articles/why-i-cant-enable-registrations.md

   1 Why I can't enable registrations
   2
   3 If you've used any of my services, you have more than likely have had
   4 to use it as a guest rather than a registered user. There's one simple
   5 reason why I can't allow you to. GDPR... and lack of helping the little
   6 guy with it.
   7
   8 ## The case of Matrix
   9 I love [Matrix](https://matrix.org/) - I would love to contribute to the
  10 wider ecosystem of it with my homeserver, but I've always had to shut
  11 down requests of people wanting to register an account in my homeserver
  12 if I do not know them.
  13
  14 The annoyance comes from the fact that Element **[only covers their own asses.](https://matrix.org/legal/privacy-notice)**
  15 I would love to add a privacy notice and easy methods to remove all user
  16 data whatsoever. I would love to open registrations for many services.
  17 However, I wouldn't like to get a GDPR fine for being in violation of the
  18 law. You cannot easily readapt the privacy notice for Synapse and Element.
  19 They're written on a scale of a business - the only templates in repositories
  20 are ones for Element themselves. I have tried rewriting one of their GDPR
  21 and privacy notices to no avail - it's full of legalese jargon that is hard
  22 to read for a normal person.
  23
  24 ## Okay? Matrix has a deactivate button.
  25 That isn't GDPR compliant still. It doesn't fully erase all of your data.
  26 It only wipes your profile data, which can still be retrieved from the
  27 channels that the user was partaken in. Not only that, but you cannot remove
  28 data from other homeservers - this is a huge red flag in data sharing.
  29
  30 ## What about this other service you're hosting?
  31 There is even less of a legal notice put up for those. If you find a reasonable
  32 legal notice anywhere that can be adapted by an individual, not a business,
  33 please let me know.
  34
  35
  36
  37 **TL;DR** - GDPR non-compliance if I would enable. No safety net either by
  38 the bigger projects, only to cover businesses. Smaller projects tend
  39 to not even have any documents in first place.
  40
  41
  42 Thanks for reading
  43 - Cernodile
  44
  45 ;tags:rant gdpr privacy site future
  46 ;description:If you've used any of my services, you have more than likely have had to use it as a guest rather than a registered user. There's one simple reason why I can't allow you to. GDPR... and lack of helping the little guy with it.
  47