Social section was always private to members, now on new forum you are able to read posts without logging in.
This new forum is ‘more secure’. Mmm, I have put things on happy for members to read but not everyone.
It is not on, members were told this area members only, not the case.
Will you protect area or at least update members can be searched by non members,
PDUK Updating this forum in my opinion has been a waste of funding
I for one wasn’t aware of this Teehee, and I’m also not very pleased. You (we) think we are talking privately to other PWP’s in confidence on this forum in all areas
Sheila
The social section was supposed to be the only area where non members could not view. All other categories/ posts can be viewed with posts topics on google, on new and old forum.
Since new forum you are able to search posts made my members on social section. There now appears to be no private areas for members.
Thanks for bringing this to all our attentions Teehee, as I said I’m not too pleased. Don’t know whether I’ll carry on commenting on forum from now on. - Sheila
I would add to this on old forum you could not have access to personal story, details without logging in. On this new forum you can search for a user and see their introduction .
Not picked up by moderators so will copy in Reach to follow up. @Reah.
Social section is the social club area of the forum.
I have checked today and see that you can no longer view social club without logging in.
However, you can still read part of posts on social club on google search but during the last day or so you are unable to click on the information to be directed to the forum to read all the posts,
Privacy on social club remains an issue.
I have had no feedback since raising this issue, if PDUK are stating social club is a private area, then it should be, I think that is reasonable?
I have just checked the other privacy issue.
Without logging in you are still able to click on users picture/avator and get their details , badges, how many posts made etc.
This was blocked on previous forum, is this an error or does PDUK need to tell members this is public .
Hi @TeeHee,
Thanks for bringing these privacy issues to our attention.
We have since rectified the privacy settings on the social category and have flagged this with our wider team for them to look into this further. Whilst we appreciate your concerns regarding this, I just want to reassure you that we have not received an overwhelming amount of traffic to this particular section of the forum within this time.
With regard to the user pictures and avators, this has always been the case which is why we encourage our members not to share their personal details (e.g. real names) on the forum.
Thanks in advance for your understanding.
Best regards,
Reah
Reah,
Firstly thankyou for your reply.
There appears to be a misunderstanding about the second issue…
THIS HAS NOT ALWAYS BEEN THE CASE.
I am not referring just to people using their own names rather than a user name.
Neither am I referring to people choosing to put their photo on.
I am talking out the information about that forum user.
On the old forum if you clicked on an avator/photo it would not provide further details about that person if not a member.
NOW IT DOES
I do not accept that you say do not put personal details on as an excuse for this. When the forum was changed members should have been told that information about themselves was previously private but not now.
I do not think it is acceptable that no apology has been offerred the posts on social was private and thats why people spoke freely including myself.
This new forum allowed non members to read posts as far back as January 2017 not just allowed people to view ‘private’ posts made on the new forum.
I saw that a padlock symbol has been put on social section but I am really getting frustrated as you are able to read part of those posts on a google search.
There is no part of this forum that is private, please let members know this if you are unable to prevent search engines from giving out details of posts made in so called private areas of the forum,
I signed a petition as a member of this forum. I was not aware that the organisation /owner of the petition would be given my full name and e mail address without my permission.
The information was clearly given by pduk perhaps I missed the small print.
I could go on.
I no longer trust this forum to keep my details private.
Hi Teehee,
Thank you for your reply.
I can confirm that information about forum users has always been visible to people outside of the forum community as per our forum rules which can be viewed here, however it is displayed differently from what you saw on the old forum. It therefore might look like more personal information is visible but this is according to each forum members’ discretion.
We understand that things look different on the new forum and changes do take time to adapt to so we appreciate your feedback.
We sincerely apologise for the error made with the ‘Social Club’ thread, however as mentioned in my previous message, we have now made this section of the forum private again and people cannot view it unless they have signed up to the forum.
If you are dissatisfied with our privacy settings, we have a dedicated feedback department that can address your concerns further and you are more than welcome to contact them via email at [email protected] or I am more than happy to speak to you directly.
Best regards,
Reah
Surely Reah, this info should come under the Data Protection Act and should not have gone viral without the forum users being informed. They like me would have thought it was just for use of those with PWP who joined the forum and didn’t mind a minority knowing their business, and to give them a bit of insight as to who they where posting or speaking to, and not as I said going viral which then gave way to a majority reading it.
Hi @shefinn ,
Thank you for your email.
To reassure you we did not see more people visiting the ‘Social Club’ thread within the short period it was public and nothing from this thread has gone ‘viral’ or been seen by a majority of people.
We appreciate your feedback, if you have any further concerns or questions about our privacy settings, please feel free to send an email to [email protected].
Best regards,
Reah
The profile of each member was not accessible to non members on the previous forum. It is now, before if you ‘clicked’ on a members photo/avator it would not take you to their profile.
Now if you are not a member you are able to see a members profile, and details of how they use the site, badges awarded etc.
I am not sure why this has changed, I have seen removed details on my profile which was private and on new forum is now visible.
My personal thoughts are that this change in profile privacy to non members serves no purpose and perhaps was overlooked as was privacy issues on social club.
Once again you are able to view parts of posts on search engines like ‘google’ posted in the social club, with that in mind it is not accurate that posts are 100% private on the social club thread.
I have responded on this thread as privacy is a concern to all users.
I am not taking issue with PDUK having the right to determine its own privacy settings.
My intention is only to raise the issue that areas meant to be private are not .
Secondly, a members profile WAS private and since new forum is no longer private. This refers to non members only. Members have always had access to profile information.
Hello all,
Checking this again, we realise that the profiles were public for a short period of time. No other personal information was shared. We’re sorry for this oversight and this has now been fixed. We’ve spoken to our Data Protection Officer and will continue to work with him going forward to ensure we are meeting best practices.
Many thanks,
Reah
