Hey there.
This is not a coding related question but more of a legal issue that was brought up to us externally. We could not answer the questions by studying the documentation provided nor the forums. So we have to resolve to asking you (sorry for that.)
To the matter at hand.
Privacy regulations and laws in the EU and especially Germany have grown pretty stiff for website owners. It has become a necessity to know what your site is doing in regards of gathering and transfering user data – actively and passively – especially in regards of social media websites and networks.
For example, the usual Facebook-Like-Thingy offered by Facebook.com one can implement into her site is gathering data from visitors of a website even when that visitor is neither logged in to the visited site nor to Facebook. According to current laws and regulations in place in the EU and Germany websites must tell their visitors upfront about this in great detail. Further, websites have to offer means to prevent that (strict opt-in rules). Not complying to these laws and regulations can result in legal prosecution and fines north of the 10-grand-range. Not exactly something you’d really want to risk, let alone unknowingly.
You probably understand why we are really needing definite and final answers.
1.) Do the social media plugins and functions inherrited within Newspaper comply with current privacy laws and regulations in place in the EU and Germany?
2.) Do these plugins and/or functions gather and/or record and/or transmit any data anywhere outside the site that is using these plugins and/or functions from visitors of said website if the visitor of that website user is:
a) not actively interacting with these plugins/functions?
b) not logged in to the website where these plugins/functions are in use (“activated”)?
c) not a registered user with the associated social media plattform?
3.) In case any of 2.) a)-c) has been answered “yes”:
a) Which plugins and/or functions?
b) How to prevent that?
4.) If these plugins/functions are disabled via the theme panel do they gather / record / transmit any userdata?
If yes: How to ultimately stop that?
Sorry to bother you with this, but for us (and basically every other customer of your product in the EU and Germany) this is a matter that we cannot ignore.
Thank you in advance!
Sincerely,
– Frank.
Hello Frank,
Sorry for the delay but we had to investigate closer so we could provide a precise answer.
The main answer is NO for all your question. The theme does not pick up any data from users nor does it store it or transfer it anywhere.
1) The social plugins comply with the laws and they do not pick up information from users. (If just our plugins are used. We cannot assure other plugins will not collect information.)
2) Plugins and functions do not gather any data nor do they store or transfer it anywhere.
If you use other types of registration besides the one provided by the theme, then you should address the plugin developer and ask about this information (as we cannot provide an answer for other plugins besides our own).
3) Not the case
4) Not the case / not needed.
Thank you and Happy Holidays!
Thank you very much for the clarification.
May I suggest you put this info somewhere? I guess this might be interesting to others as well.
Happy holidays to you, too!
