"How do I Delete my TMP Account?" Topic

Hi folks.

I would like to delete my TMP account, but I am unable to find instructions on how to do so. Could one of you nice folks please advise me on how I can delete my account and have all my posts on TMP deleted?

Thank you in advance.

Regards,
Rossco.

Since you have the option to PM other members perhaps you should make your wants known to Bill in a PM. Or E-mail him. Robert

I doubt you can have your posts deleted, but you can have your account locked or possibly deleted.

Maybe just not use it?

In the faq it says something about just not using it.

Methinks someone is trying to make a 'statement'. Anyone with a brain would just do as Kaos said.

You can't have it deleted. Best you can do is log out and stop visiting, but your account will always remain.

But without deletion, surely Bill can point to you as a member for the purposes of impression advertisers?

Bangorstu is correct. Once my account is deleted I will not be visiting TMP (apart from one time to check the account is gone), so it would be inappropriate to continue counting me as a member for the purpose of advertising.

And yes, I have now emailed Bill.

Go the TMP home page, scroll down the sidebar to the Masthead section, click "Frequently Asked Questions". Under the Membership questions, click "Basic". Read down to the section entitled "Quiting TMP" [sic].

Most likely your question is answered there.

Thanks for that donrice. Pretty much answers the questions. Robert

Go the TMP home page, scroll down the sidebar to the Masthead section, click "Frequently Asked Questions". Under the Membership questions, click "Basic". Read down to the section entitled "Quiting TMP" [sic].

Most likely your question is answered there.

It does indeed answer the question. It says that you cannot delete your account. So rossco you are here for ever

From the FAQ
"But I've posted on the forums!
Then your membership can't be erased, since that would disrupt the previous forum discussions."

Welcome to the Hotel California!

I'm not entirely sure this state of affairs is legal, at least for the UK….

Might be worth looking into Bill…..

Also one wonders how many of the accounts are actually active.

Indeed, I am sure that if you wish someone to delete your personal details then they should.

Keeping an account open against a users wishes may violate some laws as their personal details are still on file…

As for disrupting old posts, why not just have the username default to "unknown member" like when the system is down?

Could you not remove your details from your profile, change your username to something like "noLongerAMember" and then change yourt password to something random you can't remember?

Bangorstu wrote:

Also one wonders how many of the accounts are actually active.

These numbers are published.

If you look at TMP link you will find there are 25,664 members.

But there's an awful lot of dead wood in that 25,664.

TMP link shows that only 5,134 of these members have visited TMP so far this month (June 2010), 8002 members have visited since Jan 1st, 2010, and 9917 have visited the site since the end of June, 2009.

That's more than 15,000 "members" who haven't visited TMP in over a year.

Indeed, I am sure that if you wish someone to delete your personal details then they should.

Keeping an account open against a users wishes may violate some laws as their personal details are still on file…

As far as I can tell, on TMP you can easily edit your profile to remove all of the personal information there (name, email, location) and change your username to whatever. Thus there is no particular need to request Editor to do that (and it could be argued that he does not have a responsibility to do so either, since the possibility is provided for users to do so directly themselves).

Once all the personal details have been removed, legislation regarding personal information handling is no longer applicable to the account.

Bangorstu wrote:

I'm not entirely sure this state of affairs is legal, at least for the UK…

I'm data protection officer for my department at work and have been through some training training so I know a bit about this. I'd suggest that it's probably not legal as the UK Data Protection Act states

Personal data processed for any purpose or purposes shall not be kept for longer than is necessary for that purpose or those purposes.

Everyone hands over personal data when they join TMP, their email address for sure and all the other information on their membership profile.

If someone states that they no longer wish to be a member of TMP then I'd suggest that it is no longer necessary for Bill to retain this personal data and that it should be destroyed if TMP is to comply with the UK Data Protection Act.

The data that makes up postings might well be a different matter. It could be seen as still being used for its original purpose.

Of course I am not a lawyer and my role as data protection officer is largely to know about routine matters and to work out when it is necessary to contact our legal people for a definative answer :-)

Which is probably what's needed here.

Griefbringer wrote:

Once all the personal details have been removed, legislation regarding personal information handling is no longer applicable to the account.

