GDPR and Membership Count

Moving members around based on Social Media or a third party’s information (even if it's actually something you know) is officially no longer permitted.

This means that you can’t change the location of a member in our database, regardless of what you see in Linked In, Facebook, Twitter, or because someone told you they moved. The member must explicitly request that they be transferred to their new chapter/location in our database. You can prompt them - in person, via an email from the database or via phone - but you cannot change their location without their express consent.

WHY:

Democrats Abroad must comply with the Data Privacy laws in Europe (“GDPR”), and DA Global Leadership made the decision to apply GDPR to all members in our database. In other words, DA can’t make stricter rules that protect some people's data and not protect other people's data based on where they live. It would be amazingly hard to keep track of who the rules apply to when people move around. Therefore, we respectfully ask you to comply with these rules in your role as a database Admin.

Here’s what GDPR says about data like addresses: 

Under GDPR, personal data is PRIVATE and can never be used or changed without the active consent of the person who owns it. Personal data is data that allows us to identify an individual,and a person's location information is considered personal data. So while it may be possible that there is more than one Jon Smith who is (1) a member of Democrats Abroad, and (2) living in Toronto, Canada, it is not likely. Therefore, the information about where Jon lives is personal data. Changing his location based on his Facebook profile would be like walking into his kitchen and replacing his refrigerator with another one without asking.

This is a new concept for all of us, and takes some getting used to. We also know this makes more work for you as an admin, but we can’t change this, so please ask for assistance when you need it.  

Write to us at: GDPR-HelpDesk@democratsabroad.org