Taleworlds not compliant to their own privacy policy/GDPR and more.

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To start off I would like to link the privacy policy from TW: https://www.taleworlds.com/en/Privacy

It states multiple things but the thing I'm pointing at in this thread is the "Your rights", it states that we can request our data by emailing them but these emails go unanswered which is unfortunate and in breach of the GDPR which they try to comply to. I don't want to put in the effort to submit a complaint but I do care about these things and urge Taleworlds to follow their own policy.

Then something else which is also a breach of the GDPR, meaning that if you get banned that you lose all rights to the forum. While you could say that this is legitimate and the right of TW, the way they do this is illegitimate. Because you cannot unsubscribe from e-mails, so you get unsolicited e-mails which you cannot unsubscribe from which is illegal. Nor can you correct your data or delete any of it. So I would also like this to be changed.

Then last but not least, I think that your current banning status is not great;
1. You cannot log out, every action is blocked. So you need to delete cookies
2. You cannot view the forums anymore, meaning that to get access to features like "read topics" you would have to create a fake account.
My proposal would be to limit a banned user to only viewing the forums and not alter anything (signatures, new threads, polls and what not). This way people cannot continue their behaviour on the forums for which they were banned but also don't need to create a new account to get QoL features to keep up with their favourite game.

I hope this will be considered,
@Dejan @MArdA TaleWorlds

Kind regards,
Horatius
 
Just to quickly address one of your complaints:
Then something else which is also a breach of the GDPR, meaning that if you get banned that you lose all rights to the forum. While you could say that this is legitimate and the right of TW, the way they do this is illegitimate. Because you cannot unsubscribe from e-mails, so you get unsolicited e-mails which you cannot unsubscribe from which is illegal. Nor can you correct your data or delete any of it. So I would also like this to be changed.
This is incorrect. Banned accounts do not receive emails from the forum. So there is no need to unsubscribe, unless your ban is later lifted (as yours just was a short while ago) and you suddenly start getting emails again that you no longer wish to receive. In which case, you then are able to unsubscribe as desired.

EDIT:
If there are any specific emails that you did somehow receive from the forum, please contact me via PM or the forumadmin email address with specific details and I will look into it, as it would certainly be an oversight. I have however personally tested and confirmed that topic reply notification emails are not sent to banned accounts, and have no reason currently to believe that other emails would be sent out to banned acounts either.
 
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Just to quickly address one of your complaints:

This is incorrect. Banned accounts do not receive emails from the forum. So there is no need to unsubscribe, unless your ban is later lifted (as yours just was a short while ago) and you suddenly start getting emails again that you no longer wish to receive. In which case, you then are able to unsubscribe as desired.

EDIT:
If there are any specific emails that you did somehow receive from the forum, please contact me via PM or the forumadmin email address with specific details and I will look into it, as it would certainly be an oversight. I have however personally tested and confirmed that topic reply notification emails are not sent to banned accounts, and have no reason currently to believe that other emails would be sent out to banned acounts either.
Well I can certainly tell you that I did receive updates from groups while I was banned so this might be an edge case that you missed, I also PM'ed you my email address to check. As a fellow software developer would just advice you to limit the ban to view the forums instead of a general toatal ban as you can view the forums without an account anyways, so adding extra restrictions onto a ban over a guest account seems excessive and causing unncessary problems.

If you want I can certainly send you proof, but I did get email about new posts in the BEAST group, so it are not topic replies but group updates.
 
Well I can certainly tell you that I did receive updates from groups while I was banned so this might be an edge case that you missed, I also PM'ed you my email address to check.
Ah, the Groups functionality is from an addon to the forum software. I'll file a bug report with the addon dev, so that can be taken care of.

EDIT:
The addon dev has acknowledged the bug and it should be fixed soon, so those group notifications will no longer go out to users banned from the forum.
 
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It states multiple things but the thing I'm pointing at in this thread is the "Your rights", it states that we can request our data by emailing them but these emails go unanswered which is unfortunate and in breach of the GDPR which they try to comply to. I don't want to put in the effort to submit a complaint but I do care about these things and urge Taleworlds to follow their own policy.
To which e-mail address did you send this request and from which e-mail? Feel free to PM me.
 