You cannot remove your email address, just change it to a different one.

Follow the yellow brick road I say…

You cannot remove your email address, just change it to a different one.

Thanks for pointing this out.

That said, if you change the email address into a non-existing one, then again there is no actual personal information stored.

I hope this is not because of hard feelings because the user was doghoused – that seems sometimes to get people really upset. I don't know if this is the case with Rossco, or not, but if it is, I hope he reconsiders – DHing is not a really major thing and no one remembers it.
--
Tim

Griefbringer wrote:

That said, if you change the email address into a non-existing one, then again there is no actual personal information stored.

What you propose is just a kludge, designed to get around the fact that people are not allowed to do what they should be allowed to do, have their personal data removed from the TMP database.

Technically it's still personal data , even if it's incorrect personal data. And incorrect personal data is something the UK data protection people don't like at all.

How would you remove your IP address from the TMP database?

Changing your e-mail will not do that.

There's other personal data that's publicly available on your profile that you can't change at all.

Date of first visit, date of most recent visit, # of posts and date of last post.

If it is not identifiable to an individual, is it personal data?

comply with the UK Data protection act?

get serious Derek ;)

If the Editor wont consider UK sensitivities during the recent BritNP fracas, is complying with UK law any more likely?

comment on the transparency of TMP stats at your peril.

"If it is not identifiable to an individual, is it personal data?"

Not in my view, because you cannot identify the individual. Also the DPA does not regulate what information individuals choose to put into the public domain on open fora about themselves.

"The data that makes up postings might well be a different matter."

I think I read somewhere that everything that is posted here or on other websites becomes the property of the sites owner. Like all the posts here are copyrighted as part of TMP and you cannot use that information unless you get permission from Bill.

Can that apply to all the personal information you have posted here publicly?
After all you can use Googles wayback machine and look at the website a few years ago, and your public info would still be available to everyone who cared to look for it.

Remember I am not a lawyer, I only role-play one in the privacy of my bedroom :)

Wasn't there a case recently where UK gambling sites got prosecuted for allowing Americans to sign up?

If so, and this means the law where the page is viewed is important, it might be worth Bill looking into…

Bill has said the reason he can't delete members who have posted is that it would screww the forum database of postings.

On the Data aspect, under British Law (this a not a British hosted site so it doesn't apply, but given as an example).

The site owner is allowed to retain details for a 'reasonable' period. You can only demand immediate deletion if you never agreed to you details being stored, otherwise you have to wait.

The 'reasonable' period tends to be around the 7 years mark, i/e anything less is reasonable, more is not unless really good grounds are given.

So Bill owns the rights to "John the OFM©"?
Does John have to pay Bill royalties to license the name for his own use now?
Frankly I'm shocked!

Thank God Bill owns them, lord knows what John would do with so much power.

rossco if you were so concerned about your personal information you should probably should not have posted 514 times or became a supporting member. You sound like someone who did not like how the game went so you want to take your ball and go home :)

So Bill owns the rights to "John the OFM©"?

I am not so sure about that – I think that he had started using that nickname (or the full-length version of it) on WABlist.

Technically it's still personal data, even if it's incorrect personal data.

Very interesting, Derek H. Just because I enjoy the occasional reductio ad absurdum, could I claim that "The Miniatures Page" is my social security number, just very, very, incorrect?

Yep lots of old accounts laying around unused.

FredBloggs said

The site owner is allowed to retain details for a 'reasonable' period. You can only demand immediate deletion if you never agreed to you details being stored, otherwise you have to wait.

No idea where you got that from. I gave the actual wording of the act above, "Personal data processed for any purpose or purposes shall not be kept for longer than is necessary for that purpose or those purposes."

Yep lots of old accounts laying around unused.

Lots of time people forget their password, then start a new account.

Can you not remove the inactive accounts, Bill? Say a year of not visiting and then they're gone?

Dan

Yes Derek, and the necessary period, is what has to be deemed reasonable, the reason the 7 year line is used is because you may need accounts/payments/other details etc for up to 6 years.

As regards "John the OFM©", I would think that the career of professional wrestlers is instructive.
In any case, I think John the OFM™ is more appropriate.

