Read Me Recent changes to our Privacy Policy & Sites rules and guidelines UPDATED!

Hello Coders,

We have made recent changes to our privacy policy and site rules and guidelines. With the hopes of protecting all of our privacy. Code Forum is a coding community, and we come here to learn, build and share our work. With that being said, we would like for your information to stay protected and private, and using your personal information does not help us achieve this. We have implemented a few guidelines that will hopefully work. A summary of these guidelines includes the following: using your full name in your username or anywhere on your profile visible to guest or other coders, displaying your age, email, address and other information that can or could be used to identify you on your profile, your posts and anywhere else under the codeforum.org domain should be avoided but of course it is up to you.

Why the sudden change? It was a recent request for Personal-data request, it made me realize that Code Forum does not need your age (but for registration purposes), your real name or any other information such as this. The whole purpose of Code Forum is to help, to help everyone learn to code no matter what skill set you possess. I want to think that we’ve helped many coders so far, and I would like for us as a community to continue this trend of helping others.

What have we done to show awareness of these changes? I have edited the privacy policy, Site rules and guidelines, and have posted a notice for everyone to see. With that said, I have begun the painful process of messaging coders who contain a person’s name within their username. However, if the message goes unnoticed, your account may be infracted or potentially terminated (deleted).

What can I do to help? If you spot personal information being shared, please report it. And, please do ensure that your profile or post doesn't contain any personal information. Go over your profile and decide what you want to be shared with the public or not.

Exception? You may message me or any admin to be given an exception if you are really fine with posting your personal information.

I hope with these changes; you’ll be satisfied with our attempts to ensure your privacy is protected.

Thank you for reading,

Master Yoda | Site Management

 

[Ash]

I agree with what was said earlier. It seemed a bit over the top to implement a rule like that because it should always have been down to the user to decide whether they want to share info or not. Glad that it was changed to be more "advice" than a rule

 

[Deleted member 205]

When I first seen the changes, I was generally happy with them. I liked the fact that people shouldn't be using their real name or displaying their DoB or location on their profile.

That was, until it was changed. So instead of it being mandatory, it's now just "advice".

I don't agree with the statement, "I have the right to choose which data to share and not to share". If it's extremely private and sensitive info you wouldn't want others to see, then that's when I agree with that statement. But, it's only when it comes to usernames, location, DoB and all of that when I start to disagree.

On the WorldWideWeb, we should nonetheless, be doing things to help protect our real identity. We shouldn't be using any of our real information unless it's with a company that we can trust to handle our data securely. The WWW is home to many strangers and..."quirky" people, we'll call them. And believe me, once they find info about you, that's when they either accidentally stumble upon more info or just start purposefully collecting your info.

Also, I would recommend turning off the Username History feature. I really don't like that, plus, I don't see a point to it being there. Also, what if somebody did decide to change their username(Which contained their real name), to a completely random username? They wouldn't want anyone finding out their real name after that, would they?

 

[Ash]

And that should be your decision. Many of us are perfectly fine sharing what country we are from or even our names since some of us have portfolios. The username history feature would have been nice to have since some users have had quite a few username changes in a short period of time. But it's not a huge issue either.

 

[Tealk]

I don't understand, you're for not posting dates and if someone does it, you're punished?
What about self-determination?

unless it's with a company that we can trust to handle our data securely.

such a thing doesn't exist

Also, I would recommend turning off the Username History feature.

you might not remember who you were talking to?

Then go to my website where you will find my name and address, this is required by german law.

 

[Deleted member 205]

And that should be your decision. Many of us are perfectly fine sharing what country we are from or even our names since some of us have portfolios. The username history feature would have been nice to have since some users have had quite a few username changes in a short period of time. But it's not a huge issue either.

Okay. That's the opinion of yourself and many others. Keep it. I'm not trying to change the views of anyone else's, I'm just stating that I preferred the changes when they were first implemented, not when they were immediately updated like minutes later.

I don't understand, you're for not posting dates and if someone does it, you're punished?

Yes. Your DoB is a piece of sensitive info, just like your real name, location and sex.

such a thing doesn't exist

Correction: It's debatable.
Companies like Microsoft are able to handle our data securely. It's just that slip-ups like data breaches do occur and the only thing we can do is hire more programmers to fix security-flaws and make sure that data is encrypted and locked away from crackers who try to steal data(Except for the government of every country in the world. We all know about that issue).

We can continue debating about the handling of data securely, especially in the age of the cloud and IoT devices. But, that'd be best left for a completely separate thread.

you might not remember who you were talking to?

Well, just because you don't know who you're talking to, doesn't mean you still can't talk to them. Also, there's this thing out there and it's called "pseudonymity".

Then go to my website where you will find my name and address, this is required by german law.

Well, that's your problem to deal with. Not ours. Even if you're not comfortable with sharing some info there, again, it's your problem.

 

[Tealk]

Companies like Microsoft are able to handle our data securely.

I can't remember the last time I laughed so loud.