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I'm not up on the nuance of the GDPR, but has it been tested that your public profile name - which you set knowing it will be displayed publicly - is PII? I'd

I'm not up on the nuance of the GDPR, but has it been tested that your public profile name - which you set knowing it will be displayed publicly - is PII? I'd be very surprised if that were the case.

shadowgovt 2y ago
It's not PII (an American term) but it is personal data (a GDPR term). Personal data is (broadly) considered to be data that could be used to track or tie your behavior online together into a profile. The UK's ICO calls out usernames specifically as an example of such data. https://ico.org.uk/for-organisations/uk-gdpr-guidance-and-resources/personal-information-what-is-it/what-is-personal-data/what-are-identifiers-and-related-factors/#:~:text=The%20username%20is%20personal%20data,'real%20world'%20named%20individual https://ico.org.uk/for-organisations/uk-gdpr-guidance-and-re.... (For those of us who have been around on the Internet long enough to remember the era where people intentionally chose handles to remain pseudonymous and separate from their IRL personas, this seems counter-intuitive and a little preposterous, but the GDPR doesn't care what "netizens" think about privacy; it's a broad attempt to impose a "non-native" concept of privacy over the preexisting net culture).
olivierduval 2y ago
Well, you choose a username in a specific context, even if it's public. For example, you may agree to have your linkedIn profile name next to your HN username... maybe. But I'm not sure that you would agree to have your LinkedIn profile name next to your Tinder username. And you sure don't want that to happen without your agreement and even without you knowing about it (but learning about it from a colleague for example). That's why GDPR has some right to deletion or modification. And why some days, Europe may go after data brocker (as a side note: not sure why my comments were downvoted. I didn't say that I would go after anybody - and surely not HN - I only said that uncontrolled use of any data without any anonymization and without consent might be the source of problems with regard to legislation decided BECAUSE too many shady business abused of it. You may not like it but then... well... downvote the abusers)

I'm not up on the nuance of the GDPR, but has it been tested that your public profile name - which you set knowing it will be displayed publicly - is PII? I'd be very surprised if that were the case.

shadowgovt 2y ago

It's not PII (an American term) but it is personal data (a GDPR term). Personal data is (broadly) considered to be data that could be used to track or tie your behavior online together into a profile. The UK's ICO calls out usernames specifically as an example of such data. https://ico.org.uk/for-organisations/uk-gdpr-guidance-and-resources/personal-information-what-is-it/what-is-personal-data/what-are-identifiers-and-related-factors/#:~:text=The%20username%20is%20personal%20data,'real%20world'%20named%20individual https://ico.org.uk/for-organisations/uk-gdpr-guidance-and-re.... (For those of us who have been around on the Internet long enough to remember the era where people intentionally chose handles to remain pseudonymous and separate from their IRL personas, this seems counter-intuitive and a little preposterous, but the GDPR doesn't care what "netizens" think about privacy; it's a broad attempt to impose a "non-native" concept of privacy over the preexisting net culture).

olivierduval 2y ago

Well, you choose a username in a specific context, even if it's public. For example, you may agree to have your linkedIn profile name next to your HN username... maybe. But I'm not sure that you would agree to have your LinkedIn profile name next to your Tinder username. And you sure don't want that to happen without your agreement and even without you knowing about it (but learning about it from a colleague for example). That's why GDPR has some right to deletion or modification. And why some days, Europe may go after data brocker (as a side note: not sure why my comments were downvoted. I didn't say that I would go after anybody - and surely not HN - I only said that uncontrolled use of any data without any anonymization and without consent might be the source of problems with regard to legislation decided BECAUSE too many shady business abused of it. You may not like it but then... well... downvote the abusers)