Chris Jericho was "Chris Jericho" in both the WCW and the WWF/WWE.
Ditto Terry Funk.
Usually, when a wrestler uses a name like "Bingo the Slaughterer", his promotion uses a new name.
If Sting ever signed with the WWE, no way would his name be changed.

Oh dear. I thought of a flaw. WWE owns all WCW copyrights and trademarks.
WWE/TNA crossovers might be instructive.
Real names transfer and keep their names, but names trademarked by the previous promotion do not transfer.
The Dudley Boyz had their names trademarked in the ECW and WCW, but WWE bought the rights to their names, andd so they have different names in TNA.
Kurt Angle's rasslin name is … Kurt Angle, so he took his name to TNA.
And,Terry Funk was Terry Funk all over the world.

So, yes, I was John the OFM on the WABlist, and as far as I know, Bill did not buy the WABlist.

Basically, it only matters if Bill is selling action figures of us all for the TMP Thunderdome game, and wants the trademark protection. I am retaining the rights to may name, but will sell them for a price.
However, when you Google "John the OFM", a heck of a lot of Franciscans pop up too, so I may not have a valid trademark claim.

Back to the point of this, I HAVE seen posts on ancient threads with "UNKNOWN MEMBER" as the poster.
In this case, the aggrieved oarty can change ALL his personal data, AND change his name, probably to something insulting, ask for a refund on his membership, and then never come back.
Two weeks later, if he changes his mind, all he has to do is remember his password.

FreddBloggs

Where are you getting this idea of a "reasonable period" from?

It's not been in anything I've ever been taught on data protection courses and we try to routinely delete personal data as soon as possible (usually weeks) after it is no longer required for the purpose for which it was acquired.

the reason the 7 year line is used is because you may need accounts/payments/other details etc for up to 6 years.

If the data was acquired for those purposes then it is necessary to keep it for six years.

But if the data was acquired for the purpose of allowing someone to access an internet forum then it is not necessary to keep it when the person no longer wishes to access the forum.

And of course you should tell people "who you are, what you are going to do with their information and who it will be shared with" before collecting any personal data at all. Something that doesn't happen with TMP.

I do realise that Bill has no need to pay any attention to UK data protection law, but it's still all good practice.

From the ICO Derek…

link

Q: How long should organisations keep data for?

The Data Protection Act says that information should be kept for no longer than is necessary. The Act does not specify what a ‘necessary' period should be for particular information. Each case would be considered on its own merits. If an organisation is obliged to retain data for a given length of time under any other laws, this should be taken into consideration.

For example, financial institutes may have to keep some information for up to six years in accordance with the Financial Services Authority regulations. A sole trader, however, may not need to keep information for longer than a month.

And

Q: When should I erase personal information from our computer system?

You should ensure that all information is erased if it is no longer required for business purposes.

The question is whether a forum posting amounts to 'personal information' or merely 'data'.

link

Personal information is information about you. It can be your name, address or telephone number. It can also be the type of job you do, the things you buy and the place you went to school.

Given the nature of threads, and the ongoing relevance, it may be argued that the 'data' retains a necessary usage for a much longer period. Of course that is just UK law :-)

Geoff wrote:

The question is whether a forum posting amounts to 'personal information' or merely 'data'.

But there's no question about real name, email address or location – personal information that is kept on the TMP database, seemingly forever (though not for every member).

Every time some aggrieved blowhard puts up a "I'm taking my ball and bat and going home" routine, God kills a kitten.

No, personal data could (and, depending on US legislation, possibly should) be anonymised.

As I understand the structure of the database, deleting the account entirely would remove all postings, thus making nonsense of many of the threads. For example, deleting Allen's account may result in a small black hole sucking everything else nearby into it. :-)

Every time some aggrieved blowhard puts up a "I'm taking my ball and bat and going home" routine, God kills a kitten

We are having enough trouble with politics, without you bringing religion into it ;-)

It should not be beyond the wit of Bill to devise a system where personal information is deleted while postings are retained.

Seems a fine balance between those who wish to remove personal identity, and those who would then complain about the anonimity of the internet?