new regulations, and then get untangled when someone apparently does not. Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
earleygallery Posted May 29, 2018 Share #19 Posted May 29, 2018 I read an article recently in which the author claimed that GDPR would effectively make business cards illegal. I'm sure a lot of the obsfucation around GDPR is being generated by those with the potential to benefit from charging companies and organisations for their advice on the matter. The key things to remember are that this is about organisations keeping and processing personal data about individuals. Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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