User stats and GDPR

Post by **UBT - Timbo** » Sat Jun 09, 2018 1:13 pm

Hi all

I just became aware that apparently WCG has stopped exporting it's credit stats, due to GDPR legislation.

One assumes they were exporting some personal data in the stats and by ceasing this, they now comply.

https://boincstats.com/en/stats/15/country/list/

I'm glad Formula-BOINC choose WCG as a Sprint project BEFORE this all happened (on 25th May).

And of course, it is possible that other BOINC projects will also be looking at this situation.

UPDATED: 19th October 2019

The current list of projects that require members to give their permission to allow their stats to be exported now includes:

Albert@home (added to this list 13th Jun 2018)
Climate Prediction (added to this list 19th Oct 2019)
Einstein@Home (added to this list 13th Jun 2018)
LHC@Home (added to this list 18th Dec 2018)
LHCathome-dev (added to this list 18th Dec 2018)
NumberFields (added to this list 14th Jan 2019)
VGTU (added to this list 2nd Jan 2019)
World Community Grid
WUProp@Home

I will try and keep this posting updated as and when other projects require your permission.

regards
Tim

Post by **UBT - Timbo** » Wed Jun 13, 2018 2:38 pm

Hi all

And now Einstein@home has joined this particular "movement":

https://einsteinathome.org/content/gdpr ... -downloads

I guess that the named stats websites will be OK...but others will not (including ubtstats.co.uk)?

regards
Tim

UBT - JohnR · Post by **UBT - JohnR** » Sat Jul 14, 2018 10:49 am

Hi

Stats are being exported again.

Regards
John

Post by **Woodles** » Tue Dec 18, 2018 8:47 am

Hi All,

In keeping with the current GDPR trend, LHC now requires you to explicitly allow your stats to be exported to third party stats sites - https://lhcathome.cern.ch/lhcathome/for ... 4901#37586

https://lhcathome.cern.ch/lhcathome/pre ... et=project - "Do you consent to exporting your data to BOINC statistics aggregation Web sites?"

Mark

Post by **UBT - Timbo** » Tue Dec 18, 2018 12:02 pm

Hi Mark

There are two extra tick boxes:

General terms-of-use for this BOINC project.
Do you consent to exporting your data to BOINC statistics aggregation Web sites?

I assume that if the first one isn't ticked then you don't get work?

The second one allows/disallows the exporting of each members LHC project stats - so in theory, non-active members stats won't be exported and hence the stats sites will only now show active LHC members? That's going to affect all the rankings !!

(I have asked this question on the thread linked to above - will see what they say !!)

regards
Tim

Post by **Woodles** » Tue Dec 18, 2018 12:14 pm

Hi Tim,

As I understood it, if you don't tick the first box in your preferences then you get presented with it each time you login. Not sure if it affects work fetch.

Maybe members who haven't ticked the second box just won't get updated?

Glad to know what you find out.

Mark

Post by **UBT - Timbo** » Wed Dec 19, 2018 10:36 pm

On a further note, both Einstein and Albert (which is Einsteins "test site") have now also updated their websites:

1) Both now ask the following question, when you log in to your account:

TERMS OF USE
Please read and acknowledge our terms of use

You are at least 16 years old.

You have read and acknowledged the Einstein@Home privacy policy and forum guidelines.

You will run Einstein@Home only on devices that you own, or for which you have obtained the owner's permission.

You understand that Einstein@Home assumes no liability for any damage, data loss, or other event or condition that may occur on your devices as a result of participating in Einstein@Home.

You understand that scientific data supplied by Einstein@Home are not to be used for any other purpose.

Do you agree with the above terms of use?

The options are Yes, No and No (Delete account)

2) Both now have settings in the Preferences > Privacy section of your account that asks:

Do you consent to exporting your data to BOINC statistics aggregation Web sites?: Yes / No

So, yet more GDPR rubbish to contend with

regards
Tim

Post by **UBT - Timbo** » Thu Dec 20, 2018 5:49 pm

Hi all

Willy has put this on the BOINCstats website:

The following project require you to consent to exporting your statistics to stats sites. If you do not do so your data will be removed from the export and in accordance with the GDPR all your data from these projects will be removed from BOINCstats as well. This data can’t be recovered!

You need to consent before they enforce the setting in the export!

Albert@home *
Einstein@Home *
LHC@Home *
LHCathome-dev *
World Community Grid *
WUProp@Home

*Already enforced

So, now WU Prop is also curtowing to the GDPR "requirements"...

regards
Tim

Post by **Woodles** » Wed Jan 02, 2019 8:25 am

You can add VGTU to the list as well https://boinc.vgtu.lt/vtuathome/forum_t ... ?id=83#281

.... Next, we will update the server software to support GDPR - the European General Data Protection Regulation. ....

