[okfn-help] Privacy policy, registration, mailman config

Thu Feb 16 10:36:27 UTC 2012

Hi all,

Rufus asked me to raise this on okfn-help. In brief, we're sending out
newsletters (such as the new datahub one) which raise 3 issues, (i)
our published privacy policy, (ii) thedatahub.org's sign-up procedure,
and (iii) mailman configuration.

thedatahub.org links on every page to a Privacy Policy, which is the
standard okfn one:

http://okfn.org/privacy-policy/

This is not fit for purpose as it stands. The Datahub collects an
e-mail address when you register, and we are therefore required to say
what we will do with this information. In practice we have recently
started sending out an occasional DataHub newsletter. (As you can see
below not everyone is happy about this.) We need to do two things:

(i) change the privacy policy to mention this and specify
unsubscription information,

(ii) change the sign-up procedure on the datahub so that, when giving
an e-mail address, the user can opt in or out of receiving newsletters
(eg with a check-box)

I believe both of these are legal requirements under data protection laws.

Cases like the chap below show that it would also help if recipients
of newsletters etc could see at a glance what e-mail address they had
been sent to (this need not be the same as the one at which it is
received or read). (He suggested this in subsequent correspondence.)
It seems from this page that this is possible in Mailman 2.1 (which we
are using):

http://www.gnu.org/software/mailman/faq.html

However, it requires a sysadmin to have configured the mm_cfg.py file
suitably, namely with

OWNERS_CAN_ENABLE_PERSONALIZATION = Yes

It seems that this has not been done to judge from this list of
currently allowed substitutions:

http://lists.okfn.org/mailman/admin/datahub-news/?VARHELP=nondigest/msg_footer

It would be great if someone could make the necessary change to the
mailman config.

Mark

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Mark Wainwright <mark.wainwright at okfn.org>
Date: 15 February 2012 10:25
Subject: Re: [datadub] Fwd: The Datahub newsletter
To: [...]

Hi Mitch,

Yes, it's a fair point and apologies - we should be clearer about this
on our privacy policy too :-/ Anyway, can you send me a copy of the
e-mail you received, including all the headers? From that I should be
able to work out which address it was sent to and delete you from the
list.

Best wishes,

Mark

> I have a number of email addresses that forward to this one so I have no
> idea which email you are sending to so you have made it impossible for me to
> unsubscribe to this list which I have never subscribed to.
>
> If you can't find a solution to this I will report you as a spammer, which
> in essence you are.
>
>
>
> On Tue, Feb 14, 2012 at 6:58 AM, Mark Wainwright <mark.wainwright at okfn.org>
> wrote:
>>
>> *** Welcome to new DataHub newsletter ***

<snip>

-- 
Mark Wainwright, CKAN Community Co-ordinator
Open Knowledge Foundation http://okfn.org/
Skype: m.wainwright