I'm curious as to the term "illegal".
Cause is it though?
What laws is it that they are actually goverened by, cause alot of things on the web is illegal here, but its not illegal in the land its hosted etc.

So maybe this site falls under Turkish laws, which may not have the same rights as the law in other countries have etc.

Dont get me wrong I do agree with your sentiment, but arent sure its "truely illegal".
This may be more semantics etc, but here claiming something is illegal and if its not could be considered slander, just saying.(again thats by the laws here, and not perhaps the one you fall under)
 
I'm curious as to the term "illegal".
Cause is it though?
What laws is it that they are actually goverened by, cause alot of things on the web is illegal here, but its not illegal in the land its hosted etc.

So maybe this site falls under Turkish laws, which may not have the same rights as the law in other countries have etc.

Dont get me wrong I do agree with your sentiment, but arent sure its "truely illegal".
This may be more semantics etc, but here claiming something is illegal and if its not could be considered slander, just saying.(again thats by the laws here, and not perhaps the one you fall under)
They don't adhere to the GDPR which they are obliged to adhere to as they focus on the European market and they say they comply to, so the rest is irrelevant.
The fact that TW is located in Turkey is irrelevant in this case.

Also I recommend you read upon the meaning and intentions of slander, my statement is not made in malice form.
 
They don't adhere to the GDPR which they are obliged to adhere to as they focus on the European market and they say they comply to, so the rest is irrelevant.
The fact that TW is located in Turkey is irrelevant in this case.

Also I recommend you read upon the meaning and intentions of slander, my statement is not made in malice form.

I didnt "state" that it was slander from you or that you intended to be, but I made a point that if you make a claim in my country and its not backed up by facts - then it would count as slander.

I still disagree with your arguments though in term of the legality part, but I "agree with the sentiment" that they should follow their own TOS etc.
But then I dont have a degree in international law so.

I was more curious as to how they "broke" the law as you percive it and "who's law" you mean they are breaking, and thus doing something illegal.
And I see what laws you refer too, but I'm still not 100% sold on that they are "obliged" to follow that laws(but again I dont have a degree etc).
 
I still disagree with your arguments though in term of the legality part, but I "agree with the sentiment" that they should follow their own TOS etc.
But then I dont have a degree in international law so.

I was more curious as to how they "broke" the law as you percive it and "who's law" you mean they are breaking, and thus doing something illegal.
And I see what laws you refer too, but I'm still not 100% sold on that they are "obliged" to follow that laws(but again I dont have a degree etc).
You don't need a degree, the GDPR is quite cut and clear legislation as that was one of the main goals of it.

Taleworlds has users in the EU (and specificially focus on the EU) so they need to comply with the GDPR, not much more to tell you.
Maybe read the FAQ?: https://gdpr.eu/faq/

Also not sure where you live but your view on slander is surely interesting.
 
I have an hypothetical question, if you were banned from the forums, and wanted to report a game breaking bug, what are you supposed to do in that case?
 
I have an hypothetical question, if you were banned from the forums, and wanted to report a game breaking bug, what are you supposed to do in that case?
Have someone else post it but it cannot be on your behalf, I don't agree with the current banning system of TW. It encourages multiple accounts and data requests, unnecessary and ineffective.
 
I have an hypothetical question, if you were banned from the forums, and wanted to report a game breaking bug, what are you supposed to do in that case?
You can use the Steam forums or send an email to [email protected].
Have someone else post it but it cannot be on your behalf, I don't agree with the current banning system of TW. It encourages multiple accounts and data requests, unnecessary and ineffective.
Don't get banned in the first place?
 
Don't get banned in the first place?
:facepalm:, you will always have banned users if you have a larger audience so I don't see how that is relevant. The way you handle banned users could be better, or to formulate it stupidly "don't have users you want to ban on your forums, then you don't need a ban function".

On-topic: my email request finally is being handled so I'm curious to see what will happen next but at least it is picked up.
 
I mean not being banned does make sense though, you have to do some real annoying stuff to get banned, and I know about doing some dumb stuff and being warned, which most of them were fair tbh lmao
 
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