Mark

Post by **Woodles** » Mon Jan 14, 2019 11:54 am

NumberFields has also succumbed to the GDPR "bug" and you'll need to authorise them to export your data.

Apparently it's been added to the latest Boinc server code as a default so expect every project to follow suit eventually as they "upgrade".

Slightly connected, ClimatePrediction are deleting accounts that have been inactive for three years or more. https://www.cpdn.org/cpdnboinc/forum_th ... 7145#57145:

To comply with the Data Protection Act 1998, we are required to only keep personal data for as long as it is absolutely necessary. We will therefore only keep records of inactive volunteers for three years from now on. Initially any records inactive since 2014 or before that date will be removed. We will continue to remove records that have been inactive for three years or more on an ongoing basis.

If you want to keep your data, login and crunch!

Mark

Post by **UBT - Timbo** » Mon Jan 14, 2019 12:38 pm

Woodles wrote: ↑Mon Jan 14, 2019 11:54 am NumberFields has also succumbed to the GDPR "bug" and you'll need to authorise them to export your data.

Apparently it's been added to the latest Boinc server code as a default so expect every project to follow suit eventually as they "upgrade".

Thanks for the info Mark

Slightly connected, ClimatePrediction are deleting accounts that have been inactive for three years or more. https://www.cpdn.org/cpdnboinc/forum_th ... 7145#57145:
To comply with the Data Protection Act 1998, we are required to only keep personal data for as long as it is absolutely necessary. We will therefore only keep records of inactive volunteers for three years from now on. Initially any records inactive since 2014 or before that date will be removed. We will continue to remove records that have been inactive for three years or more on an ongoing basis.
If you want to keep your data, login and crunch!

Mark

That original CPDN post is from Oct 2017 !!

And in our CPDN stats, any inactive (and now deleted account) CPDN cruncher has since been renamed as "old_userxxxxx" where xxxxx is a number.

Luckily as Team founder, my account hasn't been deleted...which is just as well

But I might have to download a WU or two just to stay active.

regards
Tim

Post by **Woodles** » Mon Feb 11, 2019 10:34 am

VGTU are now actively enforcing GDPR

Post by **chriscambridge** » Mon Feb 11, 2019 11:34 am

Thanks Mark, I completely missed that one.

Anyone else think BOINC would have been far more sensible to have centralised permission for stat export? Either one click to agree to all (joined) projects, or listing all your projects for explicit permission for stat export, in just one place.

Personally I feel the current situation is a complete mess; many people have had their accounts deleted from various projects and are now vowing to never crunch that project or even BOINC, again.

Post by **Woodles** » Mon Feb 11, 2019 12:45 pm

It's only going to get worse, VGTU didn't independently add it to their site, it's been incorporated into the latest BOINC server code and any project that updates will end up needing crunchers to agree.

It would be easier but there's no centralised BOINC configuration location. The best that you could do would be BAM or other account managers that might be able to update the projects automatically.

Post by **chriscambridge** » Mon Feb 11, 2019 1:12 pm

I guess an easier solution would have just to have selected acceptance by default, seeing as everyone that signed up to BOINC kind of already did this (as it was mandatory at that time).

Post by **UBT - Timbo** » Mon Feb 11, 2019 3:58 pm

Woodles wrote: ↑Mon Feb 11, 2019 12:45 pm It's only going to get worse, VGTU didn't independently add it to their site, it's been incorporated into the latest BOINC server code and any project that updates will end up needing crunchers to agree.

Hi Mark

Agreed....

Woodles wrote: ↑Mon Feb 11, 2019 12:45 pm It would be easier but there's no centralised BOINC configuration location. The best that you could do would be BAM or other account managers that might be able to update the projects automatically.

This would have been such a great facility for BOINC crunchers to be able to use....such as all sorts of CPU/GPU Preferences, specific back-up projects (when chosen primary projects are out of tasks) and even "target total" prefs, where you can set individual credit targets on specifc projects and your machines will continue crunching these projects until they reach (or slightly exceed) any given total credit score.

Also: There is/was, sort of something like a central config facility....as David Anderson set up the BOINC-wide facility for team founders:

https://boinc.berkeley.edu/teams/

This allowed team founders to have a pre-set team info panel and logo, such that any new project would download this information once they setup their server and hence existing teams that signed up to this process would exist at the very start of the new project.

It would have been very simple for this to have been extended to users to allow a central configuration set up to happen.

But DA isn't involved so much and the above "live" website was disabled back in 2015, although it does still work for new projects and existing teams.

regards
Tim

UK BOINC Team Forum